For the record, here was the recommended ballot by the Mayors. The changes made by the Province are noted below.
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Metro News – B.C. approves transit referendum question, ballots mailed March 16
The final ballot will ask: “Do you support a new 0.5% Metro Vancouver Congestion Improvement Tax, to be dedicated to the Mayors’ Transportation and Transit Plan?”
The Province calls it a plebiscite – but everyone else is still calling it a referendum. So will we.
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Vancouver Sun: Vote on proposed 0.5% transit tax could cost millions
B.C. says it will fund the plebiscite, but not the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns
I still can’t help but think that Todd Stone took the Mayors’ ballot, gave it to an intern and said “change it around a bit so it looks like we contributed. Have it on my desk in an hour.”
there is a world of differences as explained here
You might be right! But you might also be searching for deeper meaning in superficial changes.
The good: Since it’s called a “plebiscite”, the Province has already decided that it will fund transit. The vote is simply a way for the province to test the waters to see if any tax raise is in store.
If the vote gets turned down: the province will simply find other ways to fund transit.
If the vote passes: the province doesn’t really like raising sales taxes, and will only implement a 0.5% tax if there is an overwhelming yes vote. The matter remains that a sales tax hurts small businesses, and christy clark is committed to “strong economy, secure tomorrow”.
In a nutshell: Expect the broadway and surrey skytrain regardless of the outcome of the vote. Only expect a tax increase if the vote is >66% yes.
A win win for transit advocates across the region.
The Province has already said that 50% plus one will be a victory as it should be.
While driving on congested roads will continue unabated, as will cheap/free residential parking as well as excessive salaries&benefits for unionized civil servants as will excessive income taxation.
This is not leadership. This is just a money grab. Better solutions exist all within the toolkit of the mayors and certainly the province.
I wish we could have had a plebiscite on that Gateway Project.
I notice they got rid of the specific words of “light rail” in Surrey and Skytrain under Broadway.
Not sure if this might be due to light rail’s dubious business case (Translink HAS done a study on it for Surrey, afterall, and it didn’t fare well). In the past, regarding the Canada Line, The Province stepped in to prevent light rail and build a more robust system.
it is because no one knows the difference. SkyTrain to the layperson means elevated train, whereas experts know it is a certain technology also usable in subways. I call a light rail train at street grade ( like the one planned in Surrey to my knowledge) a street car. Plus, the technology hasn’t been decided yet, has it ? Maybe it will be a magnetic levitation train ?
The Province is never going to let a bunch of mayors or TransLink decide technology, route or any other meaningful rapid transit parameter. The Ministry wants to be in complete control and take credit for all major projects, but have someone else pay for it and take the blame for anything that might go wrong or simply be unpopular. It has always been thus.
Why is that ?
@Thomas & David:
The cities are individual hermits, caring little if anything about neighboring cities. We saw Burnaby’s Derek Corrigan voting down every proposal to improve transit despite having 2 skytrain lines crisscrossing its city.
Similarly, Translink & Metro Vancouver cares little about helping the local economy. Translink, instead of ordering seabuses from the local economy, got Burrard Otter 2 made in the Netherlands.
The province has always, and will always be biased towards ALRT, or heavy rail, because it has proven to stimulate economic development. A study done in 1989 showed $5.6 billion generated from the Expo Line, just 3 years after it opened. That was before metrotown, and therefore the figure is probably >10X today.
The BC government cares a whole lot about “Strong economy…”, and places job creation and economic growth at forefront. RRT (or ALRT) Skytrain has consistently shown to benefit not only the city in which it goes through, but the entire region and possibly the province. Various taxes such as sales taxes and income taxes increase, something that municipalities do not notice.
I leave with a final example: The Vancouver Convention Centre was built over budget, and was regarded as a government failure. But you must realize that it has generated more revenue from increased tourism and conferences (such as TED) that exceeds the costs many times. The real winner is not CoV; it is the province, because it sees huge increases in commercial revenue and tourism.
In a sense, the cities & region fail to see “the bigger picture.”
Reblogged this on amvpower and commented:
Metro Vancouver’s Livability On the Line: Transit “Plebiscite”