The City of Vancouver will host neighbourhood meetings, use social media and reallocate some of its staff as part of its campaign to educate voters and help secure a region-wide Yes vote in the spring plebiscite on transit and transportation.
But the city will not spend any extra money in its drive to urge voters to support a 0.5 per cent tax hike to help pay for a $7.5 billion plan that includes a subway along the Broadway corridor, said Jerry Dobrovolny, the city’s transportation director, who outlined the city’s role in the Yes campaign at a city council meeting Tuesday.
“We’ll use existing city staff and we’ll use existing budgets,” said Dobrovolny, noting the mayors’ council on regional transportation will do “the lion’s share of the work” in engaging and educating the public about the plan.
The mayors’ council devised the $7.5-billion, 10-year plan and created a secretariat to steer a Yes campaign that includes three staff from Vancouver. Five other city staff continue to do presentations on the plan and will meet with groups of 10 or more, if they have questions.
“Call us and invite us out, we’re happy to meet in person,” Dobrovolny said. “It’s a valuable way to have the conversation because we can drill down into your neighbourhood and be more specific [about the plan].”
In addition, he said, all the city’s 311 operators are equipped with information regarding the mayors’ plan, including how to access the mayors’ council website and ensure a person is registered to vote in the plebiscite.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer pointed out that in early 2013 there were 300,000 unregistered voters in B.C. Reimer said Elections B.C. was able to register 170,000 of those but she was concerned the balance never did get registered and won’t vote in the plebiscite.
“The answer from Elections B.C. is, in fact, ‘We don’t know yet,’’’ replied Michael Buda, executive director of the mayors’ council, who was present at city council. “They’re waiting to hear final regulations from [the provincial] cabinet. They’re ready to work quite closely with us to come up with some good solutions to that.”
Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang said he was worried the need for a Yes vote will be lost in non-English speaking communities, particularly in the Chinese community where they aren’t hearing both sides of the debate on the proposed tax hike.
“I want to make sure that we have ample opportunity to reach out to the Chinese media and that we give them plenty of opportunity to meet all sorts of folks and there’s a real strategy for ethnic media,” Jang told city staff after learning the city’s 311 system has access to 165 languages and includes staff who can translate.
The city is pushing a Yes vote because city council went on record last month of supporting the 0.5 per cent tax hike, saying there was an urgent need to cut congestion in the region.
Metro Vancouver’s population will increase by more than 1 million people and 600,000 jobs over the next 30 years. The plan calls for a subway along Broadway, a light rail transit system in Surrey, a new Pattullo Bridge and 25 per cent more bus service, including an 80 per cent increase to night bus service across the region.
If the Yes side wins, the tax hike translates to about $125 a year for an average household and $50 per year for low-incomes households, both averages depending on how much people purchase.
The No TransLink Tax group leading the No campaign says municipalities could use revenue collected from future growth instead of pushing a 0.5 per cent hike to the seven per cent sales tax.
“TransLink, Metro Vancouver and municipal revenues are going to grow by an average of 4.8 per cent a year,” says a statement on the No side’s website. “They can fund the whole plan if they only grow at 4.3 per cent. No programs need to be cut, spending just has to grow a little slower.”
Voters will begin receiving ballots in the mail by mid-March.
