The TransLink Mayors’ Council 10-year transit vision “needs a bit more work” as local politicians figure out just how to fund the $7.5-billion regional plan, according to B.C.’s transportation minister.
“We’re certainly not saying no to the plan,” Todd Stone said at a June 24 press conference.
“But the funding assumptions don’t add up.”
The mayors voted in favour of the proposed Lower Mainland transit plan June 12.
The vision called for a subway to the University of B.C., a light-rail transit system in Surrey and a new Patullo Bridge, among other projects. The mayors are seeking funding through reallocation of the carbon tax, road pricing, tolls and partnerships with Victoria and Ottawa.
Although Stone praised the mayors repeatedly for producing the plan, he noted there is a significant issue with financial expectations from Ottawa’s New Building Canada fund.
The transit plan counts on the federal government to provide $1.5 billion over 10 years, but Stone said Ottawa has allocated just $1 billion for infrastructure throughout all of B.C. over the next decade.
Stone repeated the government’s previous stance that it would not be willing to reallocate money from the current carbon tax to fund transit projects but would accept a new carbon tax if approved through a referendum.
Instead, he suggested the mayors consider spreading the projects out over a 20-year period as opposed to one decade.
North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton, chairman of the Mayors’ Council, said there were a significant number of projects in the plan that were already pushed back into the following decade.
“Within the 10-year plan, it’s very much back-end loaded,” he said.
“(The province) asked us for a vision, we provided a vision.”
Walton added federal capital plans could also be adjusted over the next decade, leaving room for the funding required from Ottawa.
“We’re saying these are the express needs of the region,” he said.
“If the population growth is reflecting a national (immigration) policy, this is what’s required in order to have Metro Vancouver cope with the traffic and the goods movement.”
Stone said he would need the mayors to notify him by July 15 if they intended to go forward with a fall referendum coinciding with municipal elections.
But if the mayors wished to push the referendum to a later date, the transportation minister said recommendations on a referendum question would be needed by this fall.
Walton said it's very unlikely the Mayors' Council will vote at their next meeting in favour of going forward with a referendum in the fall.
