The Minister of Transportation is turning TransLink over to a special-interest group. One board member will be appointed by the Province, another by the Mayors’ Council, and the rest put forward by:
o Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC;
o Vancouver Board of Trade;
o Greater Vancouver Gateway Society.
No transit users, no community-based groups, no cyclists, no land-use planners, no one but business.
Hence, no legitimacy.
FYI,
the full text of Bill 36 (the GVTA Amendment Act) can be found here:
http://www.leg.bc.ca/38th3rd/1st_read/gov36-1.htm
Note that the persons decsribed above constitute a screening panel for the appointment of nominees having expertise for the 9 Board members, and are not, themselves, the Board members. The Board is elected from the nominees by the Council of Mayors.
Responsibilities are apparently divided between the Mayor’s council (policy and planning decisions) and the Board (expertise-driven decisions). The amendments also seem to provide specific requirements for certain types of decisions.
Apparently, this structure is intended to de-politicize the operation of the Authority, likely in the same way that Vancouver City Council (usually) defers to the recommendations of City Staff without micromanaging every little aspect of decisions best left to those with expertise in the field (um, except in the case of Wal-Mart or Home Depot).
Until we can tie transportation planning to land-use planning, we’ll be operating suboptimally.
The Act amendments do provide for consultation on land use planning:
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Long term strategy
193 (1) The authority must prepare a long term strategy setting out, for a period of not less than the 30 years following the year in which the long term strategy is prepared,
(a) the authority’s goals and directions for the regional transportation system over the period to which the long term strategy applies,
(b) a description of key initiatives and other measures the authority anticipates will be needed in that period to achieve the goals referred to in paragraph (a), and
(c) a statement of the principles underlying the long term strategy.
(2) The authority must submit the long term strategy prepared under subsection (1) to the mayors’ council on regional transportation,
(a) for the first long term strategy, on or before August 1, 2008, and
(b) after that, on or before August 1 of every 5th year after 2008.
(3) In preparing a long term strategy, the authority must consider
(a) regional land use objectives,
(b) provincial and regional environmental objectives, including air quality and greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives, and
(c) anticipated population growth in, and economic development of, the transportation service region.
(4) Before completing a long term strategy under subsection (1), the authority must consult with
(a) the Greater Vancouver Regional District,
(b) the public in the transportation service region,
(c) the local governments having jurisdiction over the municipalities in or adjacent to the transportation service region,
(d) agencies of the government and agencies of the government of Canada involved in providing or facilitating transportation of people or goods in the transportation service region,
(e) the minister, and
(f) any other persons the authority considers appropriate.
(5) After completing a long term strategy under this section, the authority must
(a) deposit a copy of the long term strategy in its head office for retention in accordance with section 13.3 (1) (g), and
(b) publish the long term strategy on the authority’s website in such a manner that that long term strategy can be accessed without charge by any member of the public wishing to access it.
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Considerations in preparing plans
201 (1) The authority must prepare its base plan and any supplement in such a manner that any resulting strategic plan will
(a) identify the major actions that the authority plans to undertake during the period to which the strategic plan applies, and
(b) set out the relationship between the major actions planned by the authority and
(i) the regional growth strategy,
(ii) provincial and regional environmental objectives, including air quality and greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives,
(iii) anticipated population growth in, and economic development of, the transportation service region, and
(iv) the authority’s current long term strategy.
(2) In preparing its base plan and any supplements, the authority must be guided by the authority’s current long term strategy.