Read the original letter.
TransLink once again has come up with no new ideas but to push for higher property taxes and vehicle levies. Does this mean that residents have to pay for their inefficiencies, their lack of commitment and responsibility?
It was no secret that rapid transit to Coquitlam has to be a shared responsibility between federal and provincial governments and TransLink. While two of the three partners have lived up to their commitment, TransLink has no plans to play their part other than pushing their responsibility over to the taxpayers. It seems to me that they want to keep the status quo, push for higher taxes and collecting revenue from Evergreen expansion.
Federal and provincial governments are committed to going ahead with this project regardless. Although promises are afloat, there don’t seem to be further assurances from either of the senior levels of government to bite the bullet. Even if they do, indirectly it will eventually have to be paid for by the taxpayers.
Change of political climate in the province, among other things, casts even more doubts upon the future of this transportation upgrade without an overrun — or failure to meet the project design or complete the project.
A simple analogy is, would you ever think of starting to build your house without securing a mortgage or bank loan? Will your house have all the doors, windows and the roof you wanted or are you willing to go short of the original plan?
This nagging problem of funding shortfall, however, can be overcome if all partners review the strategy and are willing to change the road map. Partnership between federal and provincial governments and TransLink was the basis of funding to complete the long-awaited rapid transit to the northeast region, which is much needed to cope with the rapid population shift to this area and to support the businesses and new investments.
However, due to financial instability in TransLink’s operation in recent years, their funding portion has not received a place in their annual budgets and there doesn’t seem to be a commitment on TransLink’s part to the project at this time without hurting the taxpayer.
There was a glimmer of hope when the memorandum of understanding was signed by the premier and TransLink a couple of months ago.
It has been said that TransLink’s mayors’ council and the province have hammered out an agreement to talk about funding sources, and yet nothing substantial has been put forward.
Following the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the chair of the mayors’ council admitted that the agreement still falls short on specifics, strengthening my observations that there have been tons of motherhood statements and not many concrete solutions.
It has also been said by politicians that there is now trust and willingness to look at all options (shared responsibilities) for transportation, i.e revisiting already hashed-out old ideas such as increasing municipal property taxes, provincial carbon taxes, higher transit fares and levies.
Nobody could agree with me more that we are taxed to the hilt and another tax burden will only hurt us more. I don’t see this as an incentive at all to transit users and residents, who will eventually be the ones bringing in revenue to TransLink.
At the Union of B.C. Municipalities in September of last year, the B.C. Transit Service warned that the transit system will become unsustainable within five years under the present system.
However, these types of warnings, combined with changing political winds, do not guarantee the success of the project. To support the population growth and the businesses in the Tri-Cities, this infrastructure upgrade is imperative. Delaying this much-needed rapid transit system will only escalate the project costs even further.
Therefore, it is time now for all partners to think out of the box and come out with new ideas.
More than the federal and provincial governments and TransLink, we in the northeast region and the local municipalities need the rapid transit line to come here. If people in Tri-Cities and local governments say yes, it is imperative that we come up with a solution rather than hem and haw about TransLink’s inability to come up with the funding they promised.
Here is an idea that comes to mind, and it involves the amazing success story of the charities, hospital foundations that raise millions of dollars year after year from lotteries to support their projects.
Is there something here we can learn from them? Absolutely. Is there anything wrong with running a municipal lottery to bridge the shortfall? I think not.
If the municipalities look at this as a viable option and act on it, then it is only right that the municipalities collect the revenue until they have recovered all costs apportioned to the project.
This is not the only solution. There are other options such as public private partnership and private ownership, the logistics of which will have to be revamped to find the best solution.
I strongly believe if something is worth doing, do it right.
It is insane to think of running a transportation system based on property taxes and maintain escalating future costs of operating it.
However I have faith in the provincial government, municipal governments and TransLink with their ability to iron out these kinks and come up with a sustainable transit system.
Andy Wickey, Coquitlam
- Coquitlam NOW -
