To the Editor,
The future of Metro Vancouver’s economic wellbeing and livability depends on a stable, well-funded transportation system. Our population has grown from 1.9 million two decades ago to over 2.5 million today, and another million are expected over the next 20 years. But the swift, broad-based growth of our region has been accompanied by an inexcusable lack of leadership in transportation planning, and our streets and highways are now clogged with traffic. In many areas there is little or no public transportation system.
In order to accommodate our rapidly increasing population, as well as to take advantage of our region’s enviable position as the Asia-Pacific Gateway, we must move forward with a long-term funding model to meet both our current transportation needs and those of our children and grandchildren.
The members of the Mayors Council on Regional Transportation are faced with a difficult decision, made more so in a globalized world with its share of uncertainty. On October 7th, the Mayors Council, a body made up of twenty-two elected officials from around the region, will vote on the Moving Forward Supplemental Plan for Metro Vancouver’s Transportation System. It is crucial this plan be passed.
The proposal includes a 2-cent per litre gas tax that requires provincial approval. This will fund an estimated $32-45 million annually towards the plan. The remainder of the $30 million required annually would be made up by a new long-term funding source approved by the Province of BC and the Mayors Council. However, in order to move the plan forward, a time-limited property tax increase (2013 and 2014 only), amounting to an estimated $23 per average household annually, has been included to make up the required $30 million on an intern basis. This property tax increase may not be necessary, subject to an alternative long-term funding source being approved.
The plan would clear the way for construction of the Evergreen Line to the Tri-Cities, triggering a $417 million federal government investment specifically for the Evergreen Line and a provincial contribution of $583 million to the same project.
The Evergreen Line Program is the single largest element of the service expansion, creating 11 km of new SkyTrain line, but every municipality in the region will receive benefits including:
▪ $20 million annually for Major Road Network improvement projects;
▪ Significantly expanded bus service hours (425,000 hours region-wide);
▪ Highway 1 Rapid Bus Service from Langley to the Lougheed SkyTrain station;
▪ Capacity-enhancing SkyTrain station upgrades and Seabus improvements; and
▪ $6 million annually for cycling network infrastructure.
Is the funding decision a difficult one? Absolutely. Each elected official on the Council has had to wrestle with the livability and economic reality of not supporting this decision of supporting a tax increase only weeks before the electorate goes to the polls. It would certainly be easier for each of us to vote no, but we believe, as do many respected elected officials, business leaders, economists, students, academics and analysts that this is the correct decision for the future of our region.
Our population is growing. Thanks to a significant mode shift achieved during the Olympic Games, transit ridership increased 19.6% between June 2010 and July 2011, and this year is on track to set another record. The time has come to end the debate and get on with making the transit investments our region desperately needs. The funding formula for this plan has been debated for over six years. After a year of public consultation sessions across the region, meetings with key business and community stakeholders and with a robust online engagement, what has become overwhelmingly clear is that this region cannot, must not, become choked with gridlock the likes of Los Angeles or Seattle.
The Moving Forward Plan will move the Region toward the development of a comprehensive, integrated, financially sustainable transportation network that will benefit virtually every single person living in Metro Vancouver, regardless of where they live and what mode of transportation they use.
Leadership is not about following the politically expedient path but rather it is in making right decisions that will build strong and prosperous communities. In weighing the decision before us, we have been deeply conscious of this fact.
In 1980, the concept of building an advanced rapid transit system such as SkyTrain was being questioned and wrestled with by the forward-looking elected officials who ultimately took the bold step of looking to the future good of the province. Time has confirmed the high value of their decision.
Nothing hard ever gets easier by putting it off to later. Now, as elected officials, we must look beyond the next opinion poll and the next election to the next generation.
We have had the debate. Now we must move from words to deeds. The decision we make on October 7th will forge the path Greater Vancouver so badly needs. Passing the 2012 Supplemental Plan is the right decision for Metro Vancouver’s transportation system, economy, and future livability.
Signed:
Mayor Dianne Watts – City of Surrey
Mayor Peter Fassbender – City of Langley
Mayor Richard Walton – District of North Vancouver
Mayor Gregor Robertson – City of Vancouver
Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones – District of West Vancouver
Mayor Greg Moore – City of Port Coquitlam
Mayor Richard Stewart – City of Coquitlam
Mayor Ernie Daykin – District of Maple Ridge
