Great idea. At what cost and who is going to pay for it, users or tax payers? Greyhound couldn’t make it work so the government of BC can? The NDP have gained my vote for this one, not!!!!

At least they are doing something , unlike the Fiberals who are there for Family and jobs …..Ya right , When will that start .

I wonder why the native communities haven’t taken this problem in hand? Seems it concerns them the most.
Oops, I forgot, they have to be beholden to the federal gov’t for all their needs.

Methinks it would be cheaper to give out travel vouchers for use on the Greyhound BUT we will still see the hitchhikers thumbing rides simply because the bus schedule does not fit their ‘needs’. (That way we could still have a bus service that serves ALL people except for the ‘chosen few”.)
The NDP Bus will not change anything.

By the way, will the fabulous three be traveling by Greyhound? If not, why not?

And when the shuttle is full the girls are going hitch hike anyway. Or they are going to hitch hike because the shuttle doesn’t leave/ arrive when they want it to.

They aren’t doing anything, they are “pressing the case” so basically getting their name in the paper

I still see hitch hikers. Everyone knows about the murders and disappearances. Some still decide to gamble with their lives. They are making the choice. Even if there was a shuttle I would bet you would still see hitch hikers.

You can’t help people who don’t want help….

A shuttle bus may provide a better service than Greyhound, however it will also take business away from Greyhound, and their service could get even worse.

Not sure this is a solution, however what is??

Not hitch hiking would solve a lot of the problems, however seems that’s not going to happen.

Any chance that the various communities can set up some sort of community transportation service. Must be people travelling back and forth all the time.

CN service through the area is three days per week in each direction, so that’s not much of a help. Years ago in Prince George we had what was called a Way freight Service that would run between Prince George and McBride, and Pr George and Endako BC.

The Way freight service would have a car for passengers, and one for freight,. Via Rail could put on a Way freight service and this could help solve the problem, however it would be expensive, and would only be a partial solution.

Problem is, Railways are getting rid of passenger services, because they are non-productive.

nuffsuff hit it right on the head

“A shuttle bus along highway 16 was among the recommendations of the Missing Women’s Inquiry.”

It is easy to make a recommendation. It is more difficult to determine whether the recommendation will work.

Has anyone made a serious attempt to address that recommendation by, for instance:

1. determining why the women/girls were hitchhiking

2. what day and what time they were hitchhiking

3. origin and destination of their hitchhiking

4. approximating how many are still hitching

5. how that matches with the pattern of the killed/disappearing women/girls

and so on ….

From such base information, suggest the best preventative method.

I doubt the people on the inquiry would have entered into any kind of a realistic problem solving exercise such as that.

Going into competition with Greyhound? The trip from here to PR takes more than 8 hours! It will cost many millions and they will still hitch hike! Just saw one young woman not too long ago standing across from Westgate holding out a thumb to go west – in broad daylight! This in spite of a sign that clearly said No Hitch Hiking!

So, let’s calculate this. Each bus needs a crew of two drivers, for safety’s sake. One trip from here to PR, hotel accommodation and meals for the two, another crew to drive the bus back to PG. 24 hour coverage means at least a bus coming by every 4 hours, so that’s 6 times 2 equals 12 drivers, times 2 (a bus is going east every 4 hours while one is travelling west) so 12 rimes 2 equals 24 drivers. Now they need weekend coverage, holiday replacement, spare drivers to cover sick days….at least 2 dispatchers times three for 24 hour coverage, plus weekends, offices in both PG and PR, new vehicles, fuel and maintenance costs, insurance, vehicles need to be replaced every few years…there will be a need for new managers, staff, office equipment and rental…

The message is clear and simple: Educate women not to hitch hike! Educate them to ask a friend or relative to drive them to the destination! Hitch hiking is illegal and can have deadly consequences!

The three MLAs, Maurine Karagianis, Jennifer Rice, and Carole James, surely have looked at the issue and must have realized the complexity of this hitch hiking issue and that a shuttle service is not really the answer. Therefore it is my opinion that they simply keep pushing the emotional buttons to get the most political mileage out of it. The solution is obvious: Put our tax money into a continuous educational campaign to discourage anyone from trying to get rides in private vehicles from strangers!

Has anyone asked the hitch hikers why they didn’t plan for their trip better. Has anyone asked the hitch hikers if anyone they know have gone missing while hitch hiking? Has anyone asked the ones still risking their lives hitch hiking why ? What is so important that you risk being murdered ?

Can anyone use the shuttle bus? If only First Nations women can use them that would be sexist AND racist. How much will the bus fares cost? Big busses or little Handydart busses? Properties (in more than one location) to park them, maintain them and hire qualified operators to drive them. Will wages be comparable to Greyhound wages? Union bus drivers? Office full of paper shufflers needed too? Will they be running all year round? White male bus drivers? Scheduling? Special considerations for an identifiable group excluding others not considered racism? Debate please.

Ask the Shelley Band what it costs! They used to run a shuttle and still do I believe. More than likely comes out of INAC funding.

Have more patrols drive that stretch of highway. If the see a hitchhiker arrest them for breaking the law. Fine them and if they keep doing it through them in jail.

Problem solved

I don’t see why the taxpayer should suffer due to their incompetence.

The problem is hitch hiking isn’t illegal.

Pick up is illegal.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. You could have one hundred shuttles running back and forth at all times of the day, and people are still going to make the choice to hitchhike. I get chills up my spine every time I see a young woman thumbing a ride along Highway 16. If you know there is a serial killer out there somewhere who is preying upon young women hitchhiking, you take due diligence to protect yourself. At some point people have to accept responsibility for their own choices and consequences. Going to Prince George for the weekend is NOT a must. The same can be said for going to Edmonton or Vancouver for the weekend. If you don’t have reliable transportation or the funds for transit, you stay home.
If you are stupid enough to play Russian roulette with your life, then I have no sympathy for you when you finally take a bullet to the brain.

How about giving hitch hikers a free bus pass…paid for by the NDP that way it would not be unfair business practice against Greyhound.

If nonsensical waste of tax payer money get you going – this scenic trip should be right up there.

The RCMP should have “bait” hitchhikers.

An earlier comment stated that the “Fiberals” are at least doing something. That doesn’t make any sense. Anybody can do something, how about doing something that makes sense? I want our government to be mindful of the fact that it is spending our taxpayer money responsibly – I demand the same of any government, whether it is the “Fiberals” or the Dippers!

I think a shuttle is a fine idea; I’d rather we spend some tax payer money getting people safe and sound to their destination rather then spending money on a murder investigation. However, I shudder when I think of the logistical nightmare this will create. A free bus running from Rupert to PG? How on earth do we determine eligibility for the ride?

Strange, nearly every poster just gives up the ghost on providing transportation because of cost, utilisation, scheduling and other mickey mouse reasons.

Please, tell me how much a young lady’s life is worth?

Please tell me how 50% of young ladies using it is not better than nobody being able to use it? Won’t that 50% be safer?

Tell me why schedules can’t be adjusted to meet the travelers’ needs?

Frankly, I don’t understand the objections. They are Canadian and BC citizens, aren’t they? They do have the right to be protected, don’t they?

Is there something about them that makes them inferior and of less value than anyone else, because I don’t see it?

Eligibility for a (free) ride? If you’re not a First Nations female I suppose a police background check (in writing)(paid for by you) would be the first step.

How about educating your daughter about the dangers of hitchhiking first and foremost. Especially with what when on throughout northern BC over the last 30 plus years. You would think that would be enough to educate parents and young girls to stay off the highway.

The dangers of hitchhiking are well known. It wouldn’t matter if a shuttle existed or not, people would still hitchhike. You can’t protect people who don’t care to protect themselves.

On the face, this makes sense. The cost of inquiries and murder investigations might very well exceed the cost of such a shuttle bus. In a sense, we already have a public policy that says, let’s take money from group A – the general taxpayer – and redistribute it to group B – those who ride buses. Generally in PG anyway, those who ride buses, can’t afford cars. The fare they pay, is a small portion of the actual cost of the service, so we do subsidize getting people of lower income from point A to point B.

The problem with this proposal, is it’s simplistic belief that a shuttle bus will make things better. It in fact, according to the law of unintended consequences, may make it worse. For every woman who does hitchhike to the big city for a better life that might include prostitution and drugs, there’s 10 who stay home because they’re afraid to hitchhike – and now, you’ve given them the opportunity to follow their more bold sisters down the same road – not saying this is the case, but I think we need to know why these women are travelling in the first place, and for what reason, and is making it easier, actually helping.

It is a good idea that these MLAs are coming and putting the spotlight on the problem. We have lots of waste in spending in PG. Cut 10% of that annual multi- million Dollars waste (in higher education section for example) and you can operate not one but 10 free mini-bus services among communities in the North and by reducing the crime rate, attract more visitors and people.

I recall once I visited Northern Scotland and the post office guys operated a small minivan (smaller than size of PG airporter) to deliver post deliveries and I got a ride from Inverness to north of Durnoch on one of these small min-vans. That was the only way to get to those remote destinations on the weekends. There can be a similar shuttle between different college campuses in the North servicing young adults and students and allow these few females on board too.

It will help those who desperately want to travel to visit a family, but there are still a few who want to have an adventure by meeting complete strangers (and by themselves) and that problem needs more education than free shuttle. Finding the root of the problem, is the 1st step in solving it.

Maybe the wife and I will take advantage of the shuttles. Head down to Rupert on the weekend for a cheap vacation.

Seems to me that our “First Nations” leadership is continuously telling “us” that we need to stay out of their affairs, that they know what is best for their people!

So, perhaps we should be asking the parents of the hitchhikers, the elders of their communities and their leaders (Chiefs and Councils) why they are not doing more to stop their young women from putting themselves in harm’s way??

It seems to me that the Chiefs and Council members are very well paid! Perhaps they should consider taking less money for themselves and instead direct the funds towards setting up their own shuttle service?

They know best! Prove it!!

Non-native, non-aboriginal, non-First Nations women also got murdered or went missing on this stretch of highway! It is not necessary and unwise to try to make this into a racist issue, one of discrimination. It steers the issue away from its real purpose, which ought to be to make the potential victims aware of to never risk one’s life by getting into a stranger’s vehicle.

Some people choose to live dangerously. Those who do not heed the warning will not wait for a shuttle bus which might come many hours later. Period.

Kudos to the MLAs who are concerned. But they are in my opinion barking up the wrong tree.

Education is the answer, and it starts at home.
metalman.

It is very easy for Opposition MLAs to attempt to hold the government accountable knowing there is little chance the NDP will ever form another government in this lifetime ! Last election the NDP had no platform, now they are driving a highway to nowhere ! No one ever mentions the Jack family! Parents and 2 little kids missing since 1989 and were last heading west of Prince George !

” making stops along the way to meet with community and First Nations leaders. The trio will arrive in Prince George on Wednesday.”
I guess the bigots missed this sentence . Some of the missing women and girls are not natives . Some of the communities are not reserves . Grumbling about looking after each other ? What a country .

By the way, will the fabulous three be traveling by Greyhound? If not, why not?
======================================

I would think that they should be hitch hiking.

And don’t forget that the women that have gone missing on Highway 16 are not all Native women.

For me, this isn’t about the value of the lives of the missing women, or the race, or anything like that. Not even about the cost of the service. It is about the poor choices they are making. A shuttle won’t help. The education is already out there. What are your suggestions for people who knowingly make poor choices? You can’t help who doesn’t want helping. The price is theirs to pay.

Maybe these Mla’s should be offering a free ride on their little excursion. I think that will show their true spirit of what they believe in.
Come on everybody….Let’s spread the word!

Give them subsidized tickets for greyhound. Support the service that already exists.

Seems to me they could find lots of money to move snow for the Olympics….but they have nothing to TRY and address this? Priorities I guess.

Some have tried to make this a race issue, and strangely enough, we don’t really have a choice – because it is. Imagine if your kids wanted to run away from home, and there was a government subsidized shuttle that made it easy for them to leave PG and go to Vancouver where bad things happened to them. You’d want to sue the government for getting in between you and your kids.

We most definitely need First Nations leadership to ask for this, to throw their support behind it, and to sign off that there won’t be any lawsuits against the government of BC or anyone for that matter, if this turns out badly. Because in a way, we once again are taking their children from their homes (by making easy routes of escape), and 25 years from now this could be seen in a whole different light as not help, but once again, a form of genocide.

Do these three have a plan, or is it just a photo op?

I’d much rather see they spend the money on trying to catch the bastard or bastards doing the murders.

I do realize though that might be a tall order. There seems to be no simple solution….

Reading some of these comments makes me realize how right Harper was when he said; “You won’t recognize Canada when I am through with it!” The Canada we have today is reflected in the hostile, greedy, prejudicial, self-centered comments of “some” on this discussion board.

Where has our compassion for our fellow human beings gone? On the subject of “murdered and missing women” no less… I cannot believe some of the comments on here! We are truly becoming a country of soulless uncaring people!

Hey JGalt, instead of wagging your finger at “some” people, you come up with some response and solutions to those people’s thoughts that offend you so much? Or is it just easier to say “Shame on you!”.

A shuttle bus is a simplistic solution to a complex problem.

Posted by: JGalt on April 21 2014 3:54 PM

Where has our compassion for our fellow human beings gone? On the subject of “murdered and missing women” no less… I cannot believe some of the comments on here! We are truly becoming a country of soulless uncaring people!

————–

We’ve always been like that I’m afraid. It’s just easier to notice nowadays with the speed of information.

Well, I think it’s all been said, and I don’t think anyone is being racist or discriminatory here, bottom line is people want to travel when they want to travel and they all don’t follow schedules like some folks do. Can’t see this as anything but some politicians wanting to be in the limelight.

Personally, I think racism is rampant in the whole issue. Denying it doesn’t make it go away.

Hitch hiking is illegal in B.C.

Spend more time & energy enforcing the law or change the law to have more serious consequences to deter people from hitching in the first place.

Compassion for all people having loved ones murdered needlessly goes without saying.

Throwing tax payer money at a free shuttle is an ill-concieved idea that logistically will never work.

So it’s racist get over it! Racism will never go away. It’s human nature to blame someone and that blame is usually directed to some group, minority or religion.

If it’s human nature to place the blame for a particular thing on a group of people based on their race or religion, call me not great at being human. Get over it? Are you for real?

I don’t think a shuttle will solve anything. We all know smoking is bad and the risk of cancer increases for those who smoke but people still make the choice to light up. If the multiple missing women aren’t enough of a deterrent to stop these women what is?