STC lost $34M in final year leading to ‘difficult decision to wind up organization’

STC lost $34.2 million in its final year of operation.

The former Crown corporation ceased operations at the end of May after the province decided running a publicly-owned bus company was not worth the cost.

“The difficult decision to wind up the organization was in response to declining ridership, the growing requirement for subsidies, and the belief that the dollars could be better directed to other government priorities,” Joe Hargrave, minister of Crown Investments Corporation, said in a release.

During the 2016-17 fiscal year, STC reported $14.9 million in revenue and $49.1 million in operating expenses. It received $12.4 million in operating grants and $1.2 million in capital grants from the province.

“You know, it shows a substantial loss and it kind of shows the reasons why we had to take the actions that we’ve taken with the wind down of STC,” said Hargrave.

STC buses carried 185,678 passengers during that same time period, a drop of 2.4 per cent from the previous year.

According to the annual report released on Tuesday, 70 per cent of riders were low-income earners, with a higher per cent of youth and seniors falling in that category.

Over 2016-17, the ratio of passengers from rural areas increased. That change, according to the report, “indicated that ridership from major centres was decreasing at a greater rate than ridership from rural and small urban centres.”

The Highway Traffic Board has approved licenses for some private carriers to operate bus services in the province; most of those companies will be operating along Highway 11, between the province’s two largest cities.

As part of STC winding down, a portion of its fleet that never went into service will be sold.

Last year, the company purchases three 16-passenger vehicles and one 22-passenger vehicle. When purchased, they were worth about $600,000 altogether. According to the Crown corporation’s annual report released Tuesday, “they were not deployed by the time of the announcement that STC would be wound up.”

Shawn Grice, president and CEO of STC, says “they are still with us and available for sale” and that “it’s still too early to know exactly what those assets will sell for.”