I don’t think it’s too much to say that this is an obscenity:
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Sunshine Coast Connector options
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Think about it:
(1) Two years ago, the Premier simply announced a multi-billion-dollar Massey Crossing, with no relationship to any regional plan, that would put immense development pressure on the ALR and land below sea level.
(2) She imposed a doomed plebiscite on the region for transit funding, and took no responsibility for the outcome.
(3) Conventional wisdom assumes that there will be no provincial money for a Broadway subway, forcing the City to think about indebting itself if it’s to proceed.
(4) Last week, an out-of-the blue announcement: another multi-billion proposal for highways and bridges to serve what would be a tiny fraction of the regional population.
Staggering amounts of money for highways and bridges; none for transit. Yet hardly a raised eyebrow.
What explains the political calculation that produces such disproportionate decision-making? Part of the answer can be found at the end of the just-released report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission.
Considerations for the Legislative Assembly
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The May 2014 amendments to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act prohibit a reduction in the number of electoral districts in the North, Cariboo-Thompson and Columbia-Kootenay regions. These regions contain electoral districts whose populations generally are much smaller than the provincial average, and furthermore, contain areas of the province whose population is growing more slowly than the provincial average.
Effectively freezing the number of electoral districts in regions with slower or negative growth has led to more electoral districts further from the provincial average in the rest of the province; this effect is most prominent in areas of rapid growth. …
Whereas the 1999 Commission proposals6 provided for 60% of the electoral districts to be within +/-10% of the provincial average, this has decreased to only 46% of our proposals. Consequently, more than half of our proposed electoral districts are more than +/-10% of the provincial average and 10 are greater than 25% below average (two are more than 50%). As more electoral districts stray toward the outer limits of the permissible range dictated by the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act and the Supreme Court, the principle of representation by population is weakened(see Appendix E for more details). …
To repeat: “representation by population is weakened.”
That’s the idea: the more populous and faster-growing parts of the province have ever-weaker electoral representation. Those parts less likely to support the party in power can be more effectively ignored, even as their tax dollars can be used to build infrastructure elsewhere in the province.
Which is exactly what’s happening.
The advance of technology since the Supreme Court last crafted principles of equitable effective representation would seem to mean that standards should be updated. Someone should sue
We were in Powell River last week. Charming, tranquil and almost as many bears as people. No one we spoke to there and at Garden Bay could figure this out. To drive “over the top” via Squamish would take as long as the ferry wait plus the voyage, with added pollution, energy consumption and car crashes. Who would benefit, unless there’s a huge real-estate play involving Port Mellon? Or is this just hubris — like a return to the days of Pat McGeer and his bridge to Vancouver Island?
Option 3 seems even crazier. I can’t imagine that, if they opened up both option 3 and kept the ferry, that many would choose to drive.
And would any of these include any kind of attractive public transit or cycle routes? I suspect they won’t.
Change the electoral system while we are at it?
You gotta love Option 1 with the arbitrarily straight line across Gambier Island (as if it’s flat as the prairie and devoid of topography), connected by 3km and 5km bridges with limited landing possibilities. Looks like an engineering cake walk. Cheap too.
If the Liberals were really serious about increasing access to the Sunshine Coast in a vaguely cost effective way, why not throw money at BC Ferries to increase Comox-Powell & Horseshoe-Langdale service frequency? Oh wait, never mind, you can’t be seen as treating Ferries like part of the Provincial highway network, someone else already floated that idea…