In a unanimous vote Wednesday, Edmonton city councillors endorsed the creation of a Regional Transit Services Commission (RTSC).
The proposed network would link Edmonton buses and LRT with the transit services of 11 other municipalities including Leduc, Spruce Grove, Devon and Stony Plain.
Mayor Don Iveson said the collaboration will help strengthen the economies of participating municipalities.
“I think council sent a strong signal today that we’re still all in to regional collaboration,” Iveson said after the vote.
The regional plan has been in the works for about 10 years with municipalities like St. Albert, which voted to join the commission earlier this month.
Last week, however, Strathcona County councillors voted unanimously against joining a regional transit commission.
If all 13 municipalities had participated, Strathcona County would have contributed 26 per cent of the cost while Edmonton would have taken on 42 per cent.
Those figures are included in the business case that the RTSC transition team released to potential partners earlier this year, outlining a more efficient and improved regional transit service.
It is estimated the proposed system — based on the 13 jurisdictions — would save $3.4 million a year once the network is operating by 2026.
Iveson noted the numbers in the business case work well with all 13 municipalities.
“Strathcona not coming in impairs our ability to get best return on investment for taxpayers across the region and loses the opportunity for seamless mobility,” he said.
“With some out, you have to re-run the numbers but on the assumption that there’s still net efficiencies, the overall cost of providing the same or better transit should be lower into the future.”
The current commission doesn’t preclude Strathcona County from joining at a later time.
The remaining 10 municipalities will vote throughout February and March.
Once all the votes have been held, participating municipalities are expected to prepare and submit an application to the province to create the commission.