Novae Res Urbis summarizes the City Conversation of February 6: “The Transit Referendum: Should there be one? What will it take to win?”
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Vancouver city Councillor Geoff Meggs and Gordon Price, director of SFU’s City Program, told about 100 people at SFU’s City Conversations series that an effective transit system is essential to managing a region that expects one million more residents by 2040.
“You can’t move this whole region in a single, sustainable direction without a significant and integrated and planned investment in all forms of transportation and particularly public transit,” Meggs said. “No one disagrees with that.
“The mayors have been the butt of a lot of criticism in Victoria, and mockery, but have succeeded time and again in finding solutions, most recently and most remarkably with the regional growth strategy, which was unanimously adopted by all participating councils in the region.”
Meggs said paying for transit is not a question of democracy and that “to narrow it down to a tax measure is pretending it’s something it’s not.” …
Gordon Price said that if the referendum fails, the province would have to use taxpayer dollars to build a more expensive road-based transportation system “that would effectively negate the regional plan, the growth strategy.
“That’s essentially off the table.”
He also said more road systems would encroach on the agricultural land reserve.
Price said it is difficult to create a vision for what a referendum will achieve because there currently is no coordination among stakeholder groups nor consensus among the political leadership.
“We don’t even know who is supposed to write the question,” he said. “It’s one of these times when leadership really is required. If [Transportation Minister] Todd Stone wants to make his political career, now is the moment.
“If every leader and mayor, every business and labour leader, everyone in the community believes we have to get to ‘yes,’ I think it can be done.
“But under the current structure, we’re heading for ‘no,’ we’re heading for a loss, we’re heading for a historic reversal of what made this place great.”
Price suggested the government do what former premier Gordon Campbell did when the 2010 Olympic bid was being prepared and appoint someone to “do the heavy lifting,” as Campbell did with Jack Poole.
“Find a respected apolitical leader who can bring together the diverse voices … and do the trade-off s, understand the nuances, figure out what’s affordable, come back with a plan.”
He said no good reason has been given for holding the referendum, and Meggs noted that the government approved the new Port Mann and Massey tunnel-replacement bridges and the Gateway road program without going to the voters.
