Support efforts to ensure that Indigenous people and members of other racialized and marginalized communities have access to safe, affordable, and reliable transportation throughout the city.

First Light: Expansion of medical transportation service

First Light’s medical transportation services have grown to six full-time staff who provide transportation 24 hours per day to and from medical appointments for Indigenous patients who are in St. John’s temporarily for medical care. These patients would otherwise need to navigate the complex local transportation infrastructure, which may be unfamiliar or unsafe for patients from outside St. John’s. Even with the growth of this important service, demand for medical transportation exceeds the capacity of the current team. Further funding and additional staff could allow First Light’s team to provide medical transportation services to Indigenous people living in St. John’s and/or to help patients living outside of St. John’s navigate the city (e.g. crossing a busy street) or attend to other basic needs (e.g. going to the bank) which are often difficult for those from rural and remote communities. 

City of St. John’s & First Light: Knowledge shared during Indigenize Downtown Community Feast

Themes from this event which relate to this Call for Change include challenges with the current public transit system (e.g. unreliable, time consuming, difficult to navigate), downtown streets which are not accessible for those with mobility issues, and challenges to mobility in winter months when snow and ice clearing is inadequate. (See Call for Change 13 for more information on the event.)

Needs identified: Training for service providers and improved accessibility

Access to safe transportation requires that transportation service providers (e.g. bus drivers, taxi drivers) be adequately trained in antiracism and in the specific context of Indigenous Peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador. Adequate training would reduce the amount of discrimination that Indigenous people face in accessing transportation services, both for those who live in St. John’s and for those who are visiting St. John’s from other communities in the province. 

An additional theme identified by First Voice this year is the lack of accessible transportation, for example, for those using wheelchairs or for those navigating the city with small children. Improving the accessibility of available transportation will be an important component of this Call for Change going forward.