By Pete McMartin in the Vancouver Sun:
(Peter) Fassbender, through the media, and without the mayors’ prior knowledge, announced the provincial government’s “commitment” to fund $246 million worth of improvements to TransLink over the next three years. All the mayors would have to do to fund their share of the plan, Fassbender said, would be to raise property taxes — a suggestion they had previously refused to consider — and levy development cost charges on developers who benefitted from increased density around transit stations.
The timing of the announcement, the apparent generosity of the $246-million commitment and the fact that a provincial government minister was making the announcement by himself while the mayors were nowhere in sight seemed designed to suggest that the provincial government was being proactive on transit while the mayors were being obstructive and uncooperative.
What the public didn’t know was that it was the mayors who originally suggested raising property taxes, and that it was they who suggested it to Fassbender. After last year’s disastrous referendum, which saw the mayors’ $7.5-billion, 10-year transit plan rejected by the public in an overwhelming No vote, a select group from the mayors’ council held a series of private meetings with the provincial government in hopes of salvaging something from the wreckage. Their suggestion to raise property taxes, which they had been previously refused to do, was a concession to the province to break the policy impasse. Several mayors I talked to felt Fassbender saw the opportunity to play politics, instead.
“This,” wrote Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore in an email to me, “was a betrayal of the Mayors’ Council.”
You know politicians and propagandists used to be way more sophisticated. Now they just put a 180 on things and leave it at that.
Moore is so pompous
How long will the Lower Mainland allow them to treat us as chumps?
https://patrickjohnstone.ca/2016/05/chumps.html
That’s a great article by NW Councillor Patrick Johnstone. I like his invitation to have us ALL WORK TOGETHER to smooth out the traffic logjams and work towards a practical vision for the future region.
How long will the Lower Mainland allow them [the BC Liberal provincial government] like chumps?
As long as Lower Mainlanders cannot fathom how much economic power they really have, don’t really understand how much they contribute to the rest of the provincial economy (and government coffers), and how much they are being shortchanged by senior governments.
There is no reason in the world why the Metro cannot start wide, well-advertised public consultations and commission a report or two on becoming an independent elected regional government with taxation powers, an entity that will finally stand up to the arrogant treatment by provincial ministers and the premier. A metropolis should not have to tolerate being yanked around like a dog on a leash, especially on vital matters like transit funding.
I would prefer a simpler model than creating another layer of bureaucracy, such as Greater London’s two-part direct relationship with the British government, but that would entail cutting out the province. Until the Metro obtains the courage to stand up and create it’s own Elbowgate to increase its powers to actually provide an adequate level of public services like transit, then it’s status quo forever.
While I applaud & support the idea, to actually implement it requires the provincial government to enact. I don’t see any provincial government – BC Liberal or NDP – agreeing to give up a cash cow.
I’m not saying we’ll get a more independent regional government without changing the Constitution, but a well-articulated and locally supported threat of a tax revolt coupled with a cry for more local representation would sure generate a lot of interest and could hold attention on the national news for weeks.
Quid pro quo with the shopworn Clark-Fassbender-Stone bash the mayors and TransLink strategy.
The ongoing bickering is tiresome but I agree with Pete McMartin’s column. Christy Clark is the consummate partisan politician who never misses an opportunity to bait, engage and trump over any opposition. It is a shame that public transit in the metro area has become so political…and Heaven help us from a 10 lane bridge instead of the Deas tunnel.
A little simplistic ? Mayors Council good, province bad ?
How about: the old (now rejected) plan A was bad AND the proposed funding formula was bad ? Plan A with far too many buses and far too little rapid transit was a very poor plan. The funding of it was even worse. Hence a “no” vote by a wide margin.
The current new plan of raising property taxes, development levies and user fees is a tiny step in the right direction. Tiny. As such Fassbender is right in calling the mayor’s bluff ! Better would be
a) raise user fees 50% over 10 years as user fees are quite low in MetroVan compared to other cities
b) raise parking fees in residential neighborhoods (not just property taxes) to disincent car ownership
c) cut salaries, benefits and waste in the public sector as the public sector unions run amok in MetroVan
d) introduce road tolls / mobility pricing
e) modify the existing plan A: Plan B would have far more RAPID transit specifically subways.
Both sides have to give. Mayors have to get their head out of the sand and look at a realistic picture. Province has to fund for 10 years and introduce mobility pricing NOW.
More cooperation please and far more realistic $ contribution by BOTH sides !
There’s a simple reason why most residential areas offer free parking: it would cost too much to install signage, implement a method for collection and, most importantly, patrol the area to ensure people are actually paying.
In areas where visitor demand is low, the cost of collection and enforcement would greatly exceed the amount collected.
It’s hard to believe such a suggestion could have come from a man who despises big government, public sector workers and wasteful practices.
Who said that parking enforcement is coming from a civil servant ? It could be a (GPS enabled) device, or an outsourced agency. You also forget to mention that I (like many others here on this blog) lament the low car use costs in cities in both its states: driving and parking. Road tolls need provincial approval, but parking fees do not. It is merely a vote buying tool. Socialism in other words. Not sound policy used for transportation priorities. if we charged $200/month for every car parked on a road a month MetroVan would easily have almost $1B a year that they need for transit (400,000 cars times 12 times $200). That to me would make far more sense than a PST increase. It would give a direct incentive to get rid of a car, do more car sharing, ride a bike or use transit. Add road tolls and transit is fully funded by MetroVan and province and we’d get less cars. And those that want a car have less traffic. Everyone wins.
Gordon clarified earlier that currently municipalities can’t have variable rates of property taxes withing the same property classification.
I suggest the mayors back Christy into a corner and ask for the power to tax high value residential properties at a higher rate, “in order to fund transit and keep taxes low for the middle class”. If she says No, it just reinforces the impression of the BC Liberals as beholden to the wealthy. If she says Yes, they get more revenue.
Great idea. I certainly think it would be popular given the current housing crisis.
Transit user fees may be low in comparison to some cities but they are high when compared to the INCREMENTAL cost of driving. ICBC ignores mileage when calculating the cost. Petrol is the incremental cost .
According to the Transport 2040 report linked to in Patrick’s post above, the population increased by 13% between 1998-2007. During the same period transit ridership went up by 38%. The provincial response? Build ten billion bucks in freeways, with more to come. It remains steadily skewed in that direction today.
This is clearly not sustainable and will remain so long as the BC Libs remain in power, or are put in their place by the feds who could put their own billions on the line, and/or by the Mayor’s Council under a new policy to withhold taxes and direct them toward transit and other chronically underfunded public services and utilities.
A tax revolt would get a lot of attention. Perhaps there is a way to negotiate harder without going to that extreme, but the Metro organization (TransLink, the mayors, etc.) has been subject to inexcusable bad treatment by Clark, Fassbender, Stone, and before them, Falcon for too long, all the while unknowingly clutching the prosperity of the province in its hands.
If Trudeau was a mature politician and diplomat (no one is convinced, but he does have some good talent around him) he could host a series of private meetings between the province and the mayors / Metro and put the federal transit money on the line (the stick) while strongly encouraging the two parties to come to a solid agreement under a strict deadline, and could offer another 5% to add to their already generous 50% (the carrot) and directly challenge the province for the remaining 2%. To put a little more pressure on, Pete McMartin could be invited into the room to witness the vote.
Given what we know now about Christy et al, a taste of their own medicine may be what it takes to wipe the arrogant smirks off their little faces.
The Mayors’ Council transportation plans are really philosophical manifestos. They’ve also cobbled together ideas that include radical plans beyond their jurisdiction. They seem to really like TransLink and they stamp their feet demanding that everyone else like TransLink too. They got their gas tax and their massive Metro Parking Tax (what is that, 22%!?) but they don’t want the gas tax anymore because they couldn’t see increased efficiency in vehicles fuel consumption. They made a lousy bet.
There was a referendum and the citizens voted 2 to 1 against the Mayors plan for the future of TransLink. During the campaign citizens were alerted to some of the facts surrounding TransLink that seeped out and they raised their eyebrows. How much do those guys with the car allowances rake in? And they want us to take the bus! How many people never pay for using transit? The bus drivers told us it was over 2 million each and every year! How many people get free passes too? How much does each new rider cost because all riders are subsidized? People started saying, “They want us to give them many more billions of dollars for building more transit for all the new people that are coming to Vancouver, then we will have to increase the money we give them on top of that too because each ride costs us money, they never break even?”.
Polls were conducted and the people overwhelmingly said yes, to the building of the Port Mann bridge and the building of a bridge that will replace the sixty year old little Deas Island tunnel.
How would a tax revolt or an opposition party platform that did not support the highway developments win any meaningful support, when they have spoken so emphatically already?
Again, so filled with wild assumptions. It has got to be hard staying so willfully obtuse!
Transit in the News. I guess everyone saw the new story in BIV on the $1 million and a half etc., that TransLink paid out to fired honchos, just before, during and after the disastrous referendum. The people knew what was going on there and they didn’t like it. As Thomas says, a wholesale shakeup is required to attempt to regain public trust and support. It serves little in blaming the province when it is now the province coming forward with offers of increased finance for areas of expenditures the province does not usually fund.
The federal government and the province have now come forward with increased funding offers and commitments. Will the mayors be able to close their now smaller gap? Will TransLink become disenchanted with the mayor’s?
Are the 2040 plan and the other massive plans destined for the historical archives?
The Huff Post also has a new story today by a millennial on reduced transit use, especially buses.
Where did the province come through with “increased funding offers and commitments?” Looks more like they kept the same %, and reduced the scope to Phase 1 only. That is a reduction, not an increase.
Come on Jeff, even you know that transit is funded by the tranche. Phase 1 covers more areas than usual. The province has increased what they will fund and the federal government has increased the offer of their share by 50%.
The cup is more than half full.
I understand tranches fine. Your claim that provincial funding has been expanded is refuted by McMartin’s column. Federal funding, yes.
What are you suggesting the province has increased in terms of what they will fund?
Yup, the 2040 plan is OBSOLETE / NEEDS MAJOR UPDATES. More here (from a while ago): https://pricetags.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/2040-transportation-plan-update-required
Indeed the mayors plan is not a great plan with far too many buses and far too little subways ie. RAPID transit. Northing to UBC. Nothing ON the north share or TO the north shore. Now W Van wants to densify. Great idea in principle but how to folks get to the airport or downtown ? By bus ? Seriously ? This is the 21st century !
[ btw: they closed SW Marine Drive from 41st Ave to Granville for road/swer repair. You should see the mess now on the road. Where is the UBC subway plan AND the subway under 41st Ave, or better yet, the UBC loop connecting with SkyTrain and CanadaLine (i.e. airport, downtown and N-shore) ? Where is the E-Van subway connecting to N-Burnaby and then N-shore via 2nd Narrows, continuing as a loop to W-Van then to downtown via new tunnel or new Lionsgate bridge ? That is “vision” ?]
Much blame to share all around. The ENTIRE Mayors Council for Transportation should either resign, or go back to the drawing board !!
Yes we need far more $s from province for rapid transit incl. road tolls, but we also need higher transit user fees, higher property taxes, higher parking fees AND higher development levies which is ALL in the control of the Metrovan mayors without the province doing a thing.
A dysfunctional metroplex where major change is required !