Project Initiation Meeting

Financial Feasibility Assessment of Cost-Shared Transportation Model(s)

Rural Ontario Institute

Financial Feasibility Assessment of Cost-Shared Transportation Model(s)

PROJECT INITIATION MEETING MINUTES

Leeds and Grenville

DATE:March 17, 2014

TIME:2:00pm – 3:30pm

LOCATION:105 Strowger Blvd, Brockville, GuelphON

PRESENT:Susan Watts, Employment and Education Centre (Assistant Director)

Marg Fancy, Every Kid

Tom Turner, Developmental Services

Norm Ragetlie, ROI

Dennis Kar, Dillon Consulting (by telephone)

DISTRIBUTION:All Present

Rob Black, ROI

Scott Currie, ROI

Scott Butler, OGRA

Lisa Tolentino, Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition & HC Link

Brad Smith, Ride Norfolk

Lorna McCue, Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition

Richard Puccini, Dillon Consulting

Morgan Boyco, Dillon Consulting

Stephanie Simard, Dillon Consulting

Item / Action
Introductions
-Norm introduced the purpose of the study and the challenges of rural transportation (1 page project description provided).
EveryKid
-Tom Turner – Is part of Development Services with Leeds and Grenville and on the transportation committee
-Marg – Is the lead coordinator for Everykid.
-Everykid is a coalition of 40 agencies and organizations for children youth and their families
-It is 10 years old
-The initiative is funded primarily through the Ministry of Children and Youth services
-Six years ago, they were approached by the Counties to look at rural transportation for children and their families in Leeds and Grenville.
-Seconded a staff person to work with United Counties to develop a survey around transportation needs about transportation services.
-Sue Watts became transportation committee chair and obtained a trillium grant to expand the role of transportation for all citizens with the counties.
-The coalition included various children agencies, school boards, NGO’s, the YMCA, the UnitedCounties of Leeds/Grenville, number of ministries.
-Have had a lot of contact of the Champlain LHIN, but only minor conversations with the SE LHIN.
-For a listing of all transportation providers, go to Everykid.ca .
-Sue is the best person to provide Dillon with transportation contacts.
Pilot Project
-There was a pilot project implemented based on the model that worked in Lanark. They focused on servicing ODSP and Ontario Works clients. Wanted to see if that model could be duplicated in L/G.
-Partnered with Lanark Transportation Association.
-Worked with them to provide transportation using Lanark Transportation services in the L/G area.
-There are a number of service providers in the counties, but many have very restrictive mandates leaving large gaps.
-Ontario Works clients and anyone requiring a medical trip are very well served. Anyone else was falling through the cracks.
-The pilot program focused on these people. For example, people with a suspended driver’s licence, youth accessing meth recovery clinics in Kingston.
-To offset the cost, they had to work closely with organizations that could pay and fill the remaining seats.
-Tried to fill the remaining seats for other recreational services in the Brockville area.
-To make it work, needed to have someone on the end of the phone that new about all the transportation services and that knew how to massage the eligibility to get people what they need. This person was labeled a problem solver.
-The pilot was cancelled due to funding. Tried to keep the pilot project going with a 1-800 number (to refer people to transportation services), but it wasn’t significantly used. Dropped off significantly after the end of the pilot. Could be poor marketing?
-During the pilot, used volunteer drivers (second six months) and Lanark Transportation drivers (first six months)
-True cost of serviced was $0.75 per km. The system charged $0.43 per kilometre. Trillium paid the rest. Once the Trillium funds ended, it was hard to keep it going.
-The way it was structured, some volunteer drivers were making more money than a full-time person would make.
-Volunteers are scarce. All organizations fight for the same volunteer drivers.
-During the pilot, Sue met with the SE LHIN. Had conversations about being included in the transportation committee.
-The SE LHIN already funds CMHA in Brockville, Community Primary Health Care (CPHC), EMS in Leeds/Grenville and also focus on adult mental health. Did not want to extend funding to other areas.
-Tried to have get agencies on board that don’t have a transportation budget but have staff that go out to rural areas to pick people up. The thought was that this time and expense could be translated into a transportation budget. Did not get far with this.
-Went to Joint Services and gave a presentation (all the mayors that get together). There is an awareness and an interest in rural transportation.
-All 13 municipalities are different with different population service priorities.
-If a transportation pilot were to be proposed again, sustainability would be a key question mark (can the program survive?).
Major Challenges and Opportunities
-Many people struggle with rural transportation as an issue.
-Transportation is on everyone’s radar in terms of funding.
-Big challenge is to make transportation accessible for people that are low income or no income.
-Cost of transportation and sustainability is a challenge.
-Can’t be everywhere for everyone is a challenge.
-Big problem is knowing where to go.
-50% of the population could be served with existing services by massaging mandates/eligibility. The other 50% could not be served even with a massaged mandates/eligibility.
-The pilot started with the hardest to serve areas instead of the easy to service areas. Learned a lot through this process. Wonder if we should have served the easy areas (such as 401 corridor)
-The population of Leeds/Grenville is 107,000 . Approx. 23,000 live in Brockville. The rest live in more rural areas. Approx. 9,000 travel into Brockville every day.
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-Some of the retirement facilities have their own services for residents.
-Brockville paratransit service contacted us to see if we could provide their service.
-Worked with taxi companies for the pilot and negotiated some good rates.
-There are a number of un-utilized or underutilized vehicles that could be used.
-The YMCA is looking to investigate transportation for youth. Has the only pool in a large catchment area. Frustration is access to children and youth for transportation.
-Previously worked in Gananoque to provide a service for businesses. Very seasonal. Talked to businesses that are willing to pay for transportation to get employees there. Some employers are willing to contribute to that type of transportation solution.
-There is a casino bus to Gananoque (free to use).
-Challenge is coordination of other vehicles.
-Created a software solution in-house that they could use for scheduling, but it was a challenge.
-When using Larark Transportation service, had more shared rides. When using the volunteer system, it was primarily single occupant trips.
-Worked with some shared ride trips (i.e. shopping trips, etc.). If one or more people could not make it, the cost was too much.
-There is interest to provide transportation service from people in the medical profession (e.g. Dentists in Brockville worked to schedule appointments with bus schedules).
-Moving forward, need to understand the needs of the low hanging fruit.
Lanark
-Need to decide whether to have Lanark in the study region.
-People go to SmithFalls and Perth to access services, working and schools – SmithFalls hospital.
-Decided that we would include Lanark Transportation in the survey, but not include the County as part of the study area. / Dennis to review Everykid website and Pilot program
Norm to identify whether to include LanarkCounty as part of the study area.
Data Requirements and Sources/Contacts
-Dennis indicated the need to send out the surveys.
-Sue was going to provide a list of contacts with email addresses and send them an email to let them know the survey was coming. / Sue to provide a list of organizations that provide transportation or refer people to transportation services.

Errors and/or Omissions: Contact Dennis Kar

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