The wheels came off the bus Monday evening as city council voted to put off its controversial new transit master plan.

Last week, Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu introduced a notice of motion to delay the implementation.

She said she had contacted City of Edmonton officials, who had introduced a similar overhaul last autumn – only to have to revise it more than 40 times currently.

The Whitehorse plan would have revamped the schedules and routes for every bus in the system. It has been roundly panned by the public, particularly on social media.

According to a statement by the city, “At (Monday) night’s regular council meeting, members of council voted in favour of delaying the implementation of the modernized transit route plan.”

The statement added, “The implementation of the new schedule was set to take effect on July 1, but will be postponed to allow city staff to review and analyze the input received from the public, and recommend potential improvements to better serve transit ridership.”

The new system was introduced after more than two years of work by city staff and Stantec Consulting, the engineers of the new schedule and routing.

Leslie Cabott, the sister of Mayor Laura Cabott and a former city planner, is the head of the local Stantec office.

Lalena Guiniveve, a communi-cations spokesperson for the city, said the “mayor and council aren’t involved in the procurement process,” in response to questions from the Star on the Stantec issue.

“Our Procurement Policy (section 3.1 ‘Roles and Responsibilities of Council’) outlines this, and hopefully answers questions you have.”

She did not have an answer as to whether the mayor had sought advice on what could potentially be an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Mayor Cabott spoke to the Star this morning about the transit issue, firmly dismissing the notion she was in any kind of an appearance of a conflict of interest position.

She said the city’s policy, as Guiniveve also said, keeps members of council away from anything to do with procurement contracts.

That means she wasn’t involved in the decision to hire Stantec.

Cabott said she hadn’t considered the possibility she could be in a conflict of interest over the matter due to that arm’s-length policy, although she would have had an opportunity to vote on the awarding of the contact while she was still a councillor.

Leslie Cabott was unavailable to comment.

The mayor mentioned a number of times that the changes to the transit system had been in the works for about four years.

They were to have been implemented about a year ago, but were quietly put on the back burner with no explanation.

When the Star asked Cabott what the city has learned from this experience, she was somewhat non-committal.

In particular, she wouldn’t commit to having public consultation on any new routes and scheduling the city might come up with before they’re implemented.

That was the basis of the wave of public criticism that washed over the city. Many people said they should have had a chance to comment on the details of the new system, which was first announced several weeks ago.

Cabott pointed out the city did try to solicit public input over the past two years as to whether the system needed upgrading in general, with some limited success.

However, there was no opportunity given to riders on the new schedules and routes that were to be introduced this Friday.

“We’re always looking for public input, and we appreciate people commenting. We know we’re not going to make everyone happy, but I think a lot of people were happy with the new system,” the mayor said.

“Still, we’re going to go back and look at things again.”

Transit officials, such as manager Jason Bradshaw, argued the new system would be more efficient and make better use of the city’s existing fleet of nine buses.

However, he also acknowledged the net effect for riders was longer timelines on each bus route.

That was to be compensated for by creating two new transfer hubs at the Canada Games Centre and Yukon University, and running the routes more often, instead of on hourly schedules as are currently offered during non-peak periods.

The new system was to have improved interconnectivity amongst all the neighbourhoods served in the community, rather than aimed at moving people back and forth from the downtown core, as is emphasized under the current regime.

Bradshaw has said numerous times the current system is outmoded and doesn’t serve the city effectively. It has been in place for more than 10 years.

“Our aim is to increase ridership and provide a reliable bus service that is cost-neutral,” said Cabott.

“One that efficiently connects residents to their places of work, play and daily errands.

“We want to make it easier to choose transit to travel throughout the city. Council heard from residents and business owners, and recognize there is more work to do on our modernized transit route plan to achieve that goal.”

The improvement recommen-dations, and estimated cost for implementation, will be presented to council for consideration in December. Cabott said it’s unlikely any changes will be made before next summer, as the city doesn’t want to disrupt the school year.

Infrastructure changes, including new bus shelters, also can’t be made during the winter months, she added.

She told council Monday that a new set of route and schedule changes would likely increase the city’s implementation costs.

Deputy mayor Ted Laking noted the vote was unanimously in favour of the changes’ deferral.

Residents were quick to respond on social media.

Ivan Ivonovich wrote on the city’s Facebook page, “I hope people who ride the bus frequently and depend on it actually take some time between now and December (if they are able to, and can make time) to provide the city with some respectful and productive feedback and participate as users to help the folks trying to schedule transit service to a place as spread out as Whitehorse is now, with new development and subdivisions and a HUGE square kilometre range compared to population density and ridership (when compared to denser more urban cities) AND stay within transit budgets, especially with fuel costs where they are at these days.

“It’s only when transit users take time to tell the powers that be how to improve the service that it will actually be better, and not just result in big empty buses driving through Crestview in slow times and wasting resources, fuel, and contributing to environmental degradation,” Ivonovich added. “It takes a village to adequately service the village.”

Susanna Wolfe said, “What a tremendous relief. Thank you thank you thank you!! It’s expansion we need, not cutbacks and rerouted.

“Keeping in mind too that come December there must be adequate time, and a schedule to actually review, before implementation and necessary more so than now as that’s our one other season, ‘deadly cold’ season,” Wolfe added.

“People are familiar with (mostly) taking just one bus A to B not standing outside for 30 + minutes on transfer in the elements, not unless you’re from Whistle Bend with three buses to hospital appointments and 45 minutes outdoors waiting as we must do.

“Also asking: expand services PLEASE don’t roll them back is my last word and because in all likelihood your fb page will be the only means for my voice to be heard,” Wolfe said.

“Please take that into consideration too as not everyone is able and/or equipped to attend your public meetings.”

Lynn Alfino chipped in as well.

“The time to ask for public input (town meetings, zoom mtgs, mailed questionnaires, etc.) is BEFORE decision-making and implementation, not after, which has been nothing more than trying to appear like the public is being consulted when it just didn’t matter anymore ... the usual method utilized by CoW.

“This year alone, the city has had to backtrack on several projects because it plowed ahead on projects people didn’t want ... the ‘new city hall’ fiasco, and now transit changes that don’t take the actual users into consideration.

“Each of our subdivisions is unique,” Alfino pointed out.

“Despite a month of riding free, and only three weeks’ notice of the changes that would impact many of us, without consultation, it seems transit has lost the trust of many, and it will take a while to gain it back and prove they are serious about working for and with the public who funds their work.

“And stop comparing our town of 25k to Edmonton with 1.5mn! Our geography is different, as are our needs.”