How will the results of the transit plebiscite affect my business?
Charles Gauthier - CEO, Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association
This unprecedented opportunity will give local business owners and their employees a once-in-a-generation chance to decide what the future of our region, our downtown and our collective economic prosperity will be like over the next two decades. It means we get to decide how easily goods get delivered, just how sustainably we want the region to grow, and how much time our customers, suppliers and employees spend stuck in gridlock.
Traffic is the top reason more than 60% of Metro Vancouver residents say they don’t come downtown for discretionary visits like dining out, shopping or going to events. This is according to the most recent public survey the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association commissioned in 2012.
Respondents weren’t just vehicle drivers. They included transit users, walkers and cyclists. This result isn’t new. In fact, congestion has worsened over the past decade.
A yes victory supports businesses of all sizes. But the gains for smaller businesses are much greater when the No. 1 impediment for customers not coming downtown is removed. Contrary to what some people may believe, 55% of the businesses downtown have fewer than five employees and 33% have between five and 20 employees. Without a doubt, downtown businesses will benefit from a yes victory.
A yes victory will improve mobility within the region, provide commuters with choices on how they want to get around and enhance our competitiveness as a place to do business and as a place to live.
The investment for all this is $0.35 per day. Not $3.50 per day. Not $35 per day. Just $0.35. It’s a minuscule investment in exchange for a better future and economic prosperity.
Richard Truscott - Vice-president, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
Like many other people across the Metro Vancouver region, local business owners believe congestion is an important issue that needs to be addressed. But they are just not convinced that adding a half-point to the PST and handing over billions more in new revenue to TransLink over the next 10 years is the wisest way forward.
A recent survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that business owners, when provided the exact same preamble and referendum question proposed by the Mayors’ Council, as well as arguments for and against, overwhelmingly rejected adding a half-point to the PST. Eighty per cent said they planned to vote no, versus 17% who said they would vote yes, and 3% who didn’t know how they would vote.
They are understandably concerned about the impact of the new tax on their business. When they were asked what the effects would be, the top three answers were: “added administration time and cost” (61%), “less investment back into the business” (49%) and “negative impact on sales” (45%). Only 11% said there would be no impact.
One of the core issues for business owners appears to be TransLink itself. Ninety-one per cent of business owners say they do not trust TransLink to spend the new tax revenue wisely.
In the event of a no vote, the sky won’t fall, and the world won’t end. But what will likely happen is a renewed push to overhaul TransLink, something that would certainly be a positive development in the eyes of many business owners. Maybe then there can be a more meaningful dialogue about how best to improve the Metro Vancouver transportation system over the long term, and whether new revenue is truly needed to do it.
Ben Coli - Owner and brewer, Dageraad Brewing
Every Thursday I pay two delivery guys to sit in traffic. From Monday to Friday, I’ve got a salesperson spending more time in traffic than in sales meetings. I’ve had production delays because of employees stuck in traffic, I’ve had missed deliveries, I’ve even turned down prospective customers who were located on the wrong side of a bridge.
The jam we’re creating in Metro Vancouver carries real costs for a small business, but it’s not even today’s traffic we should be worried about. Another million people are going to make this place home in the next 25 years.
There are areas where major improvements can be made to roads, but in most places there is no room for more roads. We’re going to have to move all of those people using the space we have, and that means getting more of them onto transit. I can’t deliver my beer by train and my suppliers can’t move my grain and empty bottles by bus. Roads are the economic arteries of our city, and there’s nothing more frustrating than having a van carrying $8,000 worth of beer stuck behind 40 drivers carrying nothing heavier than a purse, when all 40 of those people could comfortably fit in one bus.
As a businessman, I know that anything that makes my product more expensive ultimately comes out of my bottom line. But this tax we’re talking about is a nickel on 10 bucks, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than the added costs of traffic if we do nothing. I share your concerns about TransLink’s governance, but the evidence shows it is actually a reasonably cost-effective organization.
I’m in my business for the long haul. I’ll still be running it in 25 years. The future is exciting: there will be a million more potential customers – but only if I can get the beer to them. Let’s invest now for a better future.
Vote yes.
