Strathcona County steering into cynicism with transit divorce

At one point early in my journalism career, I was part of an office lottery pool in which everyone who put in their weekly $5 received the right to share in the millions sure to come our way.

There were close to a dozen people involved at various times. But of course it wasn’t consistent. Some people wanted to play only part-time. Others didn’t have their $5 when it was time to collect.

It was never entirely clear to me who was involved from week to week, and whether anyone was keeping track.

We never won anything.

But I remember thinking that if our numbers ever did get called, what a mess it would’ve created among a group that couldn’t even agree on who got first dibs on the good pens.

I bring it up because the whole concept of the office pool — shared risk and shared reward — has similarities to Strathcona County’s recent 9-0 vote to withdraw from the proposed Regional Transit Services Commission.

To those who have been working on the initiative since 2016, the county’s decision was disheartening to say the least, and not just for the short-sightedness and faulty logic on which the vote was premised.

Even more vexing was the county’s retreat into a protectionist stance, accompanied by a dubious belief that community residents could still somehow enjoy all the regional transit perks with no skin in the game.

If you are just getting up to speed, the proposed commission is a long-overdue idea that calls for 13 municipalities to integrate their resources into one bus system, instead of having a bunch of separate systems.

Touted rewards include lower administrative costs, more direct destinations in Edmonton for regional riders and less dead-heading of empty buses back to Strathcona County, St. Albert and Beaumont.

Towns like Devon and Morinville that have no transit service now would get bus access.

Strathcona County would have been the second-biggest player in the commission, with 26 per cent of the costs. So while the withdrawal isn’t fatal to the exercise it is nonetheless a significant blow, especially if the county scares others into following suit.

(Several of those votes are to happen this coming week.)

Strathcona County councillors and Mayor Rod Frank have given several reasons for their no vote, many of which boil down to a belief that there are too many unknowns.

The county council likes the transit system they have now and don’t see much upside to changing it. And Frank is right that there are still a lot of uncertainties with how the commission will function. It sure would be nice to wait, as the county apparently desires, until it’s clear the commission is a winner before putting in your chips.

But to me, that isn’t playing fair and hints at a tired cynicism toward regional collaboration the Edmonton area can longer afford to dismiss. None of Strathcona’s concerns are unique or debilitating, suggesting the county is using reasonable uncertainty as a crux for unreasonable inaction.

While a report by Ernst and Young has laid out a compelling vision of how the commission could work, all parties knew that a lot of the finer details would have to be worked out later. It made no sense to spend millions more at this stage developing a capital cost structure, route designs, and a staffing plan until it was clear which municipalities were on board.

And that’s really where I think the county has missed the point. For something like this to work, a leap of faith is required.

However, what’s particularly galling is the county has seemingly yet to be candid with its residents about the potential consequences of withdrawal.

From what I can tell, constituents have been left with the impression that they can continue to enjoy the county transit service they now have but will also have the benefit of the commission’s system, simply by transferring from one bus to another.

This is potentially wishful thinking. While no one wants to make it harder to use transit, at some point Edmonton and its partners may need to use fewer carrots and more sticks to get the point across.

The commission could, for example, dramatically raise the $12,250 annual fee the county now pays for access to Edmonton’s roads and bus stops. Less preferred drop-off locations and route times could be imposed. Higher prices for transit passes and tickets could be charged to county residents.

Yes, it would be a shame if it got to that point. But like the office pool colleague who neglects to pay his $5, sometimes there is no other way to deal with someone who wants all the benefit and none of the risk.