Council puts in motion plan to offer Free Transit on Election Day in Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert Transit buses at the Ocean Centre
City Council hopes to be able to offer
Free Transit to the Civic Centre polling station
on November 15th

There could be one less reason not to go to the polls on November 15th, as City Council gave consideration to a motion from Councillor Ashley to provide for free transit on election day for those looking to go to the Civic Centre to vote.

The topic came up as part of the comments from Councillors segment of Monday night's Council session, with Councillor Ashley recounting how she had read somewhere, that both Kitimat and Terrace have engaged in initiatives with their transit system to help make accessing the polling stations easier.

Perhaps Councillor Ashley was scrolling through this item from the North Coast Review of October 31st,  at that time we outlined those two projects, providing some background on how municipal government in both Kitimat and Terrace are seeking to engage the voters on election day.

Councillor Ashley clearly believes that the both of those projects are worthwhile in boosting the vote totals, an issue she has made comment on over the last few weeks at Council as we began to get closer to the November 15th vote.

Council voted in favour of her motion, but did send the topic over to staff to review as to cost. As well Councillor Garon offered up some concerns that there may be issues related to BC Transit that could impact on any plan to deliver free transit on election day.

Staff will get back to Council to let them know if the project is workable for this year.

We imagine, that should staff give Council the go ahead for their plan, that they will make use of their range of social media sites such as their website and twitter feed to advise the public as to the service if it can be provided.

She introduces the topic at the 49 minute mark, with Council reviewing the prospect for about two minutes or so. You can listen in to the initiative through the City's Video Archive.

A full review of the November 3rd Council session can be found on our Timeline feature.

For more items related to developments at City Council see our Discussion archive page.

For more background on the election campaign for 2014 see our Election archive page here.