Four months have passed since the provincial election and we are no closer to finding out the details of Christy Clark’s controversial commitment to a referendum on TransLink funding.
Even though it’s a decision that will affect the future healthy development of communities housing 2.5 million people, we are in the dark. Even though it’s a decision that, among other things, will affect where we live, where we work, where we get our food, nothing has been forthcoming to give us a clue.
Some things may become clearer when rookie MLA and Minister of Transportation Todd Stone sits down next Sept. 26 for a meeting with TransLink’s Mayors’ Council. But so far he has been mostly listening.
TransLink has been asking the province for a sustainable solution to its funding issues for years now. Both NDP and Liberal governments have turned their back on proposals. Now, rather than give up any of its own revenues or declare a new tax, the Liberals are intent on shifting the political heat and the debt load to the region. To provide the appearance of public engagement, they are insisting on a referendum.
Surrey’s Mayor Dianne Watts is among those who derisively refers to this as “ballot box budgeting” and is quick to point out that billions were put into the new Port Mann Bridge and the new highway to Whistler without a referendum.
And as recently as last June, the Mayors’ Council unanimously passed a motion rejecting a referendum as a step on the way to funding what are essential services.
But even if you accept that a referendum is a good idea and point to Norway and Sweden where referenda to support the reduction in traffic congestion passed (because the positive votes in the city outweighed the votes in the surrounding municipalities), there are fundamental questions which remain to be answered.
The first, and one which Mayors’ Council Chair and North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton keep asking, is: Whose referendum is this anyway? Which is to say, who will lead the charge to see that it passes and who will fund that campaign that will undoubtedly cost millions?
There are groups at SFU and UBC and among the trade unions who would come forward to support a referendum. Lots of folks may be willing to put in the time and effort. But, again, who will lead?
Walton insists that his council doesn’t have the resources: “I do my job off the corner of my desk.” Nor, according to the legislation that created the council, does it have the mandate to engage in such exercises.
If the responsibility falls to the appointed board of TransLink, that would be awkward too. Even though it has virtually all of the decision making power that was stripped away from the mayors four years ago by Premier Gordon Campbell and Kevin Falcon, his minister of transportation, it is not an elected body.
That leaves only the province to carry this forward. But Premier Clark deliberately proposed a referendum to avoid the heat involved in a process that will, regardless of what it is called, mean a tax increase.
This raises a second point: What will the wording of the question be and who will fashion it? Most certainly if it simply asks for increased taxes to fund new transit projects it will fail. Even though it will likely be more popular in Vancouver and possibly Burnaby, which are already benefiting from the bulk of public transit assets, the further away from the centre you go, the more resistance you’ll find.
As mayors have pointed out, it will be a most divisive exercise. What is more, a no vote, as we have seen in this town on the issue of wards, sets decisions back by years if not decades.
Meanwhile, the mayors are somewhat divided. Some are behind Burnaby’s Derek Corrigan who is expected to introduce a motion at their next meeting suggesting they all pull away from the TransLink table and dump the whole mess in the province’s lap. Others, no fans of a referendum either, figure the best way to protect their interests is to sit where they are and see what come of it.
As for the rest of us, we are left to wait and see who will take us for a ride.
[email protected]
