HSR

Public Transit is very important to our city. Many, many people depend on it. Some of what the HSR offers citywide is good; some of it very much needs improvement. It may come as no surprise, but our poorly maintained roads have made for some poorly maintained buses.

The City of Hamilton’s failure to provide the HSR with the replacement part that it needs is another failure of the City of Hamilton’s procurement department. Perhaps it’s time for the HSR to do its own procurement.

Much discussion over the years has been about the public transit portion of the area rating taxation. I strongly believe that taxpayers should only pay for the services that are available to them. Too many times, we have seen articulated buses running empty. This is expensive. This is wasteful. Some serious investigation into expanding the “My Ride” program is required.

Like any city, we need clean, safe, reliable public transit. In the next term of council, we can work towards making the HSR better for all of us.