What do they stand to gain?
That’s the question I find myself asking when I’m told the review of the George Massey Tunnel Replacement Project announced by the NDP government a couple of weeks ago is nothing more than a sham and that the idea of a bridge across the Fraser River is as good as dead.
I definitely buy the notion the New Democrats aren’t as sold on a 10-lane span as their Liberal predecessors, but if they’re going to kill it and ignore the congestion on the Highway 99 corridor a la the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council, then why the delay in doing so? Maybe I’m being naïve to think the review is more than just a charade, but I keep questioning what there is to gain.
If the NDP had killed the bridge project two weeks ago, such an announcement would have elicited cheers from around the Mayors’ Council table and jeers from the thousands of commuters stuck in tunnel traffic every day. If, six months from now after an independent review has been completed, the NDP announces it’s killing the bridge project, that news will elicit cheers from around the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council table and jeers from the thousands of commuters stuck in tunnel traffic every day.
In other words, regardless of the outcome, there’s no upside to waiting. I guess there could be a small segment of the population, likely those without a strong opinion on the issue, that might view a decision after an independent review as the responsible approach, but there’s not enough of them to move the needle in any meaningful way, while everyone else is only going to be concerned about the end result, not the process.
The NDP has repeatedly mentioned other options — smaller bridge, twinned tunnel, bridge-tunnel combo — when discussing the review, so perhaps the new government can be given the benefit of the doubt. I know the issue has been studied to death, but at the same time you don’t spend $3.5 billion without doing your due diligence.
Given the political pressure being exerted on New Democrat decision makers, I’m not convinced commuters on this side of the river will be satisfied by the outcome, but if they were going to completely dash those hopes, wouldn’t they have done it by now?
