Singh Urges Trudeau to Save Greyhound Bus Routes

OTTAWA – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is urging the Prime Minister to intervene following the announced cancellation of major Greyhound bus routes in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwestern Ontario and rural British Columbia.

In a letter Singh asked Prime Minister Trudeau to immediately step in with a “federal funding plan” to prevent the cancellations which are planned for October. “Canadians who rely on bus services as their sole means of transportation will be cut off from employment, health care and other critical public services, as well as education, and family,” he said.

Singh wrote that he was dismayed by the Liberal government’s initial response to the cancellations which largely directed funding questions to the provinces. “For your government to leave this problem for the provinces to deal with is an abdication of your responsibility to Canadians, including the 400 who will lose their jobs, as well as an abandonment of Federal government’s jurisdiction on matters of inter-provincial transportation.”

Singh also highlighted the safety risks of these cancellations especially in remote communities, “It has been well documented that the lack of bus service along the Highway of Tears was a contributing factor to the murdered and missing of many vulnerable Indigenous women who had no other option than to hitchhike along that route. If your government does not intervene to ensure service continues, you will be increasing these perilous conditions that put so many Indigenous women and girls in danger.”

Full text of the letter can be found here.