Vaughn Palmer writes in the Vancouver Sun about the upcoming trip to Ottawa by Provincial Ministers Stone and Fassbender. They’re making a list, and checking it twice:
The list is a hefty one. “We’ve got a lot ask for,” Fassbender said and proceeded to rattle off a highlights package that included the widening of the Trans-Canada Highway through the Interior, light-rail service for Surrey, a SkyTrain extension in Vancouver, and replacements for the Pattullo Bridge and the Massey Tunnel.
The Massey Tunnel replacement has attracted neither a Federal Liberal campaign endorsement nor a municipal one. But certainly it is a coal agenda necessity.
Funding is always the biggest issue, and clouded for some projects by the very awkward Provincial dictum that a successful referendum is a mandatory prerequisite to any new regional tax. Metro Vancouver govt’s may find them selves in a corner, possibly with fewer $$ at stake, as the Federal and Provincial money looks close to reality, but a referendum on new funding sources would slow things by years, with an uncertain outcome. How much, one wonders, would the Mayors be willing to raise property taxes in order to chip in their chunk of an as-yet unclear funding formula.
Here’s the sound of pressure. Palmer describes Fassbender’s take on timing:
Both times the veteran politician gave much the same answer. “We know clearly that the federal government wants to move quickly. We want to move quickly. The region has to move quickly. So I think what we have to do is to say if we’ve got money sitting on the table ready to be spent, then the region has to make a decision with the funding tools that are available.”
How quickly could they get shovels in the ground?
“The planning work is already going on — on the Broadway corridor and the south-of-the-Fraser rapid transit. . . .
. . . . He even hinted that with the right commitment of federal dollars, both transit lines could get the go-ahead. “The new prime minister on the campaign trail in both Vancouver and Surrey, said, ‘We want these projects to move ahead,’” the B.C. minister reminded me.
So it sounds that if Ottawa is there with however many dollars on however many projects, then the province will be there with its share, subject still to whatever the parties can sort out in terms of a regional contribution.
Why are they going to the Feds for Massey Tunnel financing? Not only have they already announced it, they’re already well into the design phase of the project. Haven’t they already worked out how it will be paid for? If not, aren’t all these other projects making similar progress?
Easy. The province smells a potential free lunch. Ask for the sun and stars, and you might get a Nanaimo bar to go with the tuna sandwich.
But the feds are in an excellent negotiating position. They could say, “Sorry, but we chioose to give priority to funding transit over roads because it fits so well within our climate change initiatives.”
We can only hope…
Just last week the federal cabinet was floating the idea that their share of project funding could be increased so that cities would pay only 10%, which neatly equates with their share of the gas tax. The province would have to be beyond petty to try to force a referendum on only that portion and not the other 90%.
Should Christy et al still want to play games, say by threatening to withhold some of its 1/3rd share to force the issue even though they have stated several times that the funding is “already in place,” that would remove every shred of doubt that they are prejudiced against and afraid of the most important economic engine of the province, Metro Vancouver.