The city might be doing public consultation on transit, but the Transit Improvement Committee has been left wondering why the city is using a conciliator from Outside for the initiative.

At Monday night's city council meeting, Diana van Eyk represented the group that was recently formed to focus on improving the city's bus service.

She thanked the city for the large print schedules that had been requested and for the public consultation that's happening. However, she argued the city should have hired a local conciliator to do the consultation, which is set to begin Thursday and end Saturday.

In an interview Monday afternoon, transit manager Dave Muir said the city will meet with stakeholder groups on Thursday and Friday to discuss what the transit issues are.

From 12:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, a public meeting will be held at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel to look at the issues and potential solutions.

Muir is hoping the meetings will help city council decide how it wants to proceed with its bus service over the next three years of its term.

As van Eyk noted, however, some residents may not be able to get to the Saturday meeting. Had the conciliator been local, there would have been more options for other meetings to be held for those who can't make the weekend gathering, she said.

In an interview this morning, transit manager Dave Muir said the city is having Gord McIntosh of Victoria facilitate this week's meetings because he was already scheduled to be in the city early next week to work on the city's strategic plan.

This meant the city didn't have to cover the cost of his flight and it will allow issues from the transit meetings to be easlity incorporated into the strategic plan.

'Continuity couldn't be better,' Muir said.

He noted McIntosh has worked on the city's strategic plans since the early 1990s.

While the transit department won't have to pay for an extra flight, there will be additional hotel and meal costs as well as the regular fees involved because McIntosh is arriving a few days early.

Because the transit meeting is being incorporated into McIntosh's entire trip, Muir isn't sure exactly how much it will cost the transit department, but he's expecting it to cost between $3,000 and $4,000.

The meetings are designed for the city to develop a master plan for conventional bus service.

van Eyk wants to see the handy bus, a door-to-door bus service for passengers with disabilities, be part of the master plan as well.

Muir noted the two bus systems are very different from one another and have unique issues.

The handy bus is a separate system from the conventional buses.

He pointed out the city has already gone through a handy bus review where nine recommendations from that have been implemented. The city is also working with a handy bus user group on issues that come up.

'You just can't mix the two together,' he said of the different systems.

The meetings came out of council's approval to allocate an additional $10,000 to the transit department to look at making improvements this year.

Last July, the city cut bus service to country residential areas, reduced the schedule to every 70 minutes during hours when the service isn't usually busy, combined some routes and boosted fares.

Muir noted that although there were some public meetings about the transit system prior to the cuts, few people came out to the meetings, possibly because they didn't know about them.

After the cuts were made, numerous people complained about the system.

While the $10,000 is 'peanuts' compared to what the city would need to make substantial improvements to the bus system, Muir noted, 'It's a good start.'

At the meetings on Saturday, Muir wants to get all the complaints about the system 'out on the table.'

After the issues are heard on Saturday, those present will be asked to break off into groups. Each group will focus on a number of similar issues that were brought up and be asked to come up with possible options on how to deal with the problem.

On April 28, Muir will meet with council and bring back the information from the various meetings. Council members will then discuss what sort of vision they have for transit in 2005, 2006 and finally 2007 and beyond.

'I wanted to do it in that process,' he said.

This will provide council members with a reference guide outlining the concerns and desires of Whitehorse residents.

Muir expects council will be able to come up with a vision and mission statement at the April 28 meeting, but remains unsure how long it may take to come up with a plan of action on transit. He said he doesn't want to make plans that aren't going to work.

'We're doing sort of the knee-jerk reaction,' he said of the current transit system.

The master plan will give the city a document to go to for guidance when considering transit issues.

He's hoping that with the public meeting, he'll be able to move away from that so there can be a clear reference for the city to go to when it makes transit decisions.

van Eyk noted the Transit Improvement Committee is against any kind of privatization or contracting out of the bus service.

Councillors Doug Graham and Mel Stehelin were absent from Monday's meeting.

Stehelin had indicated to administration he would attend the meeting via conference call. However, the city's director of administration services, Rob Fendrick, said there were some technical difficulties with the phone system.