Grey County is joining an appeal to the province for more funding for public transit.
County council approved supporting the South Central Ontario Region Economic Development Corporation’s motion to request the province continue support Southwest Community Transit, which includes several rural transportation services including Grey County.
The project serves rural and small urban Ontario municipalities and seeks to maintain and improve transit infrastructure.
The county’s regional bus service Grey Transit Route relies on provincial funding, which is set to expire in March.
Grey County CAO Kim Wingrove says: “This is a collective appeal from the 11 counties and member municipalities in southwestern Ontario to see inter-community transportation in rural Ontario continue to be funded after March 31, 2025. We are pleased to note that the province has just released the Ontario Transit Investment program, which will provide 50 per cent funding for five years to successful applicants for transit operations that are integrated and connected across a region. Grey County staff are working on a proposal for council consideration.”
She says the proposal which would eventually to be sent to the province would look at overall transit systems which would meet funding criteria.
“The province in this funding stream, is looking for transit routes that will connect people either across municipal boundaries, but also taking them to connect with further transportation providers, so things like GO transit or Metrolinx, so we will be looking at that. We do have services like that already in existence and so I think our hope is that we will be able to use the funding to be able to continue some of that service into the future,” says Wingrove.