Steve Burgess is consistently funny, and never less than sharp and entertaining. This one works for me.
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TransLink certainly had a massive army of support, even with non-functioning Fare Gates and a Compass Card that just can’t find any direction. Foot shooting has also become a chronic office pastime for management and the board. Yet all the stalwarts of society, the academy and the offices of governments all strongly and vocally called loudly for billions more cash for TransLink. That one spokesman for the opposing side Jordan Bateman, was able to reduce support for TransLink to far less than half of the population was extraordinary.
The other amazing aspect of this overwhelming and profound defeat of both TransLink and the vast majority of local mayors is that Bateman had a minuscule budget, a few thousand compared to many millions.
Bateman’s secret weapon was the simple truth.
One would expect that the underdog on a tiny budget, up against the almost all the political, academic and business pillars of society, would be praised and lauded. He is.
Actually, Bateman’s weapon was not truth, it was “truthiness”; and amongst his opposition’s many weaknesses was their inability to articulate how almost every point he made before and during the plebiscite was bullshit. From his knowing ignorance about how much the regional sales tax would cost to his pearl-clutching about fare evasion to his selective memory about TransLink history and his equivocation about how his campaign to defund TransLink was funded. He spent a year building a pile of bullshit and refused to admit it smelled like anything but roses.
And it continues. Remember how Bateman promised us the only way to fix TransLink was to vote no? How a no vote would force the province to change the governance? Would force the Mayors to come up with a better plan that wouldn’t cost you a dime? How’s that working out?
I suggest Gord that if you won’t draw the line at civility, you draw the line at defamation when publishing commentors’ attacks on Jordan. Here’s the link to the comprehensive financing disclosure from the No campaign. http://www.notranslinktax.ca/no_translink_tax_releases_final_list_of_donors
I really wish if the CTF wants to advocate for less government they could also be consistent and complain about the Massey Tunnel replacement. Are they against that??
Defamatory? Huh? How are Councillor Johnstone’s comments defamatory? Are we not allowed to disagree with the great Jordan Bateman publicly? And speaking of civility, do you consider this Bateman tweet civil?
https://twitter.com/jordanbateman/status/184657860351893505
Meh. I’ve said worse things about Mr. Bateman’s serial cognitive dissonance.
https://patrickjohnstone.ca/2011/11/pledging-to-stop-property-taxes.html
https://patrickjohnstone.ca/2015/01/fare-evasion-and-jordan-bateman.html
Why thanks for telling us how much it cost for you to collectively get us to ram our heads up our own bottoms…
Now if could you could tell us how much benefit we’re losing by having our transportation network planned by a wedding planner that would be primo!
Oh, and that mush-touted “financial disclosure” the CTF made? More bullshit.
https://patrickjohnstone.ca/2015/03/on-disclosure.html
That one spokesman for the opposing side[,] Jordan Bateman, was able to reduce support for TransLink to far less than half of the population was extraordinary. …. overwhelming defeat of both TransLink and the vast majority of local mayors ….
Let’s see. TransLink is still around and will remail so as long as the premier needs to squish the little heads of the directors between her pudgy fingers, manipulate the organizational structure to bend to her will (but never to eliminate it or allow it to be directly elected by the people it serves), and use the organization as a shield that deflects the public’s wrath about our screwed up provincial transportation priorities.
The mayors are still around and just as critical as ever of the provincial government, if not more so. And more than “half the population” are still here bemoaning the fact that there was no Plan B. There just simply is no regional plan at all.
Enter the federal government. With a new government that not only recognizes the deep, decades-long deficit in the funding of urban infrastructure, but also the magnitude of importance our cities have to the national economy, try as they will Msrs. Bateman & Thomas will have no sway whatsoever over the federal initiative to cover most if not all of the municipal portion of new transit projects without referenda which, in the words of Anne Golden, are “one step away from mob rule.”
Some victory. I would advise Jordan and Gregory to hold off cracking the rest of the case of champagne.
MB, Gregor has a Plan B. Didn’t he tell you?
Globe and Mail, June 15, 2015
““We’re working on Plan B now in the event there is a negative outcome,” Mr. Robertson told reporters on Wednesday after a speech to the Urban Land Institute in Vancouver.
“Obviously, we’re hopeful we have a Yes vote and we can proceed as planned with the mayors’ 10-year investment, but if that doesn’t work out, we’ll go to Plan B and look at alternatives.”
However, the mayor declined to offer specifics on the plan for building the $3-billion project from Commercial Drive to Arbutus, currently hinging on plebiscite funding as well as money from the federal and B.C. governments.
Asked for details on Plan B, Mr. Robertson said, “It’s too early to say.”
Let’s ask the City Manager, Penny Ballem. Oh, she’s been fired. So, let’s ask Peter Jackson. Oops, he’s quit. Let’s ask the CEO of TransLink Ian Jarvis. Oh, he’s been fired and replaced by Doug Allen. Oops, he just quit. The director of strategic planning and policy, Tamim Raad, and the director of systems planning and research, Brian Mills have been fired, TransLink executive vice-president Bob Paddon and BC Rapid Transit Company president and general manager Doug Kelsey have been fired too.
What a Team! Let’s give them a few billion more to play with!
Er, no. We have a plan B and it starts with THEIR hand out of OUR pockets.
Three months after Gregor’s ill-advised comment, and no Plan B. There never was and nor will there be a Plan B.
Listing all those people supposedly “fired” over one issue ….. sorry, that won’t survive the wash ‘n dry cycle.
We can’t count on Gregor any more? Is this a headline?
Yes, as I said, there was and is no Plan B.
Eric, you’re consistent if nothing else. Consistently misleading, but consistent.
I, like most people want more funding for transit and infrastructure. That does not equal support or love for translink, they just happen to be the current tool used to get transit. If the province decides to do something else or bring in a different tool to achieve transit, that’s what I’ll then focus on.
You like Bateman equate support for better transit infrastructure as support of translink. You’re wrong.
How does The Mayor of Burnaby , Derek Corrigan, see it?
TransLink is more of a Burnaby than a Vancouver operation. Yet, he too was opposed to the referendum.
My interpretation is that Jordan Bateman pointed out that within the existing funding available is plenty of money for expanding the system.
That the Conservative, and now too the Liberal government in Ottawa, as well as the provincial government in Victoria repeatedly said that they would together pick up two thirds of necessary funding, it seems that money is not really the issue.
The firing of the CEO of TransLink by his own Board, the criticism of TransLink by Mayor Gregor Robertson, then shortly after the referendum spectacular failure the firing of the lead planner and a few others, tells us that all is not groovy in the halls of TransLink.
We can be sure the general public felt the same way.
The previous 1/3 model was horrible. Why is it that transit has to have 1/3 paid by the municipality when they only collect 6% of the taxes. But when it comes to highways IE Portman the province pays 100%. Why is it good to encourage us to drive cars?
It’s obvious – when you compare the pay packages of TransLink insiders and urban studies mavens to Jordan’s pay packet – who is really running a racket. It isn’t Jordan Bateman. Transit funding is siphoned off into overstuffed pay packages and consulting fees. The Yes campaign was a prime example.
Please define “Translink insiders and urban studies mavens”, its really hard to compare numbers if we want to do some sort of analysis of Translink management if that is what you are insinuating. Does those people exist for highways?
I’ll define TranslLink insiders as the board and the senior executives listed in the most recent annual report. And for urban studies mavens, look at the staff of any urban studies or city program at a university.
1) So total admin costs for Translink are 4%:
http://buzzer.translink.ca/2013/03/translink-101-where-does-translink-get-its-funding-and-how-do-we-spend-it/
Are you saying that should be even lower? and what percentage would be good?
2) Are you insinuating that every time public transit or a bike lane gets built urban studies people like Gordan Price get a kickback? What about highways, will someone else get a kickback or no one, maybe you support the Massey Tunnel replacement?
Please answer so I can understand what the right wing bubble world looks like.
Oh my god I can’t stop laughing! You are hilarious!
“Urban studies mavens” are in it for the money! HHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!
In Gregory Thomas (@gthomasCTF) twitter account he has called us haters for questioning his comments, but yet no response from him on Price Tags about our comments?
Bus drivers making over $80,000, transit cops over $100,000, maintenance workers and secretaries making far more than private sector equivalents with far higher job security .. THAT is where the overspending starts .. no wonder we cannot afford clean electric subways or new LNG buses but rely on old diesel-spewing monsters, as our spending on civil servants or quasi-civil servants, i.e. employees of crown corporations, is out of control: http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/english/article/7290-public-sector-workers-oped.html
If WestJet, AirCanada, FedEx, Tim Horton’s, Safeway, Wal*Mart or any other smaller privately owned corporation [ I own two, btw ] where run like this they’d all be bankrupt. But these monoploy employers can always go back to the tax payer .. again and again.. threaten a strike .. and get more .. and more .. and more .. as such this recent “no” vote was not a vote for more transit, but a vote for sanity in public sector pay ! With a $5B+ budget across all 20+ municipalities in MetroVan with 70%+ of it in wages & benefits, a modest 20% cut to private sector norms would have freed up ALL the money required for sustainable transporttation sought in Metrovan (700M). The money is already collected today from the tax payer, it is just improperly allocated, namely to too many overpaid municipal employees.
If all those carbon taxes we are now facing would be moderated by tax relief elsewhere, and associated public sector wage & benefit cuts, of say 25-30% to bring them to private sector norms, then we’d actually have a sustainable model.
Sustainability consist of THREE elements: environmental, social AND FISCAL .. and all those crying for more “green” taxes under the banner of sustainability conveniently never mention this third element of sustainability ! That is the inconvenient truth, untold in schools, of course !
All Carbon “tax” revenue gets returned in the form of lowered personal and corporate income taxes.
Hi Greg, I’d like to compare Bateman’s pay to that of Translink staff. Where can I find Mr Bateman’s salary?
I just Googled “Jordan Bateman salary” and pulled it up from the Tyee in the first hit. http://www.lmgtfy.com
So to be clear, you don’t make your financial records public anywhere?
The first thing needs to simply allow Uber into our market, as long as the vehicles are regularly examined for safety and that sufficient insurance is obtained.
The next is to extend the success of the Canada Line and allow only P3 projects, where a private party has a vested interest in the bus line or the rail liner being efficient, and viable.
Fortunately, more and more people understand this.
Another one would be to stop wasting money on the Massey Tunnel replacement and use those funds for something that will actually give us a ROI.
What IS the alternative to the existing Massey tunnel to accomodate more traffic in it AND OVER IT so that bigger boats can transport more goods further up the wide Fraser? more row boats to cross the river ? A sign “go away, we are closed for tourism and business” ?
BC is a growing economy with 1M+ people due to arrive, liekly more actually in less than 50 years. Goods and people have to be moved for a region with 30+ ports and 3M+ soon 4M+ people. The new bridge gives a massive ROI to new jobs, faster commute times AND less pollution as cars that move pollute less, per km, than cars stuck in traffic, or going stop-and-go ! Uber and UberX will help with occupancy, but our “green” mayor from “vision” Vancouver opposes it.
More bike lanes won’t cut it in low density areas south of the Fraser. A train or high speed e-bus lane would make sense. Plus bridge tolls, of course, but that is another tax. Will BC lower income taxes in lieu ? or PST ?
More debate on this projetc here: https://pricetags.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/where-is-the-business-case-for-the-massey-crossing/
I’d ask instead: why the the SFPR (South Fraser Perimeter Road) not six lanes as 4 lanes is already tight in spots and with new jobs and harbor activity south of Fraser it will soon be too small ? Why is the Massey Tunnel / bridge not 8 lanes already ? Why is Lionsgate still 3 lanes ? Where is the subway on Broadway to UBC ? Why do we tear down perfectly viable viaducts without rapid transit alternatives, say a subway to E-Van and N-Burnaby and N-Van ? We need MORE projects like Port Mann or Massey tunnel replacement, far more, not less !
Thomas: “The new bridge gives a massive ROI …”
How do you reconcile this statement with your link in the same post asking why there is no business case? If you have the business case already prepared you should post it for comment.
What bothers me most about the Massey Tunnel Replacement Bridge is that it is meant to address the congestion faced by the beleaguered commuters from South Delta. My understanding is that traffic through the tunnel is now less than it was 10 years ago, so this argument is very weak and could easily be solved by encouraging more people to take transit. The real reason is for the port – namely coal from Surrey Docks, aviation fuel for YVR and LNG. If this is purely a port project, then why doesn’t the port pay for it? If these port projects are not viable without the bridge, then why should we all pay for the bridge? Total waste of money.
Arno; the new bridge is for the beleaguered residents of Ladner, Tsawwassen, the BC Ferry passengers using the terminal, Surrey Newton and South Surrey, Panorama Ridge, Cloverdale and Langley, Morgan Crossing, White Rock, Ocean Park and Crescent Beach, traffic to and from the USA and South Delta.
Maybe even a bike or two.
“beleaguered”, the tunnel has been getting less car volume over the last 10 years. Better to spend the money on metro lines in Surrey or Vancouver. This has an actual chance of an ROI.
Or Richmond and beyond, to Delta, Ladner, Surrey, etc.
City of Richmond Engineering, 2015
“Preliminary findings offield data collected by MoTI via Bluetooth technology regarding northbound morning peak period traffic volumes through the George Massey Tunnel suggest that:
• 60 per cent of the vehicles are destined for Richmond and of this 60 per cent, approximately one to two per cent is destined for the Bridgeport park-and-ride facility with the occupants continuing on to Vancouver via the Canada Line.
• Of the 40 per cent continuing on to Vancouver, 30 per cent use the Oak Street Bridge, ten per cent use the Knight Street Bridge”
So we should spend billions to accommodate this? Why not put a toll on the tunnel and use the revenue to add extra buses? Then there will be plenty of space for commercial vehicles and those who must drive. I hate seeing my tax dollars wasted on promoting single occupancy vehicles. And if a 10 lane bridge is built, what will happen when the increased traffic hits the bridges into Vancouver? There is really no justification for the Massey Tunnel Replacement bridge.