Yukon’s minister of Highways and Public Works continues to maintain that the Yukon government is not interested in running a bus service in the territory.
The final Greyhound bus left Whitehorse at the end of May. The company ended multiple northern routes, including the only one that went into the Yukon, citing declining ridership and a loss of millions of dollars.
In B.C., the provincial government is planning new routes to replace some of the ones Greyhound eliminated.
BC Bus North, operated by BC Transit, will begin service on an interim basis June 4, according to an announcement made Tuesday by B.C.’s transportation minister Claire Trevena.
The new pilot service, backed by $2 million in provincial funding, will provide two round-trip routes a week between Prince Rupert and Prince George, Prince George and Valemont, Prince George to Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
Once a week, there will be a round-trip route to Dawson Creek and Fort St. John from Fort Nelson.
Mostyn said he saw Trevena at a conference in Winnipeg where she told him about her plans.
“I told her at the time that we had no interest or capacity to actually be involved in such a thing, in such a plan,” Mostyn said.
“A subsidized bus service in the North, it’s not something that our government is considering. I’ve been fairly clear about that from the very start. The population of the Yukon, the cost associated with running a bus service, it isn’t something that we’re able to consider.
“There are individuals up here running private bus services and if we were to enter our own thing there would be problems there as well.”
With files from Black Press Media
Contact Ashley Joannou at ashleyj@yukon-news.com