Niagara Regional chair Jim Bradley joined us this morning to talk a regional public transit proposal and a discrimination survey.

Niagara Region Public Transit 

Niagara Regional council voted in support of one transit system for all of Niagara. The meeting happened Thursday, Nov. 25. 

The Moving Transit Forward proposal would bring together independently operating local transit systems in Fort Erie, St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls, as well as Niagara Region Transit and NRT OnDemand. 

Bradley says he does not anticipate any job loss as a result of the change. He says the expansion of the service may create positions that need to be filled. 

“Majority of the local municipalities have to approve [the proposal] and that must be a majority of the population of Niagara,” said Bradley. “I’m optimistic that is going to happen, because I could see how much enthusiasm there was among regional council members and those who made presentations to council last night unanimously were in favour of proceeding with a regional transit system.” 

Bradley says the proposal is extremely important for those who require public transit to get around and the businesses believe there is transit needed for people to get from one part of the Niagara region to the other easily. 

He says the proposal would prove better for the environment because more buses would mean less cars on the road and that rural areas would have better access to the public transit system.

Discrimination Survey 

Niagara Region is encouraging its residents to fill out surveys regarding discrimination. Bradley says the region joined a coalition of inclusive municipalities that are under UNESCO.

“We want to see who makes up Niagara and what is the demographic profile of Niagara and do people feel included,” said Bradley. “We’re trying to find out [discriminated people’s] opinions and adjust our policies to suit those people.”

The survey can be found here.