All roads lead to Prince George!

Northern Health began its Northern Connections service today, and also began the selling of the program to anxious Northwesterners. For those concerned that this may be designed to turn Prince George into a regional health care centre, the selling of the service is shall we say a tad ominous.

Using Prince George as a hub for the transportation, the early going of the program seems pretty dedicated to servicing the Prince George market, with many of the routes terminating there as though a giant funnel of health care is directing the populace into the Northern Interior city. Though Northern Health does try to pacify worry warts in Prince Rupert, by describing the convenient schedule to the Terrace area for those in Rupert!

We’re not sure that will turn the tide for those in Rupert that are less than swayed by the introduction of the service. Since in the end, it seems that mostly its people leaving Rupert for health care, rather than health care coming to the people.

The Daily has all the spit and polish on Northern Health's view of progress, in a front page story from Monday’s paper.


NH explains new bus schedule
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Monday, July 17, 2006
Page One

Northern Health says short-distance bus routes that allows Prince Rupert residents to access medical services in Terrace are not as much of a priority because Rupertites will be able to access the long-distance buses earlier this summer.

“We’re implementing 15 routes over the span of about three months or so and what we’ve tried to do is implement the routes closest to Prince George where our (bus) contractor is,” said Sean Hardiman, regional director for the Northern Health Connections Program.

“It’s also where we have a large number of our routes terminating and so we wanted to look after Prince George in that sense ... and then to roll it out to other communities as we proceeded.”

Northern Health will begin phasing in the low-cost transportation program – Northern Connections – starting with the Prince George and Quesnel to Vancouver routes beginning the week of July 16.

Hardiman says the long distance, Prince Rupert to Prince George routes will be starting the week of July 24 and this long distance route will allow Rupertites to get to Terrace Thursdays in the morning before the bus continues on to Prince George.

Clients using this service will then be able to catch the bus returning from Prince George to Terrace and on to Prince Rupert later the same afternoon.

“The way that the long haul routes are structured, Prince Rupert is going to benefit from day trips to Terrace within the next week,” said Mark Karjaluoto, director of communications for Northern Health.

“So while it appears that the one-day dedicated, same-day service is going to be later in the implementation process, we’re actually going to be able to offer same-day service.”

The long distance buses will leave Prince Rupert Tuesdays and Thursdays, heading for Prince George and all stops in between and returning Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

As of Oct. 2, Prince Rupert residents will also be able to access the dedicated short-distance bus to Terrace on Mondays.

The government of B. C. has provided $6 million a year to health regions in new funding to improve access to specialized health services for rural residents.

Of that funding, the B. C. government has provided $4 million a year to Northern Health that NH will use to fund its Northern Connections bus program exclusively.

According to Hardiman, the NH buses are not rented, they have an operating contract with Diversified Transportation, which has taken on the costs associated with those vehicles.

NH doesn’t own them.

Hardiman says that the $4 million is covering the retrofitting of the buses to allow for wheelchair access and to cover the cost of gas for the volume of service they will be providing.

“The long distance buses will be running over 700,000 kilometres per year and that of course is going to cost a little bit of money to do that,” said Hardiman.

“If you look at the budget for the program, the actual value for the contract for the long-distance run is approximately $1.8 million and the value of the short distance runs – of which there are 11 different routes spread out throughout the North – you’re looking at approximately $800,000 a year.”

Although the majority of the buses will be based out of Prince George, NH is confident that the service between smaller northern communities won’t be substandard.

Hardiman says that Diversified Transportation will be able to care for the buses from a variety of points in northern B. C.