It's still extremely early but the city of Moose Jaw is exploring the idea of filling the gap created by the shutdown of STC. The provincial bus service was an option for some local residents and students to get to Regina if they didn't have a vehicle or consistent ride.

City manager Jim Puffalt says the idea came from a review of current buses in the Moose Jaw fleet and they realized they had a few extra that were still in decent shape, so could they be put to use.

"We've hired a new Public Works Manager from B.C. and he has a lot of different ideas that we could look to do and one of those was a transit service between Moose Jaw and Regina, in particular with (Sask) Polytechnic," said Puffalt. "For us to run a service like that it would have to be a revenue generator."

If, and Puffalt stresses the if, this comes to be it's still a ways off into the future as they would have to create a business model to show that the service is needed and wouldn't cost taxpayers money. Right now, there's only a placeholder in the budget for $160,000 but Puffalt says that's just there to get the conversation going and council has not approved anything at this point.

"Potential is a wonderful thing but we can't start spending money without having a solid business plan in place and customers to prove that this is going to work. Certainly, there are people who live in Moose Jaw and work in Regina so there's perhaps opportunities but we really have to nail this down before we go much further."

The buses that started the conversation are surplus to the city's needs right now and are set to go to auction in the near future so Puffalt believes it was a good time to review the idea.