Questions 1 - 3: Do not…

Questions 1 - 3: Do not apply

4.How much of your business is currently attributed to non-urgent medical transfer (patients, supplies, etc.)?

A significant portion of our business is non emergency medical transfers of clients either from their homes to appointments or from long term care facilities for appointments. This is a significant challenge as we are a rural transportation provider (TROUT) and many appointments are 1-3 hours of travel time in one direction. The cost to hire a private driver and charter a bus for an afternoon can vary from $150 - $500 to attend a single appointment. This is prohibitive to individuals particularly those on fixed income to receiving adequate health care however, there are costs associated with operating the van or bus. Often these clients need wheelchair accessible service.

Of our client database of 1540 active clients, 22% use ambulatory aids. We also receive private calls from individuals who are not clients. Of our charter service revenues, approximately 30% of calls are related to these types of transfers. None are LHIN funded.

5.Could municipalities and social and health organizations better partner with transportation providers to serve the public? If so, how?

We enjoy a formal public/private partnership with a transportation provider. The cost to maintain buses was prohibitive for our charitable, not-for-profit organization. The local school bus provider agreed to contract a partnership for service of both public transit and charters. The operator provides the buses, maintenance and drivers, while we administrate the service and look after client calls and bookings.

We have appreciated some municipal support though in recent years funding has decreased resulting in a reduction in service. Our organization has continued to subsidize the service $50,000 per year and is no longer in a position to do so. We are struggling to maintain service of both public transportation and charter services.

The public/private partnership is highly functional; the lack of funding support is disabling the service.

6.Are there any innovative services or policies currently in operation in Ontario or in other jurisdictions that you think provide a good model for how transportation networks can develop in the future?

We are exploring social enterprise models linked to tourism in an attempt to generate revenues which are then in time put back into public transportation and hopefully will help subsidize non emergency medical transfers. However, this necessitates an infusion of funds to grow a new tourism based social enterprise which takes funds away from programs and services until the social enterprise is self sustaining.

7.Is there any other feedback you would like to provide on the issues and/or proposal outlined in this discussion paper?

It would be helpful for a review of gas tax legislation in that, if municipalities are struggling financially and not able to contribute or, if philosophically municipalities are not in agreement with a social service model of transportation, providers and clients are left with reduced service. Given an aging demographic, the situation is only likely to become more challenging. Perhaps federal support could be considered, or another model of accessing funds. Rural communities are struggling to look after the health and wellbeing of their older adults and geographic distances to appointments are prohibitive to cost effective transportation measures particularly where disabilities or ambulatory issues are present.

[Original Comment ID: 194191]