Brantford and Brant County are teaming up to forge a regional transportation plan.
Brant Mayor David Bailey told county councilors recently that he met with Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis to discuss several topics, including a green bin program and automated speed enforcement.
“We decided, like the Mayors’ Task Force on Homelessness and Addiction, that we’re going to sit with county and city staff and try to get the transportation piece figured out right away,” said Bailey, adding that he hopes a plan will be ready for consideration by both councils early in the new year.
He said bus service is desired to link communities in Brant to Brantford and also to Woodstock in Oxford County and Cambridge in Waterloo Region.
Bailey acknowledged that it is too early to say if city buses or privately owned bus companies would be involved in such a plan.
“We are going to do something right away because we both feel we’ve been talking about this for too long,” Bailey noted.
Davis said in an interview that he and Bailey want to build on the momentum gained through city-county negotiations in respect to housing and social services.
“My message to senior city staff and the message he’s giving to senior staff at the County of Brant is to do exactly that,” Davis said. “A couple of areas should be focused on to begin with, one of them being transportation and, in particular, transit.”
Currently, Brant Transit offers a shared ride service within the county and to Brantford. Riders are required to book in advance.
Meantime Ride Norfolk – a project funded by the provincial government — operates daily service on weekdays between Brantford and Simcoe, along with other Norfolk County destinations including Port Dover, Delhi, Tillsonburg and Turkey Point on a less frequent schedule.
Regarding automatic speed enforcement, Davis said municipal staff are required to process pictures, issue fines and deal with anyone who objects and files an appeal.
“The provincial offenses court system just can’t sustain that,” he noted. “We realized at the city we would have to do that here. So, in our budget we have about six employees we are hiring and training. The fines will be used to pay those staff.”
Davis added that there is a “pretty high barrier” to creating that system in terms of developing the software and hiring and training staff.
“I think the hope is, on the part of the county, that they can come into our system,” he said. “The same thing applies to green bin organics.”
All municipalities in Ontario must have green bin programs in place by 2025.
Davis said the program is a large undertaking.
“Not only do you have to buy the green bins and have the system to collect, but you need to have a digester at your landfill site to put the organics in, grind it up, and get it ready for those companies that buy that kind of raw material,” he said.
“The hope is that we can work together on that, as well.”