We own the Highway of Tears too
It would probably be a tough sell to spend a billion, or three, on replacing the Massey Tunnel without tossing a few crumbs to we wee folks in the North.
Victoria, after years of pushing and prodding from every community along Highway 16, has finally committed some funding to help transportation issues along the ‘Highway of Tears.’
It’s about time.
A transit system was first identified as a safety issue in 2006, almost 10 years ago. The wheels of government do move slowly, but they do, sometimes, move.
Successive transportation ministers have been reticent to fund a bus system and the funding announced last week falls short of a providing direct bus service between Prince George and Prince Rupert, but something is finally being done.
One could almost say the government was dragged, kicking and screaming, into providing some funding. Perhaps because of that reticence, the government has thrown things back, somewhat, into the hands of those who have been hollering “we want, we want,” for the past 10 years.
Much of the $3 million funding commitment comes with a caveat: Communities along the route, including First Nations communities, have to kick in some cash too.
The province will commit $1.6 million over two years for transit expansion. This money will be available on a cost-shared basis with local communities to extend or enhance BC Transit services.
Victoria is also providing $750,000 over three years for a community transportation grant program to purchase and operate vehicles: This money will also be available on a cost-shared basis with local communities to support community-based transportation programs operated by First Nations, local governments or non-profit organizations.
While many would have liked for Victoria to commit to providing a free, daily service between Prince George and Prince Rupert, that’s not going to happen. In addition, it’s not a bad plan for we, who have been telling Victoria how important this is, to put our money where our mouth is.
Here in the North we never like it when Victoria tells us how to butter our bread, so why should this be any different?
In addition to the above mentioned funding, Victoria will work to increase coordination of existing transportation services through BC Transit, Northern Health, not for profit organizations and private service providers including efforts to better synchronize schedules and expand user eligibility criteria.
The ministry has appointed a new 10-person Highway 16 Transportation Advisory Group to oversee implementation of the action plan and ensure that the actions address the input received at the transportation symposium. The advisory group will report to the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and will be meeting over the months of January and February to review the specifics of the action plan and ensure it is implemented consistent with the input the ministry received at a recent transportation symposium held in Smithers.
It might not be everything to everyone, but it’s a darn sight better than what was happening before, which was basically nothing.
Postscript: When looking over the news release about this announcement something caught my eye (even without my reading glasses on). It was the quotes.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone was quoted, of course, it’s his ministry that’s funding this. John Rustad, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation was also quoted. That makes sense, his riding it along the route and while highway safety isn’t specifically a First Nations issue, it’s certainly a big part of it. Prince George MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris were quoted. The highway goes through their ridings too (although it also goes through Doug Donaldson’s and Jennifer Rice’s ridings, but they’re scurrilous NDPers so how could what they have to say be relevant)?
But that wasn’t what caught my eye. The news release also contained comments from Shane Gottfriedson, Regional Chief, BC Assembly of First Nations; Richard Jock, chief operating officer, First Nations Health Authority; and Chastity Davis, chair of Minister’s Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women. They’re all good, important people.
But couldn’t the communications minions in Victoria get a comment from a First Nations leader who lives somewhere near the Highway of Tears? Just sayin’.
Bill Phillips is a freelance columnist living in Prince George. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. He can be reached at billphillips1@mac.com
Comments
One bus a day from Prince George to Prince Rupert would make very little difference to people who live along Highway 16. Miss the one bus and that’s it for the next 24 hours.
The way they have it set up now, (proposed) to have smaller buses and more service between points such as Vanderhoof, Ft St James to Pr George, or Vanderhoof, to Fraser Lake, Burns Lake Smithers, or Smithers to Pr Rupert, Kitimat, etc; is the way to go. Funding of course will be the big issue.
When we look at a few projects in the Greater Vancouver area, such as the new Port Mann Bridge. $3 Billion dollars, Sea to Sky Highway $600 million or more. Proposed new bridge replacing the Massey Tunnel over the Fraser River, $3 Billion, plus the huge cost of transit, etc; we begin to see where all the money is spent in this Province.
I agree with Bill that throwing a few millions to the people in the Northwest, is akin to feeding the chickens with a few handfuls of grain, when what they need is a steady diet on a regular basis.
There is no doubt that people in Northwest BC are not being looked after to the extent that they should be. Seems to me most of what we get is an after thought, and usually just prior to an election.
Taking 10 or more years to solve a problem and then throwing in a few paltry million dollars is nothing more than an attempt to get the issue off the table, so they can go back to being **big shots** in Vancouver and Victoria.
We need a comprehensive review of the distribution of tax dollars through out the Province on a per capita basis, to give us some sense as to where the money goes, and if all citizens are being treated fairly. Some how I think not. One only has to be observant when driving from Cache Creek to Prince Rupert and you will see very quickly that we are being treated as second class citizens at best.
So Northern Health has a transit system in the north. Now this. than you wonder why Greyhound can not stay in business in the north.
One only needs to stop and think about this. why not sign a contract with Greyhound, wouldn’t that be cheaper in the long run.
Posted on Thursday, December 17, 2015 @ 7:53 AM by He spoke
One only needs to stop and think about this. why not sign a contract with Greyhound, wouldn’t that be cheaper in the long run.
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People don’t want a bus with it’s pesky schedules and stinky on board washroom, they want a taxi service that is at their beck and call and paid for by the government.
Greyhound has to make money to stay in business. Northern Health doesn’t.
It becomes a mean for people to travel, who does not have the resources. there will be abuse to this new system, but essentially the province is allowing this too happen. Like said earlier, it is a trinket Victoria is throwing at us, to clear their guilt.
Will this stop hitch hiking. No, I don’t think it will.
I travel up and down hwy 16, rarely do I see anyone looking for a ride. Maybe 3-4 in the whole year. So what is this service really going to do. I think they are going to realize that it is a waste of money. Most people that wants to move around. wants to move around now! Thus people that are going to be using it will not be the target people that they want to protect.
In my opinion, I think it is a bunch BS, in which the program is just a disquise to give funding to the first nation and the north, as well most importantly to clear the guilt for the politicians in Victoria.
“Greyhound has to make money to stay in business. Northern Health doesn’t.” – the inference was that because of tax payer subsidized competition Greyhound can’t compete on a level playing field and maybe that is why they have been dropping service to the north.
I completely agree with Palopu. I’m pretty sick and tired of seeing these mega projects happening in the south, and we have to beg and plead for smallest projects. Despite most of the provincial wealth being generated by our resources, and the spin-off industries relating to them.
Maybe I wouldn’t mind if lower mainlanders weren’t so ignorant to life in the north. “Do you have stop lights?” is a question I’m actually tired of hearing. I wish I was joking.
If the govn’t continues to ignore our infrastructure, we will never grow if the perception by the rest of the province is that we’re remote.
First off don’t get me wrong….what is happening to these young ladies is wrong and disgusting…but correct me if I am wrong most of these people made a wrong life choice in most cases by hitchhiking and it wouldn’t have mattered if we had busses running
This funding is not for infrastructure. I thought there was already a bus service that goes from the smaller communities into Terrace and Smithers. So how do people from Mission get to Langley or from Penticton to Kelowna or Port Hardy to Campbell River? Aren’t they entitled to the same service?
Highway of tears… maybe look up how many of the highway of tears victims this would have helped out of the 18, 20 (now 21) officially listed. This is a recommendation directly from the inquiry that included the highway of tears:
victim 1 – nope, victim 2 – nope, victim 3 – nope, victim 4 – nope, victim 5 – maybe would be a stretch, victim 6 – nope, victim 7 – nope…. etc
Almost any warm day you will see someone hitchhiking at the very same spot Nichole went missing, will this bus stop to pick up all hitchhikers? If it is an aboriginal service only this would still not have prevented or lessened the chance of victim 17 Nichole Hoar from becoming missing. If the bus will stop for anyone I can see this opening a whole new can of worms with people lining the highway expecting a ride and tapping their toes.
Rather than having a bus or series of buses running up and down the highway, why don’t they put that money into an effort to find the person or persons responsible for perpetrating these crimes on the woman who live on this corridor. At the end of the day, someone is getting away with bloody murder. That’s the greater issue here.
Prov2, I kind of agree with you, except for the wrong choices part. So what your claiming is, it is acceptable to you that these young women get killed because they made a mistake in their life choices. I think you need to open your eyes, and talk to your friends whose children has made wrong choices, but they don’t love them any less, nor wish them ill.
You did say “correct me if I am wrong”!!!
So why don’t they just expand the cellular service so that it covers the entire route. Everyone has a cell phone nowadays, maybe add a free calling to a service so that they can register somewhere if they’re in trouble or even the license plate number before they get into the car.
I think that is a good thing about sending a text of the liscence plate. description of vehicle. As long as that is practiced. That will make the perpetrator think twice. The message is already sent.
I wouldn’t even mind signage of the same.
Don’t hitch hike, but if you must, Text the plate # to a friend before you get in.
capitalize on existing resources and infrastructure like rail.
The rail system in this area (central interior/mid coast) should be compelled to have a regular, affordable, accessible and timely service.
There, no more need for hitchhiking, problem solved!
Oh, except for the investigation practice of interviewing family and friends of the victim. Supposedly, 80 percent of the time, the victim knows the perpetrator.
Are they really sure they want this actual, extensive investigation?
Opinion 250 has a bigger audience than the PG citizen, I wonder if the 10 person committee will look at what we had to say on the blog, and actually do something that reflects our points of view.
Or will they just sell their soul to the government mandate on the funding and march in unison.
I want a Bus on Blackwater Road, why not , this is the Age of Entitlement .
The government builds the mega projects in the Lower Mainland because that is where millions of people live and commute. The Coquihalla highway was a toll highway, paid for by users in full. The Port Mann bridge is a toll bridge and will be paid for by the users. The Massey Tunnel bridge will also be a toll bridge.
If they want to 4-lane the PG to Cache Creek #97 highway and charge a toll for using it – fine with me! I would not squawk if it cost me 20 or 30 bucks each way! User use, user pay!
As for the government efforts for the stretch between Prince Rupert and Prince George, if implemented it will either serve a purpose by actually being used or it will be folded up because of lack of users.
To my knowledge there is no direct evidence that the murders and disappearances have anything to do with hitchhiking. As I understand it, the inference that they are attacked by people who pick them up hitchhiking is based entirely on the fact that the incidents are concentrated along Highway 16. However, since the population of northern BC is heavily concentrated along Highway 16, we would expect this geographic distribution even if there is no causal connection between the highway and the crimes. The inference of a connection between the transportation system and the crimes thus appears to me to be unfounded.
Is anyone aware of any valid evidence of a causal connection to the highway? What am I missing?
You can make all the statements you want but poverty plays a big part in why you might be hitchhiking. There are many people that do not own a car or a phone. How many times have you seen people at the side of the road hitchhiking and I dont’t think it’s because they have too much money in their pocket. I think it is about time they raise the min. wage and welfare rates so that maybe they could afford to take proper safe transportation or maybe even buy their own car or phone.
@billposer, 3 of the women were linked to Bobby Jack Fowler in Lac la Hache, Kamloops and Ft St John. 5 of the victims on the list were last seen hitchhiking on Highway 16. The link to the highway is some were found near the highway, 7 remain missing including Madison Scott. Half of the listed victims have no link to Hwy 16 but do have links to highways within the province, one is from a highway in Alberta.
@oldman1 I would rethink that hypothesis. Not everyone who hitchhikes is poverty stricken, at least by the victims on the list hitchhiking is a choice due to age and the fact they are living on their own – more than half of the HoT victims were 16 years of age or younger so lack of a vehicle is not part of the equation as they are hardly old enough to drive or were working for minimum wage and destitute. Cell phones in everyone’s pocket is only a recent phenomenon.
It is also not the fact that officers wrote these people off, the officer in charge of Maureen Mosie had over 1,100 pages of notes on people interviewed in her murder yet the case remains unsolved.
Oops missed the point – Bobby Jack Fowler’s MO was to pick up hitchhikers and the fact that 3 of the victims are directly tied to him infers hitchhiking as a link. But not proven as fact, he could have picked them up from a bar. But you are correct that none of the actual highway 16 victims have been linked to him although a few are suspected. Nicole Hoar has been definitively linked to hitchhiking, she was the tree planter last seen at the location by Cycle North and was on her way to Smithers. She was on her way to surprise her sister so if she had made it there would have been witnesses. Leland Switzer is the prime suspect in that case, he came forward with information that he stopped to urinate at that location the same night she went missing just in case they found his DNA there – he passed a polygraph but it remains odd why he came forth with this information without being asked.
Prince George. The Sea to Sky Highway has no toll. The cost is somewhere in the area of $800 Million.
The new Port Mann bridge is a toll bridge that cost $3.3 Billion to construct (includes upgrade to Highway 1 freeway).
The bridge will not be paid for by tolling until the year 2050. That is 38 years from now. I seriously doubt that the contractors who built the bridge will be waiting for 38 years to get paid. So in effect the bridge will be paid for by taxpayers, and ultimately paid off by the tolls. Unless of course the Government borrowed the money in which case the everyone will be paid by borrowed money, and all the taxpayers in BC will pay taxes to cover the borrowing costs.
Same thing will apply to the Massey Tunnel Bridge, which will also cost $3.3 billion.
To suggest that taxpayers through out BC will not be paying for these project is misleading to say the least.
Furthermore you an buy a month bus pass in Vancouver for $91.00 that allows you to ride anywhere the busses go all day long 24/7. This means that you can ride a bus all day for roughly $2.50.
So once again unlimited transit service to the lower mainland, and zilch for the Northern Interior.
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