Community Transportation Plan

The staff at The District of Muskoka understand that transportation is a challenge for many of our residents. An application for funding from the Community Transportation Grant Program at the Provincial Ministry of Transportation was successful, and The District was awarded close to $700,000 to invest in community transportation over four years. The District's Community Transportation Plan project is funded by the Government of Ontario through this grant.

In order to ensure community transportation programs meet the most pressing needs of residents, and to ensure funding was spent as efficiently and effectively as possible, The District used some of the Grant funding to hire external consultants Transit Consulting Network and Dillon Consulting to help us develop a 5-Year Transportation Needs Assessment and Growth and Sustainability Plan, which we have been calling the “Community Transportation Plan” or “CTP” for short.

Transit Consulting Network and Dillon Consulting spent a lot of time reaching out to the community via focus groups, a survey, and interviews to help us find solutions that suit our residents. The consultants carefully considered everyone’s input when they were developing our CTP, which will provide a roadmap for moving forward with transportation initiatives in Muskoka over the next three to five years.

The goal of the CTP is to develop accessible, affordable, sustainable transportation solutions for both urban and rural residents, including services that move residents east and west within Muskoka. The CTP recommends a new east-west service, improvements to the current Corridor 11 service, and suggestions to help us create a seamless transportation network across Muskoka with connections to broader options to the south, all supported by the Community Transportation Grant from the Government of Ontario.

As members of the Community and Planning Services Committee and District Council reviewed the CTP, it was noted that even after the new programs are implemented, some residents would still be without access to transportation. In order to fill in the gaps, the District has set up a Specialized Transportation Fund for residents who do not live in areas served by the community transportation programs or other public transportation (i.e. Bracebridge or Huntsville Transit) or who are unable to use the municipally provided services, do not qualify for other agency-based transportation programs in the area, and who require financial assistance to access the transportation they need.

We have appreciated all the support and engagement we’ve had from the community so far, and with your help we hope to create a robust, holistic, unified transportation network that effectively serves Muskoka, with a focus on those who would benefit the most from these programs.

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