Winnipeg NDP MP urges feds to talk to Greyhound

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This article was published 22/07/2018 (2251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Winnipeg MP says Ottawa needs to be talking with Greyhound Canada, after the company claimed they hadn’t had a conversation with any level of government in the two weeks since the company announced it was pulling out of the Prairies.

“I would be shocked and disappointed, if they hadn’t actually made an effort to speak with Greyhound,” NDP MP Daniel Blaikie said.

Ottawa and the provinces have been discussing how to respond to Greyhound’s announcement that it would cease all service between British Columbia and northwestern Ontario on Oct. 31. Manitoba wants two more months of service, to allow private operators to take over those routes.

A Greyhound Canada spokeswoman wrote last Friday evening that no level of government had contacted the company by phone ever since its July 9 announcement.

“We can confirm that Greyhound Canada has not received any calls from any government officials in general or on this extension issue,” the company wrote last Friday.

By Monday, the company wrote: “We confirm that no government officials have contacted Greyhound Canada about extending the October 31st exit date,” but wouldn’t say if Ottawa or one of the provinces had reached out over the weekend, about another topic.

The office of federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the two had been in touch on the day of the announcement, but wouldn’t elaborate on the frequency or method of communication.

Blaikie said the Liberals need to speak with both potential new companies and Greyhound “to make sure there isn’t a rough transition period where service has actually stopped being offered in some communities.”

He said Ottawa can’t propose or support a solution without understanding why Greyhound judged its routes to not be economically viable. “There’s a bit of fact-finding to do here, in order to make sure that they actually come up with a proposal that can work.”

Last week, Garneau wrote to his counterparts in the five provinces affected by the pullout, and provided the Manitoba letter to the Free Press. He alludes to a meeting planned for this week between the deputy ministers, who are the bureaucratic heads responsible for transportation issues.

The federal NDP has asked for an emergency committee meeting to study the issue. The federal Conservatives did not say Monday how they feel about that idea, or about Ottawa’s communication with the company.

Garneau’s letter did not address calls for a two-month extension of Greyhound service, which Manitoba’s Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said last week has the support of all five impacted provinces.

Schuler had said Ottawa, not the provinces, would have to consider a subsidy if the company said it needed one to extend the service. In keeping with his prior statements, Garneau doesn’t mention subsidies and instead references “how to best enable private-sector and local operators to serve our communities.”

“The full scale of the impacts of the loss of Greyhound’s presence in western Canada will depend on the speed and extent to which other entrants fill the market,” Garneau wrote.

Garneau also noted safety concerns that have been raised by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and various First Nations organizations. “Of particular concern is the impact on those in rural and remote communities, including Indigenous women and girls, without other available public transport options,” he wrote.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca