THUNDER BAY - People in Northern Ontario will have another option for getting to other parts of the province thanks to the expansion of a provincially funded bus service to the city of Thunder Bay.
The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is expanding its service west to Thunder Bay later this spring. Previously ONTC only travelled as far west as White River.
“I truly believed this is a taxpayer funded bus service and if it’s going to be called Ontario Northland, it should service Ontario North in the fullest extent of the word,” said Minister of Energy, Northern Development, and Mines, Greg Rickford, who was in Thunder Bay for the announcement on Wednesday. “That’s why it’s coming west.”
Service is expected to begin in April 2020 with a six day per week return service to Thunder Bay. Passengers can travel to Southern Ontario using integrated private carriers.
This is the first bus service to provide transportation to Southern Ontario since Greyhound announced in 2018 that it would no longer be operating routes in Northwestern Ontario.
“We believe in the absence of the Greyhound bus service created a vacuum for people living in Northwestern Ontario to get to Thunder Bay or Winnipeg,” Rickford said. “This included students and seniors.”
Moria McPherson, president of Lakehead University, which is one of the proposed stops in Thunder Bay, said the ONTC expanding to the city will be a real benefit to students.
“This announcement is amazing for our students at Lakehead,” she said. “We have thousands of students who travel south from Thunder Bay and come to Lakehead University. We have a growing proportion of our students who are also international, so for those students who are landing at airports in Southern Ontario, to have the ability to get on a bus for a safe and reliable journey to Thunder Bay is amazing.”
According to Corina Moore, president and CEO of ONTC, the service will be looking into communities along the route to determine stops for the buses.
“Right now we are looking at three to four stops in Thunder Bay and various stops between White River and Thunder Bay,” she said. “In the last couple of years we have really taken a focused approach to stopping at universities, colleges, and hospitals across the north. It feels so good to be able to do that. These are people who have no other option.”
Moore added that additional buses have been purchased for the new routes and include extra wide aisles, wireless internet, and a fully accessible washroom.
The ONTC is taxpayer funded and both Rickford and Moore said not only is there a demand for alternative forms of transportation in the region, it is important that taxpayers across the province benefit from the provincial service.
“It’s the right thing to do for our agency and taxpayer dollars,” Moore said.
“We believe the business case to come to Thunder Bay will pay for itself,” Rickford added. “The investment that the taxpayers make into ONTC should be reflected in their ability to access parts of Northwestern Ontario.”
When asked if there are plans to expand the service further west to Kenora, Rickford said he is encouraged for the prospects of people living beyond Thunder bay and will have more to say on that in the coming months.
