In an effort to encourage a lower carbon footprint, and more ridership of public transit, Dieppe City Council is considering a plan to make the service free in their municipality.
Mayor Yvon Lapierre says there are some potential hurdles in the way of implementation, especially if the Town of Riverview and City of Moncton are not on board.
“If they want a transfer to go somewhere else, they would have to pay Codiac, and some people I’m sure will say that means we’re being taxed twice, right? We’re paying taxes for [a] free bus, and now if we go anywhere else we have to pay,” says Lapierre.
His response to that concern was “put the pressure where it belongs,” implying the Town of Riverview and City of Moncton could be encouraged to follow suit.
Lapierre says they are improving bus routes so they go directly to the Georges-Dumont Hospital and the Université de Moncton, so residents can have a better experience.
“A massive amount of our citizens work at those two institutions, so by the improvement of those routes, you don’t need to transfer anymore to Champlain Mall to get there,” says Lapierre.
He says their revenues from public transit is approximately $250,000 and “it’s not even a penny of our tax rate, we’ve been talking about this for probably three years now on Council.”
Lapierre wrapped up his comments by saying he hopes to have a measure on the subject introduced at budget time this fall.