Some holiday. TransLink Mayors Council chairman Peter Fassbender spends his whole summer exercising his outstanding statesmanship skills to finesse an MOU with the province.
The Langley mayor thinks he’s got the province and the mayors to agree that everything’s on the table to fund desperately needed transportation improvements. He goes away for a well-deserved rest in Hawaii and while he’s away, the mayors, led by Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini (fingerprints by Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie), effectively tear up the MOU by having an “emergency meeting” where they publicly refuse to consider any property tax increases.
So here we stand, a little over a month away from the deadline for picking up a $65 million contribution from the federal government, with no agreement on where the region’s funding will come from for the Evergreen Line from Lougheed Centre to Coquitlam Town Centre and the North Fraser Perimeter Road from Coquitlam to New Westminster.
The mayors have tossed this hot potato back to the province, which has said it would provide interim financing until an agreement is reached.
“If we don’t fund it, what are you going to do?” the mayors are saying.
Take responsibility for a new tax in Metro Vancouver after what’s happened with the HST? Cover it provincially, but force the region to go back to funding hospital costs? Take the mayors out of the picture and further emasculate the political accountability of TransLink?
What the mayors would like is to get the funds from the next tranche of the carbon tax. That’s probably what Fassbender had in mind when he got everyone to agree to put all the painful options on the table. Tapping the carbon tax is as much a nightmare for the province as increasing the property tax is for the mayors, because it would convert the carbon tax from an avowed revenue-neutral tax shift to a new cash grab.
Unlike a tax on property, the carbon tax helps reduce demand for roads while it raises money for alternatives. So does a vehicle levy, which is where this unruly bus is headed. A property tax increase would hit the owner of a $600,000 home with an extra $31 a year for the Evergreen Line and North Fraser Perimeter Road. It would go up to an extra $54 a year if the other 13 transportation improvements were thrown in: express B-Line bus service down King George Boulevard in Surrey to White Rock, a direct White Rock-Langley shuttle, a fast bus over the new Port Mann Bridge between Langley and Burnaby, more road spending. That extra money would also upgrade five SkyTrain stations and expand bus service to deal with overcrowded buses, the expanded Upass and a growing population.
Not even on the list is activating the third SeaBus that’s sitting at the dock. Rapid transit to UBC and Langley are all still a distant dream.
The variable vehicle levy being considered by TransLink (under the name Transportation Improvement Fee) would reward drivers of smaller vehicles with a smaller fee. The average driver would pay $65, with most paying less than $60, to finance the full suite of transportation improvements. According to TransLink polling, drivers aren’t nearly as angry about this as they once were.
The mayors are right to push back against property tax increases for transportation, as they’re bracing themselves for some truly monstrous property tax increases for Metro Vancouver’s new sewage treatment plants, water treatment and garbage disposal plans. In a worst-case scenario (no senior government help), some Metro taxpayers would have to pay $1,390 a year, up from as little as $156 today.
The elephant that’s still legislated out of the room is more road-pricing options to pay for transportation. Getting the Transportation Improvement Fee implemented would start that bus rolling.
Evil No. 1: congestion. Evil No. 2: road pricing. Take your pick. Good luck, Mayor Fassbender.