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We'll pay for premier's vanity project for decades to come

Editor: One really has to shake one's head at the illogical debate over the premier's $3.5-billion-plus vanity project, the proposed bridge replacing the George Massey Tunnel.

Editor:

One really has to shake one's head at the illogical debate over the premier's $3.5-billion-plus vanity project, the proposed bridge replacing the George Massey Tunnel.

First, FOIs were unanswered, then the minister of transportation issued an embarrassing bogus "facts" letter that was easily shredded by the likes of Doug Massey and others.

When that failed, the tunnel lobby tried a personal attack on Massey, whose father the tunnel is named after. Now those who oppose the bridge, for many various and valid reasons, are accused of spreading fake news. Can we afford the bridge? Probably not as the current government has driven the public debt to almost $200 billion, which means onerous tolls must be applied.

The one myth or fake news is that the proposed bridge will reduce congestion. Congestion will increase, because there is finite road space in Richmond and on the three bridges from Lulu Island to Vancouver. All this bridge will do is move congestion a few kilometres north.

The same will be true for the seventh lane proposed for the Alex Fraser Bridge and the hugely expensive YouTube star, the Zipper.

Never has adding road space cured congestion, rather it exacerbates it. The proposed bridge will create massive congestion in Richmond.

Transit is not an answer because the very same B.C. Liberal Party built the Canada Line light-metro on the cheap, having about half the capacity of the Expo and Millennium lines. Simple math, the Canada Line has 40-metre long station platforms and the other lines have 80-metre long station platforms. Short station platforms have hamstrung the Canada Line with meager capacity, with little or no room for future expansion.

The real reason for the new bridge has always been about rewarding political friends and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and its members are very good friends with the Liberals, with a bridge to allow Panamax and Capsize container ships, tankers and colliers to ply the Fraser River to Fraser Surrey Docks.

The plan has been in the works for a decade or more and the taxpayer will be paying for the premier's vanity project for decades to come.

D. Malcolm Johnston