Medical services still out of reach without bus service 6 years later.

Saskatchewan citizens continue to suffer without publicly owned, accessible transportation. STC was killed by the provincial government in 2017, leaving thousands of our citizens stranded across the province. This story was submitted anonymously to protect those involved from retribution by the Saskatchewan government for speaking out.

June 22, 2023

My disabled son lives in a small town in Saskatchewan. He needs constant access to medical services that are not available in said town. His current physician is in another town an hour away from him. He also needs services from Saskatoon medical and dental places.

So, every time he needs to attend a service, I drive an hour to get to him, then an hour back to each service, then an hour to take him back home, and an hour to get me back home. SAID pays $25 for each trip like that, for gas. That payment has to go to his father, as I am on SAID, (he puts that fuel into the vehicle, as it is his vehicle), and they told me I couldn’t get payment for that. Each trip costs about $40 for gas. So, anywhere between 4-5 hours of my time, plus inadequate reimbursement for fuel, plus wear and tear on the vehicle I drive, is costing me more than what I can afford. So far this month, there have been 6 trips like the one described above.

Also, my son’s prescriptions come from a Saskatoon pharmacy, which have to be refilled every month. There is no pharmacy where he lives, and if I cannot make a trip to take the medications, he goes without until I can. One of his medications is for extremely high blood pressure, which is literally deadly. We are trying to get him housing in the city, but it is slow. PLUS, then his physician would be two hours away, as there are no physicians available in Saskatoon. (We went to Evergreen Clinic, to see if they would take him on, but the clinic refused him on sight.)

The danger of narrowly defining “cost” – Letter to the Editor – July 18, 2020

This letter was published in the Regina Leader Post on July 18, 2020, shared here with permission of the writer.

In a recent column, Murray Mandryk asserts that “STC was shuttered, not sold (although its assets were), simply because it wasn’t making a profit or — regardless of what the NDP insists — actually providing a viable public service for its cost.” This statement is problematic for several reasons but ought to be interrogated on account of what is meant by “cost.”

I and other researchers from the University of Saskatchewan have spent the last three years studying the closure of STC and its impacts on former users. I have drawn several conclusions to date including the fact that no proper evidence was ever presented to demonstrate what savings might be made from closing the company. Indeed, the harrowing stories I have listened to through many hours of interviews and focus group discussions with former users, healthcare workers and others suggest the following:

• • The closure of STC was a politically motivated decision informed by neoliberal discourses of economic rationalization with absolutely no valid and or reliable evidence presented on what may be saved from closing the company;
  • The closure of the STC represents a retreat of the welfare state and a large-scale disregard for the rights, welfare and wellbeing of the most marginalized members of society;
  • The closure of STC has led to many wastages in the healthcare and social service systems;
  • The closure of STC normalizes inequalities and creates a class of people who are peripheralized and barred from participating in basic activities that members of any society expect to be able to participate in such as visiting one’s family.

There is much more that might be said about the STC and its closure. However narrow conceptualizations of “cost” and “savings” and representations of the STC as not “viable” amount to an unwarranted disregard for emerging evidence that the closure of STC was an extremely poor decision and that any supposed savings have come at the cost of inefficiencies and a refusal to afford vulnerable Saskatchewan residents basic human dignity.

Jacob Alhassan, Saskatoon

Alhassan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine.

Stranded after release from hospital without STC.

About a month ago, I was taken to Prince Albert Hospital by ambulance. I live alone, no family and I keep to myself in town. When I was released, the staff tried to do everything they could to help me but wouldn’t allow a 60 year old man to hitchhike home after being released. I do not have any friends or even associates in town who I would call to make a trip of 225 kms each way to get me, a whole day. I really do keep to myself. I was forced to take a taxi halfway from PA to Melfort where I could meet up with someone who happened to be in town on an errand. There has been no bus service replaced to Tisdale, Hudson Bay or Porcupine Plain.

 

Submitted by Bruce on May 26, 2019

Saskatchewan people continue to face risks without STC.

Submitted to the STC Facebook page on May 20, 2019 shared here with permission:

“We picked up two Indigenous women hitchhiking today just south of Christopher Lake. Here is their tragic story as they told it.

The two women were on their way to Prince Albert for their daily methadone doses. Both are recovering addicts who have, since December, been hitchhiking daily from a reserve (intentionally unnamed) near Christopher Lake to Prince Albert — and yes some days they almost walk the whole distance.

The story is doubly tragic because in addition to not having a bus and having to hitchhike, there is a medical van/taxi from the rez but because they are/were considered addicts, they can’t get on it. Although this is likely illegal and certainly unethical, we know similar things are happening in many communities.

In so many ways the end of the STC has compounded people’s lives … particularly women, those with mobility issues, seniors, and Indigenous people. If you have time to do something about it, please act (phone, email, talk, vote, advocate, etc).”

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Editor’s note:  Across social media, when citizens share stories of hardship without public transit in Saskatchewan, commenters say ‘get over it’, or ‘quit flogging a dead horse’.  As long as stories like this continue to emerge, they will find a place for publication on this stories blog.  

 

Templates for letters to Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission – October 2018

SK Human Rights Commission letter template FALL 2018

TRANSPORTATION FOR ALL HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINT – ally

Without STC, Saskatchewan people are forced to hitchhike.

On my way to La Ronge last weekend, I picked up a nice young hitchhiker just outside of P.A. and took him to La Ronge. On the way back, I drove a hitchhiker from La Ronge to P.A. and picked another up outside P.A. and drove him to Saskatoon. All of these hitchhikers indicated that they would have taken the bus if they were able.

Comment to the Save STC Facebook page from July 3, 2018 posted here with permission.

STC closure creates economic hardship for rural business owners.

I work at an environmental company halfway between Saskatoon and Regina. As you can imagine, being in a small town, every time we need a specific part (bearing/bolt/hydraulic hose or even printer paper or ink) not carried by our local farm supply, we need to run into the city for it. If we order parts or supplies from the city businesses, I have to pick it up on Monday mornings during our scheduled parts run. So many times, I hear “we’re sold out right now” (or “the delivery truck didn’t arrive yet”) but “we can have one here for you tomorrow morning” which is a real frustration because Tuesday morning means we’re waiting a full WEEK, or making a 3-4 hour round trip to the city and back, costing paid employee hours and fuel. The alternative is we simply wait, keeping our equipment idle and jobs incomplete. It’s inconvenient both ways.

Before the STC shut down we could ask most businesses to “send it on the bus” and it would arrive by 9:30 the next morning, generally for about $20, and we’d pick it up at the local gas station. This was an efficient, convenient way to get parts from out of town. We realize that there are some courier services, but the amount of co-ordination and cost is more. (Who is coming into town? When? What’s the cost? Are they cleared to pick up parcels on our behalf? Who signs for it? What if it doesn’t show up? Why aren’t they answering the phone right now?) To busy small businesses with limited, overworked staff, this is a real headache.

Not only that, travel is impacted in all small towns. Many seniors or people without a vehicle or licence are basically marooned in their communities. My mother in law complained to me last week that her sister never visits from Nipawin anymore, because she can’t get to Saskatoon or back. (If there is an alternative she’s not aware of it.) They’re both in their late 70s and neither drives anymore. This is creating isolation and a breakdown of emotional and psychological connection, which in turn has shows to lead to increased heath issues, particularly with lonely seniors. Imagine being separated from your family for months on end because there is no way of getting to them. Even third-world countries had public transportation to help people move about and connect.

For us in middle age, even going to the airport from a small town is an issue. You are now forced to park your car for $100/week if you go away, as opposed to taking the bus to the city. Or you need to depend on someone driving and dropping your off, again a minimum four- hour chunk our of anyone’s day, plus fuel. Each way. It’s the same if you need to travel for work or a family event and you simply don’t have a second family vehicle or a licence.

I know there are dozens of other examples where it is even more imperative that people have the ability to get out of town without resorting to dangerous practices like hitchhiking. The plight of abused women and children who wish to escape hostile home lives or communities comes to mind. What do they do if they cannot leave to save their lives? Who is responsible if they are forced to stay put? Or engage in equally risky behaviour to get out? It would be a no-win situation for them.

In a nutshell, the STC didn’t make money, understood. But some things are services that don’t need to turn a cash profit. Like roads, libraries and helplines, they simply add to the quality of life for people in our communities. This is particularly important in a huge, rural space like Saskatchewan where distances are great and isolation is all too easy. To remove transportation from that equation is like taking away clean drinking water. It would be unthinkable in most of the western world to be told you can no longer move from one community to another without owning and maintaining a private vehicle. Just saying it out load sounds ridiculous, like some fictional upper-class society rule that keeps the disadvantaged and elderly in place.

I hope this statement helps with your challenge to prove that public transportation in a large and spread out province like Saskatchewan is not a luxury, but a lifeline.

 

Submitted by Michele Kiss on June 13, 2018

Missing the grandkids without STC

I have missed one opportunity to visit my grandchildren in Regina, a 5 hour drive, that is nice to take the bus because of the long drive. If I have to drive 2.5 hours to catch a bus in Saskatoon, I might as well drive the whole distance. This is the wrong direction for the province to take, taking away our transportation rural service, and increasing green house gases.

Submitted by Marcella Pedersen, July 2017

A Lament For STC

I come from a sun-burnt country. Its highways are flat and sometimes you can drive for a long time, the horizon far ahead of you and the road a long straight line between you and the setting sun. And so one fall day, here in the Saskatchewan north, I was unprepared for the heavy slush that thickly coated the winding and bumpy highway. My car spun out, twisting round and round, the tires giving out from under me, my fate resting silently on the blessed relief of an empty highway. I was alive but a part of me became broken that day. Whenever I tried to get back behind the wheel of a car and drive on a highway, my heart would race, my palms would feel slippery and untethered on the steering wheel. I would feel faint and it would take every ounce of energy I had to stop myself from breaking down right there with my vehicle going 100 kilometres an hour.

This was inconvenient since I lived in the North, that frozen forgotten place far from the Saskatchewan prairies. But it was not a tragedy because there was STC. I was living in an isolated place but I was not isolated. If I needed to go down South, I could line up on a crisp clear winter morning when the pink sky seemed to touch us all and I could get a bus. The driver would load our luggage up and we’d slowly filter into the bus settling ourselves into its comfortable seats, hooking up our phones, our tablets to the onboard WiFi. Then off we’d go. I would sit back and watch Saskatchewan pass me by; the forests, the prairies, the city traffic. It was a great way to travel and it would feel good to know I was connected from this place to that place.

When the SaskParty dismantled STC, they cut the heart out of Saskatchewan. The people I traveled with – the students, the elderly, the poor, the sick, the migrants – they have all been abandoned, we have all been abandoned. We scramble now, putting up desperate posts on Facebook looking for rides, humbly asking our friends, our family to take time off work to transport us where we need to go. Sometimes we just don’t go anywhere at all. This province, this large expansive province with its big lakes and blue skies, its long highways and fields of grass, this province now lies shrinking, its bleeding heart slowly fading. And yet, still, they do not know. Or perhaps they do but they do not care. This then is the tragedy.

Submitted on May 5, 2018 by Jacqui Lim

STC closure has created a significant sense of loss across Saskatchewan.

** The photo was taken in downtown Watson, Saskatchewan.  Watson was a major transfer point for freight and passengers with three busses twice a day. **  

Recently Saskatchewan people were asked to share what the loss of STC means to the people of our province.  Here are just a few responses.

“Losing STC is for me a big loss because I can not see my friends and family that used to visit me on a regular basis ……..they came on the bus and went home on the bus……… we would see each other 3 or 4 times a year for a few days now we talk on the phone but that is not the same I so miss the visits and as we get older this is so important I do not know when or if I will ever be able to see them again.”

“I’m angry about the scrapping of what my parents & grandparents built up over their lifetimes, and used quite often. And also that my aunt (from BC, visiting in Lloydminster) & I couldn’t affordably or feasibly go visit my other aunt in Regina last fall. The aunt in Regina passed away a few months after we would have gone. Also angry at the underhanded way STC was dismantled, instead of trying to make it work better. We could have used it to reduce our carbon footprint, as well.”

“Losing the STC is the biggest loss for me. It feels like I’ve lost my independence. Now I just feel like I’m a prisoner trapped in my own city. I now have to rely on friends, family or my husband to go see my other family. I got married last summer and so I had to meet my mom in Davidson to go the rest of the way to Saskatoon then to come back to Regina. I met my (fiancé at the time) in Davidson. I don’t drive so that’s why I used STC. I have developed a few great relationships with some of the drivers. These drivers became like family to me.”

“I was the last operator (bus driver) to have the route between Regina and Moose Jaw every weekday morning for Sask. Poly (SIAST).  I know fully what that service meant to the many students of all ages who commute with me everyday to get to school while only paying 300 per month for their passes. When they heard about the closure they were all disappointed and worried about what their future would hold in order to afford to continue their education. I hope they found another means of transportation and were able to complete their educations.”

“Losing STC for me meant to lose the possibility of teaching in La Ronge, but for many, many of my former students means “to have to pray” that someone is going to PA or Saskatoon and the difficulties to go back on time. No way of visiting the hospitals where they (have) relatives, etc. Working together meant to recover the sense of community in the city and the sense of possibility, connection, autonomy, and faith in the province.”

“For me, the STC was a safe, comfortable trip to Saskatoon to visit family and do some shopping.  We also thought we could rely on it to get to medical appointments in the city, if needed.  This has been a long winter with poor road conditions and it has been hard for those who are not confident drivers or don’t drive at all.”

“STC was how I got to my clients anywhere and everywhere in Saskatchewan. I am a pet/home sitter.”

“STC connected Saskatchewan and now those connections are broken. My Mom is a senior who lives in rural Sask. and she used STC to travel back and forth to the city.  It was an affordable, safe and comfortable way for her to travel. Many seniors do not drive on the highway and now they are stuck.”

“So many wonderful trips across the prairie enjoying honest and true conversations with strangers. I had a longtime dream to do a mobile artist residency on STC. A potential artist residency is a small thing to lose, but it’s still so sad.”

“For me, the loss of STC has meant isolation from my grown children and grandchildren and this is after having moved 2000 miles to get here to be closer to them. It has meant increased worry about one son who has severe problems and who we now can no longer get to us quickly when he needs us; real worry for his life in sub-zero temperatures when he is on the streets. Before we lost the STC, we had used it to get him back and forth several times when he would be willing. It has also meant increased dependence on others to get to the city for mandated annual cancer screening. Following the SAVE STC group, on the other hand, has allowed me to know that I am not alone, that there is a place that my voice, joined with others, can be heard, that I have agency and that there may be hope that we can make a difference.”

“As an immigrant to Canada, I was raised with a fierce sense of pride in Saskatchewan: my beloved province, home of medicare, land of loving, caring people who know the true meaning of neighbourliness and co-operation. I have been this province’s greatest advocate for sixty years. It is terribly sad that as a result of the (government’s) ideology,  I have lost that pride.”

“I just don’t understand how a group of people can think destroying a mass transit system is good for any society. Around the world countries, provinces, states territories have a mass transit system. In Saskatchewan we have chosen cars and trucks over mass transit. Europe is so advanced in their rail system. Canada in land mass is huge comparing to our European friends and family. We have a limited expensive rail system and in Sask. we have no bus to travel our province. I have partial sight due to macular degeneration. I don’t or will not drive, I cannot leave Saskatoon unless someone will drive. I feel like Sask. society is again saying “WELL IT DOESN’T AFFECT ME, SO WHY WOULD I CARE”.”

“Losing the STC has been brutal for me too. I used this bus through my whole life and we retired back in small town Sk. thinking I could take the bus into the city any time. I have my driver’s license, but would not want to drive in the city.”

“Now that my sight is only partial, I cannot leave Saskatoon, unless someone drives , as I currently will not drive. I will not be contributing to tourism dollars in Sask. I will fly to another province or country, for vacations. I cannot go on my own to visit family or friends in another community , because (the government) decided to cancel our mass transit system.”

Shared here with permission.