Cape Breton accessible bus service overwhelmed by calls for medical appointments

Cape Breton Regional Municipality's accessible transit service is getting overwhelmed by people needing to get to medical appointments.

During budget talks this week, public works manager John Phalen said CBRM Handi-Trans the majority of those 900 clients used to be handled by the provincial ambulance system.

"Sixty per cent of those calls are people who are using it for medical appointments," he told council. "We're getting extra work from EHS [Emergency Health Services] to have to do that."

In an interview, Deputy Mayor Eldon MacDonald said the Handi-Trans system was designed to support 200 clients, not the 900 who are currently calling.

"We have serious pressure," MacDonald said. "That's a lot of people that are being transported back and forth and it's a medical transportation, and Handi-Trans isn't a medical transportation."

According to its website, CBRM Handi-Trans says it is designed for those who can't use regular transit and can take people to medical appointments, but it's also supposed to be available for social and recreational trips.

MacDonald said people needing an accessible bus and looking for non-medical trips are getting turned away.

"We're actually in a situation where we have people that are calling up and they're not even able to be put on a waiting list because the list is constantly full," he said.

"It's making it very difficult for our staff to service the wider community as we have in the past, because those numbers are so high."

The deputy mayor is calling for buses to be added to the fleet.

"The service that we're providing now ... is the best service that we can provide in the circumstances and the amount of buses that we have, so we have to add to the fleet," MacDonald said.

"That has to happen and it's going to cost money to do that."

The public works manager said that would help.

"We have some operators now that we can use, but we need the buses," Phalen said.

Public works director Wayne MacDonald told council this year's capital budget, which was approved this week, includes a request for six accessible minibuses that can be used for Handi-Trans or on regular transit routes where smaller buses are needed.

He said CBRM staff are in talks with the province and EHS for funding to get those buses and alleviate the pressure on the Handi-Trans system.