Ron Swizdaryk
Ron Swizdaryk came to the Yukon for a visit and decided to stay. He married and raised his children in Whitehorse.1) Swizdaryk owned Norline Coaches for twenty years before 2007when he sold the highway division of the business to Morris Kostiuk, president and CEO of Kostiuk Holdings Ltd. The agreement included highway coaches, parts, stock and tools, as well as an arrangement to uphold Norline's carrier responsibilities. Norline was started around 1972 to provide a highway charter service to a variety of locations throughout the Yukon. At one time, the bus line had six highway motor coaches and three school buses but in 2007 had only two motor coaches. In 2006, the busses ran all the major routes on a regular schedule to Dawson, Faro, Beaver Creek, etc. Swizdaryk said there was not much business after 9/11 (11 September 2001). There was a huge European tourist market before that, and the decline almost wiped him out.2)
Norline Coaches was on the list of companies in default of loan payments to the Yukon Government. Kostiuk owned Yukon Alaska Tourist Tours (YATT), a highway charter coach service. The addition of Norline’s coaches and equipment increased YATT’s highway fleet to nine.3)
Swizdaryk was still running a successful Norline Coaches business in 2009 when he decided to run for City Council. He wanted to see the city focus development on the downtown as urban sprawl was costing too much. His vision was to preserve the historic appearance of the downtown while creating more housing options, for example more four-story buildings along the clay cliffs.4)
In 2011, Swizaryk became the general manager of Standard Bus Yukon. The company had a contract from the Department of Education for business children to school.5)