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She said she was hugely concerned for the future safety of low-income women in the province once the service closes, and called the government’s estimate that it will save $85 million over five years a “scare tactic.”

The government made a point, at budget time, that the per-passenger subsidy for the STC had shot from $25 a decade ago to $94 today, and the time had come to call it quits. Reimer, though, was having none of it.

“Even though ridership on the bus system may be low, it is the low-income people who have the highest need,” she said. “We don’t own a big truck or a nice van to travel around Saskatchewan.”

“The safety of women is at risk with the loss of STC,” she said.

Yet looking beyond the bare economics — the loss of over 220 jobs; 253 communities losing a service — many say it is losing the bonds built up between passengers and STC crew since 1946 that will cut deepest.

Wayne Carley’s Carnduff family businesses have been intertwined with the STC almost since day one.

“On the business side, we’re definitely going to miss the freight part of it,” he said Wednesday. “I think it’ll be easier to find somebody else to haul the freight than it is to get the people around, that’s for sure.”

The Carleys owned a jewellery store in Carnduff and were the local bus agents from around 1947, Wayne estimated. His parents ran things for 25 years, then his sister for 24 more.

“The bus got into Carnduff at 10.30 at night; in a small town like that the bus drivers … they’d literally drive them right up to their door, they wouldn’t leave them standing in the middle of Main Street on a cold winter night, that’s for sure.”