KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Placing the new QEII Community Outpatient Centre in Bayers Lake Industrial Park will create hurdles for many people who can’t afford a car and rely on public transportation. Not to mention the folks who choose not to own a car, and people living with disabilities for whom driving is just not an option.
This applies not just residents of Halifax, but also people in rural Nova Scotia, may of whom rely on shuttles and buses for transportation to the city.
Metro Transit routes into Bayers Lake are notoriously bad. Try getting there by bus if you live in North Dartmouth, Lower Sackville, Spryfield or Cole Harbour.
Late last year Haley Ryan of Metro Halifax wrote about the commute of one such Dartmouth resident to Bayers Lake. It takes him three hours on Metro Transit to go back and forth to his job somewhere in Bayers Lake.
The decision to locate the clinic here shows once again how people on welfare or earning close to minimum wage are invisible to the current batch of politicians and bureaucrats.
But it’s no surprise. After all, these are the same people who decided to move Access Nova Scotia to this distant place.
If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A pay wall is not an option, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on one-time donations and a group of 25 or so dedicated monthly sustainers.
Thank you for the facts. I read a comment below the original article indicating that ‘there are many bus routes going there’. Helps to know specifics to challenge such broad statements.
This is a big problem: first most people who have to go for tests and day treatment are over 55 I think. Also,buses are not frequent to that site, one has to stumble over huge snow banks, and then walk on the roads as sidewalks are not always there.
It’s payback for one of the Liberal developer buddies. I live right on the bus routes that would take me right out to Bayers Lake. So while it’s not impossible to get out there on public transit, it certainly would be inconvenient. On the other hand, people coming from outside the HRM would not have to go all the way to the South End. This is what happens when healthcare is centralized into monster megaclinics for doctors and medical staff, not patients.