Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns said the federal government needs to be ready to support the province to establish service.
"Wilson's has made it clear for a long time that they can't afford to run these routes and lose more money. They bled a lot through COVID and they just simply aren't going to recover in the shortterm and they can't afford to subsidize it," Johns said. "The province can't continue to shoulder all of this. They need a federal partner. The federal government, jurisdictionally, is downloading again and it's unacceptable. They need to take leadership here."
Johns is calling on the federal government to better support private bus companies.
"They need direct funding that's carved out and allocated for the private sector so they can operate these routes that are in jeopardy and under threat," he said. "They're playing a critical and pivotal role in connecting communities, in fact the government is kind of relying on the private sector without supporting them ... They're offering hundreds of thousands of kilometres in non-subsidized routes and really are the only mode of transportation in rural communities."