Shuttle service five days a week connecting Houston, Telkwa and Smithers is to continue thanks to a $150,000 provincial government grant being provided to the Dze L K’ant Friendship Centre Society.
First announced in March and now finalized, there will be two vehicles operating the service with a fixed schedule Tuesday from Houston and Telkwa for access to pre-natal care in Smithers and a fixed schedule on Thursday so people have access to legal services at the Smithers courthouse.
On Monday, Wednesday and Fridays the shuttle service is on-demand but must be booked.
The service is being financed through the provincial government’s Northern Community Shuttle Program which is worth $2.8 million overall and administered by the Northern Development Initiative Trust.
The Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre Society is one of seven new agencies in the north receiving money this year while 11 existing organizations are getting money to continue to operate shuttle services.
The District of Vanderhoof, for example, is receiving $150,000 and the Gingolx Village Government in the Nass Valley is getting $200,000 while the Village of Granisle is getting $172,051 and the Village of Fraser Lake is getting $150,000.
This new money for Dze L’Kant continues provincial financing that had been offered through a provincial program called Community Transportation Grant Program, which was part of the Province of BC’s Highway 16 Transportation Action Plan.
The friendship centre had originally included a shuttle service six months of the year from Dease Lake for women needing pre-natal services at health care facilities elsewhere in its proposal, but that did not proceed.
Shuttle services throughout northern B.C. are being financed by the provincial government to provide safe and accessible transportation options.
They’re meant to compensate for the cancellation by Greyhound of passenger bus service but also to allow provide transportation to locations where Greyhound did not travel.