It’s time, once again, to dig into your pockets to help others get around the region.
The Mayors’ Council announced a smorgasbord of tax increases last week as regional politicians look to come up with their portion of the bill for a series of planned transportation improvements in Greater Vancouver.
With both the provincial and federal governments committed to picking up big slices of the tab, local mayors needed to find ways to cover their share, so they turned to some tried and true methods of extracting money from the public.
If you want to rationalize the move, it’s obvious the cash has to come from somewhere and you could argue the pain has been spread out as homeowners, developers, transit users and those who pay to park will all be digging a little deeper to do their part to fund transit enhancements. Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, the chair of the Mayors’ Council, justified the approach by saying every mayor had difficulty with at least one element of the funding plan, but everyone must suck it up for the greater good.
Fair enough, but it’s really too bad that greater good doesn’t, yet again, extend to these parts. The two big ticket items that are in need of funding are a light rail line in Surrey and a subway along Broadway out to UBC, while money will also be raised to fund more rail cars and station upgrades on the existing SkyTrain system as well as an expansion of bus and HandyDART service across the region.
It’s possible Delta could benefit from improvements to bus and HandyDART networks, but if we can use the first phase of the Mayors’ Council’s plan as a guide, it would be best not to count on service getting a whole lot better around here anytime soon.
It seems every time we turn around there’s a hand in our pockets, or at least an attempt to put it there, but when it comes time to spend that money those who extracted it tend to forget we exist.
When you throw in the fact the Pattullo Bridge has been green lighted for replacement while the George Massey Tunnel Replacement Project has been suspended pending a third party review, it leaves you wondering whether political leaders look upon Delta as little more than some far flung ATM to finance projects elsewhere.
