I don't trust statistics. They're a necessary evil and they factor into our daily lives in more ways than we care to know. Take, for example, Timmins Transit ridership. I had the pleasure of serving on Timmins City Council for three years under mayor Vic Power. Power hated change. That's an understatement - he vehemently opposed change. When our city treasurer wanted to streamline our tax system - Power flipped out. The rest of council wanted change - Power didn't. The same thing happened with our transit system. Council wanted to reduce the number of routes and adjust fares but Power would have no part of it. For whatever reason, and for so many, many years - he was able to convince a majority of his council members not to rock the boat.
Mysteriously, almost magically, numbers would land on our council desks suggesting that ridership on city buses was up and the federal government was going to give us a share of the gas tax as long as we invested it in our transit system.
I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I always felt like I was being set up. I was being served Vic Power Kool-Aid - which I never liked.
Enter Tom Laughren. Last Monday night I was at city hall to report on the council meeting for MyTimminsToday.com. One of the items was Timmins Transit. The city has a new manager for the bus system and a new attitude, and I Dare Say, a new top-down mentality.
It turns out no-one really knows how many people ride the bus. We've spent tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on electronic systems that were supposed to tell us precisely how many people were taking the bus and where they were going.
Councilor Gary Scripnick led the discussion from council's perspective. In a nutshell, he rightly pointed out that we have too many empty buses running up and down city streets - too many hand-me-down vehicles we bought from other cities - and too many unanswered questions.
What I found refreshing was the general "feel" in the room. No-one on council or administration was predicting the apocalypse if routes were cut back or fares increased.
Given the price of gas - part of the discussion centered on a marketing strategy to get more people to hop on a bus to get to work.
Councilor Steve Adams put it best. When all the numbers finally come in, council has to have the conviction to act. They need to make a decision that is in the best interest of the taxpayers at large - not the few who might be inconvenienced by an adjustment or outright cancellation of a bus route that simply doesn't make economic sense.
In short - I get the sense this council is more business-like than councils I have seen in the past.
