THURSDAY, december 21, 2017 Vol. 74, No. 51
Serving Fort St. John, B.C. and Surrounding Communities
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Home for the holidays Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa! However you choose to enjoy the winter holiday season, the staff of the Alaska Highway News wish you and yours the best in happiness and health as we close out 2017 and ring in 2018. The News office will be closed Dec. 25 to Jan. 2 to enjoy the holidays, with a year-in-review edition on stands and in mailboxes on Dec. 28. Our first edition of the new year will be out Jan. 4, 2018. Have a news tip? A letter in response to something you read here or about something happening in the community? Stay in touch. Email us at editor@ahnfsj.ca.
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Level 5/6 tap dancers opened the Studio 2 Stage Christmas recital Dec. 17 with their routine to Christmas Sing Along.
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Greyhound Canada is proposing taxpayer subsidies to save rural bus service across Northern B.C., an idea that found the support of at least one local politician during a public hearing in Fort St. John on Dec. 14. Brad Sperling, chair of the Peace River Regional District, says the north deserves a subsidy to maintain services as Greyhound looks to exit Northeast B.C. entirely amid crippling losses. The province already subsidizes city transit, as well as ferry service to connect coastal communities, Sperling said. “As much as we don’t like subsidies, I think it’s time. We deserve it,” he said. “Central and Northern B.C. deserves the same thing that the Lower Mainland gets.” Sperling was one of fifteen people who attended the Passenger Transportation Board hearing, and one of just seven who registered to speak to Greyhound’s proposed cuts. Greyhound says its ridership in B.C. has plummeted 46 per cent since 2010, leading to $70 million in losses over the last six
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Local government officials made up three of the seven speakers who registered to appear before the Passenger Transportation Board in Fort St. John on Dec. 14, 2017.
years as it struggles to adapt to changing market conditions. In the Northeast alone, use of the service along the Alaska Highway between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson dropped from 18,307 passengers in 2014 to 9,647 in 2017. Greyhound says its losing $35,000 a day on its passenger services in the province. Profits continue to drop as the province subsidizes the Northern Health medical travel bus, as well as BC Transit between Prince George and Terrace, company
officials said. At the same time, industry regulations have stymied the company’s efforts to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions that has seen the rise of ridesharing and air travel, and with no action by government on regulatory reform. A provincial fund for municipalities and First Nations could fund bids from private operators to continue bus service, the company said. However, no details or dollar figures were provided with the proposal.
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It may not be the worst intersection in town, but Fort St. John city councillors are looking to curb traffic troubles at 108 Street and the Alaska Highway frontage road. The jumbled junction is home to 36 conflict points, according to a recent study, and councillors authorized staff last week to start talks with nearby businesses and the province about installing a barrier to improve safety. “It’s definitely not the worst intersection in the city, but it is a little awkward though, so it is perceived that way,” said Victor Shopland, the city’s integrated services director. The city’s worst intersection where 100 Avenue meets the highway, with 85 collisions over the last five years. There have been only 42 accidents at the highway and 108 and 109 streets, with half of those happening at the frontage road intersection with 108 Street. In a report from Urban Systems, the city’s planning consultants, that intersection doesn’t meet today’s road standards. However, it would challenging and costly to redesign and rebuild its alignment to improve safety, the report notes. See INTERSECTION on A4
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