The following was sent by those noted below – the Sustainable Transportation Coalition – to the Premier, Leader of the Opposition, Mayor’s Council and media.
RE : Support of Increased Gas Tax and Other Funding Measures for TransLink
Dear Premier Clark:
We are very pleased that the Province of British Columbia is considering a gas tax increase of 2 cents and other measures such as a vehicle registration fee and road and bridge pricing to help fund the construction of the Evergreen Line and badly needed transit and cycling improvements throughout the region.
The Sustainable Transportation Coalition is a non-partisan organization that brings together key constituents who support a range of funding sources to allow TransLink to complete the 2040 plan and create a truly sustainable transportation system for our region. We are working to create a positive vision for our region’s transportation future and to build public and political support for the bold transportation policies and secure transportation funding needed to achieve that vision.
Families across the region need affordable transportation choices. We envision an integrated network of mobility options that simultaneously supports responsible, personal transportation needs for all, urban livability and land-use densification, and economic growth. This network will help to mitigate high gas prices, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve public health.
On May 18th we held an interactive transit funding workshop with over 50 key participants from transportation-related business and community organizations across the region, to envision potential funding sources for the 2040 plan. The consensus of the group was that decisive action by the province was necessary to move forward. The top three choices for funding options were: 1) Post-2012 Carbon Tax revenue, 2) A vehicle registration fee, and 3) Road and bridge pricing. Overwhelmingly, participants felt that using existing carbon tax revenue was “saleable” in the region, followed by by strong support for a vehicle registration fee and for smart road and bridge pricing.
We thank you for taking the lead on this issue. We pledge to help mobilize public opinion in support of a diverse range of options for long-term, sustainable funding transit in the region.
Sincerely,
SustainableTransportation Coalition:
Peter Ladner – Fellow, Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University; Former board member, TransLink
Gordon Price – Director, City Program, Simon Fraser University
Tanya Paz – Business Development Director, Modo The Car Co-op
Jack Becker – President, Third Wave Cycling Group
Margaret Mahan – Executive Director, BEST Better Environmentally Sound Transportation
Wayne De Angelis – Regional Director, BC & the Yukon, Architecture Canada
Brent Elliott – Chair, South Coast Chapter, Planning Institute of BC
John Calimente – Transportation Planner; Columnist for Spacing Vancouver Magazine
Matt Horne – Director, B.C. Energy Solutions, Pembina Institute
Richard Campbell – Vice President, VeloWorks Cycling Society
Nathan Pachal – Director, South Fraser OnTrax Transportation Advocacy Society
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Peter Ladner addressed in more detail the arguments in his Business in Vancouver column:
Time to bite the bullet on improved transit
OK, everyone. It’s time to stand up and be counted. Are you in favour of improved transit in our region?
If yes, do you have a better proposal to pay for it than a $0.02-a-litre increase in fuel taxes, plus some still-to-be-determined combination of vehicle levy, road pricing, carbon tax revenue or property tax increases? That’s where the regional mayors’ council and the provincial government have landed, working at a level of collaboration that hasn’t been seen in this region in decades.
As a key player on the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation puts it, there is no Plan B. Either we take this difficult step or we stall on repairs and improvements to a transit system that’s vital to this region’s economic and social health. And to families, Premier Clark!
Continue below the fold.
The gas tax increase has been portrayed in the media as simply a way to match senior government contributions and get the Evergreen Line from Lougheed to Coquitlam built, finally. Actually, the Evergreen Line is less than half the package of improvements in the TransLink plan.
It also includes:
•a 9% increase in bus service hours. (Bus pass-ups are now common in Vancouver, Port Moody and Surrey.);
•a new B-Line service in Surrey to connect Guildford, Surrey Central, and White Rock;
•a bus between White Rock and Langley;
•bus rapid transit on Highway 1 and over the new Port Mann Bridge in 2013, connecting Langley and Surrey with the SkyTrain network at Lougheed Station;
•SkyTrain station and SeaBus terminal renovations to add capacity; and
•restored capital funding for roads ($20 million) and cycling ($6 million).
Notice what’s missing from that list: any rapid transit along Broadway, the self-financing Burnaby gondola, SkyTrain extension in Surrey, a new Patullo Bridge, the North Fraser Perimeter Road, Vancouver’s downtown streetcar, the province’s promised new fuel-efficient buses… .
Just to get what is on the list, TransLink’s board, with the mayors’ council’s approval, has to come up with another $70 million a year. With a fuel-tax increase delivering $40 million, there’s still $30 million missing, even after TransLink’s purge of $55 million in internal costs.There’s a big opportunity to get this right, getting TransLink the steady long-term funding it so desperately needs to seriously reduce congestion and increase personal mobility. It starts with the unprecedented co-operation between TransLink and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, with minister Blair Lekstrom promising that the province will co-sponsor TransLink’s next (2045) plan and help engage stakeholders in picking from a gnarly assortment of new funding sources in time for the spring 2012 legislation, thus bypassing a potential property tax increase.
There’s also a startling consensus of politicians and business leaders endorsing some form of road pricing.
A group of senior transportation decision-makers, politicians and business leaders brought together in May by the fledgling Sustainable Transportation Coalition supported using a portion of the post-2012 carbon tax (87%), a vehicle levy (68%) and road pricing (53%) to get the missing $30 million and more.
There’s widespread agreement that while these politically volatile new measures are necessary, they have to be finessed to allow relief to people in areas without transit, to people who drive fuel-efficient cars and to those who shift their travel to off-peak hours.
It’s so much easier to foment anger about increased taxes than it is to sell difficult improvements to build essential infrastructure. One gets you ratings and political popularity. The other gets results that make this region livable and prosperous. •
Peter Ladner (pladner@biv.com) is a founder of Business in Vancouver and a former Vancouver city councillor. His book, The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities, will be published by New Society in October 2011.
This article from Business in Vancouver July 26-August 1, 2011; issue 1135
Business in Vancouver (www.biv.com)
