“Our position is clear. If the people of Metro Vancouver are being asked to pay new taxes or fees, then taxpayers must have a say.”
– Transportation Minister Todd Stone
Well, there are a few qualifications:
- No say if increased taxes are for provincial bridges in the region.
- No say if it is for roads and bridges elsewhere in the province.
- No say if it is for the percent of transit elsewhere in the province that Metro taxpayers contribute.
That last one is a bit of a kicker.
BC Transit is “the provincial Crown agency charged with coordinating transportation systems throughout British Columbia outside of Metro Vancouver.” Here are its funding sources:
Remember: half of the provincial taxpayers are in the Metro Vancouver region. But there is no equivalent slice of the pie chart in the TransLink budget for “Provincial Funding.”
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So, folks, this is how it works. As a regional taxpayer, you will pay provincial taxes to run transit services elsewhere in the province – but they won’t be sending their tax dollars to you, through the Province, for TransLink. You will not get a vote if provincial revenue to B.C. Transit increases, but you will have to vote to tax yourself to expand local service here.
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Todd Stone: ” While there are many taxes, there is only one taxpayer.”
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But some taxpayers are more equal than others.
Not only do half of all taxpayers in BC live in Metro Vancouver, but I imagine they contribute more than half the Provincial taxes.
But I don’t know if there is data somewhere on that.
Presumably, that funding model is for operating costs?
The corollary to that would be that Provincial taxpayers may pay more towards Metro Vancouver transit via capital costs for rapid transit capital expenses the scale of which do not exist in other areas of the Province. i.e. the Province’s share of rest-of-Province annual operating costs in the chart above, at $114.1 M, is one-fifth of the $583 M that the Province is constributing towards one project – the Evergreen Line. That’s 5 years of rest-of-Province operating payments.
http://www.evergreenline.gov.bc.ca/documents/NewsReleases/2012TRAN0083-001279.pdf
The flip side is that different regions of the Province have different needs. Some may require more infrstructure, others, less. Some may require more winter maintenance, others less.
You can’t always compare apples to apples and then whine and complain – it’s unfair!
i.e. Metro Vancouver taxpayers through the Province, pay far far more towards the costs of fighting forest fire than we actualy use ourselves.
And, also, if you missed it – there’s this explanation mentioned in a Province article – the muncipalities negotiated that the Province would pay for hospital construction in exchange for the municipalities paying for transit funding. That’s why the Province doesn’t contribute as much to Metro Vnacouver Transit operating costs. But politicians come and go so no one remembers?!?
http://www.theprovince.com/news/TransLink+shell+game+province+Metro+Vancouver+mayors+odds/9410975/story.html
The solution, of course, would be to revert to the previous scheme – where the Province contributes to transit funding, and municipalities pay for their hospitals. Seems like a fair deal doesn’t it – esp. with a new St. Paul’s Hospittal in the horizon?
Today’s letter from the Minister to the Mayor’s Council contained this tidbit:
“Two further points with respect to new funding sources: first, if new funding sources are identified and proposed, they must be generated in the region, and not subsidized by taxpayers in the rest of the province. In addition, the provincial government will not permit new funding to be collected from the provincial transportation system situated in the region.”
So road pricing is strictly forbidden.
A slightly myopic view of the province. Road pricing is the only tool that makes sense to reduce congestion in Vancouver, entice folks to use the car less and to fund more public transit. While I generally think the Liberals are on the right track they don’t understand how big cities work. Very poor decision / view of the province.
Now having said that I am not sure which roads are provincial and which are funded by the cities and as such, tolling Granville, Broadway or Cambie Bridge may still happen !
even though i try to be optimistic, i’m more dismayed about what seems to be kicking the can down the road. Regardless of what the mayors decide, the province will always be the driver of infrastructure. i have always had little faith in what the mayors council can decide, but the province is now seemingly stepping away from being the impetus for things like the broadway subway and the surrey/langley skytrain line.
In other words nothing will happen for a decade because we all know what happened when Mayors were in charge…They had rejected Canada line something like 3 times in a row until province stepped in and sent them packing…
exactly. or even worse, due to regionalism and the lack of a broader perspective the mayors council will decide on infrastructure that is lacking, like the TTC. Looking at the surrey skytrain example, Dianne watts is dead set on LRT for surrey even though TL’s own work shows more ridership and faster travel times for a skytrain extension thru fleetwood/clayton to langley city rather than the lrt plan…
also agreed – Just look at Toronto (lots of bickering and no action).
Municipalities are the most inward looking level of government.
It’s all me, me, me, with one municipality /neighbourhood/ ward against the other.
(Perhaps because they are closest to voters)
Taxes are too high in Vancouver and civil servants salaries and overall size too high. This is why the Liberals got elected and overspending NDP lost !