a regular council meeting on Wednesday (Apr. 15)<\/a>, which would have asked the provincial government to create a funding program for intermunicipal transit between mid-sized towns and major cities.<\/p>\nAn attempt to reduce traffic, help commuters<\/p>\n
“I’m just looking at a way for residents where the option of commuter travel would be ideal for them,” said Wegener. “Maybe they don’t have vehicles, maybe they can’t afford the cost of gas.”<\/p>\n
Wegener also mentioned that this motion could reduce traffic on Highway 1 during commuter times.<\/p>\n
In response to the proposal, Wiley noted the transit costs and the risk that providing transit from Calgary to Strathmore would pose.<\/p>\n
“The moment you provide transit between Calgary and Strathmore, you want to see your residents helped because now we have an affordable way to get to Calgary, but what actually ends up happening is Calgary residents who find the housing too expensive would move to Strathmore. So we’ll increase the demand on our already low housing and therefore increase the cost of housing,” said Wiley.<\/p>\n
“I’m also against transit because it means that Strathmore residents will find housing less attainable and affordable.”<\/p>\n
Related Stories:<\/p>\n
Wegener disagreed with Wiley, saying that Calgary residents looking for affordable housing would move to Strathmore anyway, regardless of whether there was public transit or not.<\/p>\n
“Strathmore has so much to offer, and I don’t think the transportation aspect of it would be a big determining factor to increase the population.”<\/p>\n
Langmaid shows support<\/p>\n
On the flip side, councillor Melissa Langmaid supported the motion, saying that the lack of public transit makes newcomers reluctant to live in Strathmore, thus creating what she called a “labour vacuum”.<\/p>\n
“I am not entirely sure what the funding program might look like, but I am intrigued enough, and I hear enough about the challenges around regional transportation that I would like to see the fleshed-out resolution come forward so I may see a larger picture of what this might look like to consider it further.”<\/p>\n
Councillor Claude Brown’s take came from personal experience driving public transit in a smaller community.<\/p>\n
“The buses were barely used, and they didn’t accomplish the reduction in vehicle traffic. The municipality also had to pay into it along with the provincial subsidies,” said Brown. “I don’t think transit is economically feasible unless you’re in a large city. I don’t want the taxpayers being burdened with something that few people will use.”<\/p>\n
The motion was shut down 2-5, with councillor Langmaid being the only one to support Wegener’s proposal. Councillors Jim Chisholm, Matt Hyde, Brent Wiley, Claude Brown, and Mayor Pat Fule voted against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
StrathmoreNow\u00a0encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the\u00a0StrathmoreNow\u00a0app.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strathmore town council defeated a motion proposing transit between Strathmore and Calgary. The motion was proposed by councillor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-610757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}