It was standing room only – and little of that – at the information session hosted by the City of Prince George and BC Transit on the proposed new transit facility near 18th and Foothills.
At least 200 people showed up and many attendees expressed frustration that no alternative site is currently being considered. At least two dozen people questioned the financial, environmental and even social impacts of the project.
“I thought there would be more people there in favour of the site,” said Ralphe Tylor, who drives a bus for Prince George Transit. “But these people, I don’t see them seeing what transit is. And sure, they’re saying there will be an expansion to transit. Probably three-quarters of these people drive their cars. They have no clue where transit is or what transit does.”
The City and BC Transit touted the central location of the proposed site, which they say would help cut costs and increase efficiency. Tylor says the current transit facility – located over the Fraser Bridge off Highway 97 – means a lot of wasted driving time, getting buses back and forth to their routes. He also dismissed concerns voices by others about increases in pollution and traffic in the area.
“There’s not going to be a lot of pollution when we get the brand new depot with the brand new natural gas buses. I don’t see it. And there they were saying there are going to be vehicles going in there 24 hours a day. The buses run till 11 o’clock at night. They start at 6 o’clock in the morning.”
Another consideration, brought forward by BC Transit, is the fact that, if the project can be completed by March of 2019, it could benefit from both federal and provincial funding, reducing the City’s contribution to about 17%. If the project is delayed, more than half of that funding will likely disappear.
Tylor doesn’t think many of his fellow residents are thinking very clearly on the subject.
“Even if they did have another site, people would probably want it way out of the city limits where we are now – where we have to travel buses back and forth and back and forth and so on and so forth. It costs money to run a bus not in service all the time with nobody on it. That’s an excellent spot for it. I don’t see that it’s going to take up a lot of green space. We’ve got Ginter’s Field, we’ve got other areas, there’s lots of places and the people can still walk [there].”
Loss of some of that green space seemed to be a top concern for many attendees and Tylor’s sentiments were heavily outnumbered.
Susanne Williamson, who started a petition against the project back in March, was also in attendance.
“It was what I expected. The city is determined to go ahead with this proposal and the community has come out in huge numbers to show their displeasure with that choice. This is a very small indication of the kind of community support that we have for an alternate site for this facility.”
She says she has the signatures to back it up
“We’re still gathering signatures. We have close to 1700 signatures online and I just received a bunch of paper petitions, which is an additional 800 signatures and I have at least another 400 at home so we’re approaching 3000 signatures.”
The petition cites increased traffic, noise and pollution as well as impacts to wildlife as reasons to find a different site for the facility.
Susanne Williamson, who started petition against project, stands up to speak #PGTransit #cityofPG pic.twitter.com/IrPbCYMCfQ
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) May 12, 2017
Williamson plans to attend the public hearing on the issue scheduled for sometime in June.
“I just want to say I’m really proud of my community. There are many people here who care deeply about green space and what it means for Prince George and they came out tonight in huge numbers to show that to the city and to Council. I will be taking the postal codes of every single petition signer and I will be creating a map to show exactly where the support for an alternate site is coming from. It is from the entire greater Prince George area.”
The City is accepting feedback from residents via mail, email or fax until May 19.
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