A Lakeshore councillor wants to look into options of extending transit from Manning Road to Patillo Road along County Road 22.
During Tuesday's council meeting, Ryan McNamara put forward a notice of motion to direct administration to enter into discussions with the Town of Tecumseh to determine the feasibility and cost for Tecumseh to continue public transit to Patillo.
The notice of motion was approved by council.
This isn't the first time Lakeshore council has seen this report, as it was deferred by council in mid-December 2023. Council tabled the report until the next iteration of the Essex County Transportation Master Plan was completed,
McNamara says when the report was first deferred he started hearing from the community.
"I had actually spoken with a few residents and some of the business owners in my ward that were a little hopeful that we would have a little bit more thoughtful discussion on it, and seeing if we could make anything work."
He says originally Windsor was included in the talks, but he wanted to change the scope this time around.
"We were looking at a three-way partnership between Windsor, Tecumseh, and Lakeshore, and how does that work, and how does it service, and what are the times and everything? And I think by narrowing down the scope we might have something that's potentially a little more advantageous and doable at this point in time."
He says the Essex County Transportation Master Plan is going to be a long process.
"I didn't want to just potentially wait until we see what comes from that. And that's also a broader discussion because if we're talking about public transit from a County perspective, I don't know if there will ever be a business case maybe in my lifetime for a county-wide transportation network, or public transit network, just because of the sheer size and the complexity in doing that."
McNamara adds that in terms of funding this initiative, if later approved, they could look into grants offered by the provincial or federal governments.
He says at this point there was no concrete timeline for these talks to occur between Lakeshore and Tecumseh, but he's expecting it to take upwards of six months for a report to be presented to council.