City bus service to the Orillia Square mall has been given a new lease on life — for now.
Staff had recommended changing the route and eliminating the stops at the Severn Township mall, effective Nov. 1, but council members decided on something different Monday.
They voted to receive the report as information and direct staff to report back on the future of the service in October 2023.
The staff recommendation came after Severn and Canadian Tire, the mall owner, declined to provide financial support. The township had kicked in $15,000 in 2019 and 2020.
“The service out to the mall is not benefiting Severn. It is benefiting some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Coun. Pat Hehn said of her reason to support maintaining the stops at the mall.
She said it “doesn’t make sense” to abandon it simply because the mall and the township aren’t contributing financially.
“I know it’s going outside our boundaries, but we need to help the people who need it most,” she said.
Coun. Mason Ainsworth also spoke in favour of the status quo. While bus riders going to the mall are supporting businesses in Severn by shopping there, “the reality is it’s our people who are going out there,” he said of Orillia residents.
“Why would you get rid of one of your busiest stops in the entire city? It doesn’t make logical sense.”
Coun. Tim Lauer cited safety concerns in his decision to support maintaining the stops.
“I’m in no mood to discontinue that service as long as the bridge is in the state that it is,” he said of the West Street bridge that crosses Highway 11.
“There’s just no way I’m going to cut this off and allow people to try and make their way across that bridge, especially in winter.”
Coun. Ted Emond was ready to axe the service to the mall. He noted there is a grocery store in west Orillia that provides affordable products like No Frills, located at the mall, does.
He questioned why Orillia taxpayers should continue to support transit to the mall “if the township doesn’t value this service and the mall and its tenants don’t value this service.”
“The biggest and greatest disappointment I have is that this is an opportunity … for a surrounding township to go into a partnership with the city” and show they can work together for the good of all residents, he added.
“I find it a very selfish and narrow approach.”
Emond said it serves as an example as to why the city should expand its boundaries through annexation.
That didn’t sit well with Ainsworth, who referred to it as a “bullying attitude.”
“That is extremely concerning to me,” he said.
He said he also saw where Severn was coming from.
“If I was on Severn Township council, there is no way I would support giving the City of Orillia money for the transit service,” he said, because the vast majority of those who ride to the mall are Orillia residents.
Some Severn residents do take the bus into Orillia, Mayor Steve Clarke said, adding there is “significant benefit to the businesses out there that are Severn businesses and that Orillians are supporting.”
“I’m just sensing that the mall isn’t being the partner they should be,” he said.
“I would like to know where those businesses would be if they didn’t have 45,000 customers coming from Orillia on an annual basis.”
When staff report back in 2023, it will up to the council of the day to decide what to do with the route.
