Heather Latter
Caribou Coach Transportation Company is concerned about the impact a proposed medical transportation service, currently being previewed across Northern Ontario, will have on regional carriers.
The “Health Connections” service, offered by Pacific Western Transportation, one of the largest privately-owned people transportation companies in Canada, would provide residents with non-emergency medical transportation from their home communities to their out-of-town medical appointments.
But Sandy Smith, general manager of Caribou Coach, is worried the proposed service will dip into their already low ridership, leaving service for the general public in jeopardy.
“We’re running a bus back and forth with, if we’re lucky, five people on it,” Smith noted.
“And maybe of that five, two [or] three, tops, are travelling for medical. So we don’t understand where Pacific Western feels justified in coming in and taking those people away [from us],” he added.
Smith said with no subsidy or grants from the provincial government, he generally loses money by continuing the run from Fort Frances to Thunder Bay.
Still, he understands it is a needed service and is able to keeping it going by doing some chartered work.
“I think this could very much jeopardize bus service across Northwestern Ontario for everybody,” warned Smith, referring to the “Health Connections” service.
“If Pacific Western is allowed to come in and do this, and they end up forcing out the smaller carriers . . . then in two years down the road, when they decide it’s not really working because they’re only moving one or two people and they pull out their service, what are we left with then?” he asked.
Services such as that proposed by Pacific Western Transportation have been tried in the past but did not prove to be long-lasting.
The Ontario government previously provided funding for a non-emergency medical transport bus to service communities along the north shore of Lake Superior, only to have it discontinued due to lack of ridership.
Pacific Western Transportation, however, feels it has a successful model that the company has been providing to residents in northern British Columbia since 2006.
“Last year, we carried over 10,000 people and in 2011 we’ll be over 10,000 people, as well, so it’s just huge,” said Dean Wright, general manager of Pacific Western Transportation.
He also cited a study done by the University of British Columbia a few years ago which found 95 percent of people using the service in B.C. were very happy with it.
“We figure the geography between northern B.C. and Northern Ontario is pretty similar,” Wright added. “It’s been very successful in B.C., [so] we thought there is no reason why the model can’t work in Northern Ontario.
“There are a lot of people in Northern Ontario that do have to travel from their home communities to larger centres to received certain types of care,” he reasoned.
While the company does not have specific information regarding how many people in each community requires a non-emergency medical transportation service, it feels there is a need in Northern Ontario for a specialize service such as this.
“We’re looking at a model similar to what operates in B.C., and there the provincial government funds about 80-90 percent of the cost of the service and the user pays a $20 per leg fee to afford the transportation,” Wright explained.
“So we intend on having something similar in the way of funding in Ontario and we’re willing to work with the government to figure out any kind of scenario on how this could work.
“Our goal is getting the service to the people,” he stressed.
Pacific Western Transportation had its coach at the Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay last Thursday for people to check out and have any questions answered.
It also made stops in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, and Parry Sound, and was expected to finish up at Queen’s Park in Toronto tomorrow.
“It’s been very well-received and very positive,” Wright enthused. “Our next step is, if we can garner the support and local communities can express an interest to their local MPPs, then it should move up the chain within the government ranks.
“And the goal is to have government approve the service and implement the service,” he added.
“Our goal is to work in partnership and conjunction with the Northern Ontario travel grant so we can provide safe, dependable, reliable, stress-free, luxury-type service for people travelling for non-emergency medical services from their local community to larger centres.”
But none of that sits well with Smith, who previously has asked Transportation minister Kathleen Wynne about subsidies and grants to keep intercity bus travel going in Ontario.
“The minister flat out said that the Ontario government will not even consider such, yet here we are with Pacific Western receiving direct sponsorship from this same government to run expensive, redundant buses for a handful of people in an area already serviced by safe and reliable carriers,” Smith argued.
“It would make more sense for the government to subsidize the existing carriers.”
Meanwhile, Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton feels the province is going about the transportation situation in Northern Ontario the wrong way.
“What we need is better bus transportation in general,” he stressed, noting the “Health Connections” service will service only those who have been referred by their local doctor to a specialist in a different town or city.
“If you start trying to cherry-pick, saying this qualifies as medical transportation and this doesn’t, then what you are going to see, I fear, is the bare bones bus transportation that we have already will disappear,” Hampton warned.
He said some people have to travel to another community just to visit a family doctor, which wouldn’t comply with Pacific Western Transportation’s proposed service.
Neither would travelling to be with a sick relative in a hospital in another community.
“A family member wants to go see [their relative], needs to go see them, that can be just as important as a trip to go for surgery or to see a consulting physician,” Hampton reasoned.
He estimated the province spends $100 million on intercity bus travel in southern Ontario.
“Couldn’t they put a little money into Northwestern Ontario to ensure that we have decent bus service between communities and not cherry-pick what we have already?” he mused.
“I think that’s the better solution.”
For his part, Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty feels there are several unanswered questions when it comes to the proposed service.
“Will the west end of the riding get the service that the people in Thunder Bay get?” he asked, questioning whether the service would be helpful for those travelling to Winnipeg for medical appointments.
He also wondered what the implementation of this service would mean for local entrepreneurs, such as Caribou Coach, which already are struggling to provide a bus service.
While there is no exact time frame for when the “Health Connections” service could be implemented, Wright said Pacific Western Transportation could be ready in “pretty short order” should the provincial government approve funding for the service.
“Our intention, on a long-term basis, is to offer services to all the communities in Northern Ontario,” he pledged.
