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OCTOBOO! 31, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 87
WEDNESDAY NO FLAPPING ON THIS POLE
BREAKING DOWN THE VOTES
TODAY’S WEATHER
Imagine the makeup of council if the city was governed under a ward system
Periods of rain High 11 C Low 4 C
30 CENTS AT NEWSSTANDS
City council decides to stop using community pole — for now
NEWS/A25
NEWS/A5
GREYHOUND’S LAST BARK
Wednesday marks the final day of venerable bus company’s operations in Kamloops and Western Canada JESSICA WALLACE
STAFF REPORTER
jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
G
ALL ABOARD!
Ebus, a successor to Greyhound, will begin service on Wednesday, using Sahali Mall as the departure/arrival location STORY/PAGE A12
len Desjardine’s old office at the Greyhound terminal in Kamloops offers a glimpse into the bus depot. It’s a place where family and friends exchange hellos and goodbyes, travellers listen to music while waiting for connections and people on the other end of a one-sided window put on lipstick or tuck in a shirt. “I’ve seen a lot of things through that window,” Desjardine, Greyhound’s operations manager, said with a laugh. “Some I didn’t want to see.” Since 1991, Desjardine has worked for Greyhound, which will close for good in Western Canada on Wednesday. In the days leading to the closure, he has been sharing
that window view with boss and city manager Grant Odsen, who is in charge of Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna. Odsen cleaned out his own office after 33 years with Greyhound and will remain unemployed or “semi-retired” until determining his next steps. He expects, however, to have Christmas off this year — an opportunity never previously possible due to an influx of holiday travellers. “I haven’t had Christmas off in, uh, 34 years,” Odsen said. KTW visited the depot at Notre Dame Drive and Laval Crescent on Monday to speak with staff and passengers, discuss the impending absence of a venerable institution and elicit memories about a rite of passage in Canada — taking the Greyhound bus. Greyhound is steeped in Kamloops, Desjardine explained. Due to the city’s geographi-
cal significance — where five highways connect and situated between Vancouver and major Albertan cities — 13 operations supervisors historically ran Western Canada out of the Kamloops depot. At one time, it was the only 24-hour a day Greyhound operation. That changed six years ago, when Greyhound’s head office moved from Calgary to Burlington, Ont., due to technology that made it easier to manage operations from farther away. One year before that, Greyhound sold and leased the Kamloops bus depot. To date, the fate of the property remains unclear. “The owner of the property, they have I guess a couple of different options to develop it,” Odsen said. “They haven’t landed on one at this time.” See AT GREYHOUND, A4
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