The ballots should start arriving in the mail for the transit referendum next week. Hopefully the person in charge of the referendum is more capable than the person in charge of the Compass program.
There doesn't seem to be any progress on that front, nor any indication why TransLink is unable to complete the project. Getting it finished is not even on the Mayors' Council plan for the $250 million extra they wish to extract from our wallets over the next decade via a half per cent increase in sales tax in Metro Vancouver.
I don't use public transportation very often, but it is very useful for specific trips. If I have meetings in the downtown core, I usually park at River Rock and take the Canada Line the rest of the way. Exorbitant parking fees are avoided and you know exactly when you will get to your appointment with no traffic hassles. I have never had any problems with TransLink other than the failure of the Compass program. I was in New York last week. They had turnstiles that work just fine. Turnstiles are in effect at major cities across the globe.
Why did TransLink have to attempt to re-invent the wheel? Those idle Compass machines in the SkyTrain stations are a constant reminder of perceived incompetence of TransLink management. The first "Vote Yes" ad appeared in last week's edition of the Optimist. It offered pretty thin gruel to local residents. As Ted Murphy joked in an editorial last week, the improvements for South Delta are of the "bus drivers will smile more" variety.
But we have to remember that we are on track for a bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel. It appears to be going ahead regardless of the fate of the Mayors' Council plan. I suppose that is because Port Metro Vancouver really wants the tunnel removed to allow larger freighters to make it up river.
I assume this bridge will be heavily tolled and therefore financing will not be contingent upon the sales tax increase.
I agree with ML Burke who wrote in this space a week ago that the new bridge must have space for an extension of SkyTrain to eventually go to the ferry terminal after stops in Ladner, Tsawwassen and the new Tsawwassen First Nation's malls. (However, I can't see a vehicle crossing through the Gulf Islands.)
The real winner of the referendum, whether the result is "yes" or "no," has got to be Jordan Bateman, the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He was out there on his own trying to turn the tide as a vocal advocate for the "no" side.
Through dogged determination, he managed to turn that tide and throw the "yes" side into a blind panic. TransLink terminated its CEO. When that didn't stop the hemorrhaging of voters to the "no" side (according to the polls), the "yes" side appointed Jim Pattison to oversee the funds in the increasingly unlikely event the referendum should pass.
This would be the point where the entire TransLink board of directors resigns. Yep, Bateman has been the winner in this battle regardless of the final vote.
However, he hasn't yet convinced me to vote "no."
