The city's broken relationship with BC Transit is en route to being repaired if the corporation follows recommendations made by a review panel, according to the acting mayor of Prince George.
Dave Wilbur said he sees "nothing but good" coming from the report by the three-person independent panel struck back in March. The panel released their report containing 18 recommendations to improve the public transit Crown Corporation earlier this week.
"I'm very happy [B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure] Blair Lekstrom saw fit to introduce a third-party review because it was broken," Wilbur said.
Chief among the recommendations was a suggestion to put further weight on the fact that there is a partnership between the provincial and local governments when it comes to delivering public transit.
"The panel found that the structure of the partnership leaves BC Transit primarily accountable to only one of the funding partners, the provincial government," the report reads.
Wilbur said creating a level of transparency for municipalities - which fund 53 per cent of BC Transit operations in their area - is a huge step that will eliminate planning hurdles.
"It means that if we have good planning and multi-year agreements with the Crown Corporation, there aren't going to be these hiccups where we've gone through the budgetary process and all of a sudden we've got a surprise," Wilbur explained.
According to the review panel's report, BC Transit makes system-wide decisions that ultimately impact local governments' budgets and can result in cost increases.
Another bonus to a clearer planning process would be the city's ability to better target fare rates and pass along any savings to transit riders, Wilbur added.
Over the last year, transit ridership jumped 12.3 per cent in Prince George, according to statistics released by BC Transit last month. Nearly 2.2 million rides were taken in 2011-12 as compared to 1.9 millions in 2010-11.
The issues addressed in the report are far-reaching, geographically. Wilbur recalled an instance at a Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting where "people were just throwing darts at the [chief administrative officer] of the organization. And from that point forward, there began to be an appreciation that it was something that wasn't appreciated by local government - that there needed to be a true partnership [with BC Transit]."
A statement from BC Transit following the release of the report said the organization welcomed the results of the review and stressed that it "looks forward to working with its partners to ensure they system remains an industry leader in efficiency and effectiveness."
The panel held 25 meetings with 40 local governments and received 30 written submissions. Lekstrom will provide an official response to the report at next month's Union of B.C. Municipalities annual convention in Victoria.
