Do you think a provincial NDP government will make any difference when it comes to public transportation?
I ask this for a few of reasons. For starters, in less than six months there will be a provincial election and there is reason to believe we could have a change in government.
Secondly, public transit, particularly when it comes to TransLink, is in serious difficulty. Folks in historically high numbers are abandoning their cars and while some are walking and others are riding their bikes, most of them are turning to an overloaded public transit system. Just ask the hordes of folks who, on a daily basis, are passed up by the B-Line on Broadway.
This brings me to the third reason to ask the question, which is about what you have told the city: In the long narrative of Vancouvers 2013 budget as it was delivered Tuesday night at council, staff said that of the top five issues concerning Vancouverites, transportation is now number two just behind housing and homelessness. (See note re: B-Line above.) And, for the first time, concern about transportation is ahead of taxes. It is also beats out garbage and public safety.
The shift from automobile use is being promoted with passion by the city and by cities all over the world. Its reflected in the changing nature of developments, which are clustering around transit stops and are leaving less space for parking lots.
Car-sharing companies and co-ops are apparently booming in the city. My generation could not have imagined life without a car. Two generations later and they cant see the need to have one.
And so you would think TransLink would be thriving rather than gasping to survive; that it would be expanding services to the underserved suburbs rather than cutting those services and reallocating resources to more profitable routes.
The unintended consequence of people changing their transportation mod has, in fact, been devastating. The Golden Ears toll bridge has not become the golden goose it was expected to be. Tolls collected there, we are told, far from filling TransLinks coffers, barely cover the cost of bridge maintenance. Tax revenues on gas used by private vehicles intended to support TransLinks public transit projects has tumbled because, well, there are fewer cars on the road. Its estimated that TransLink will be down $145 million in such revenues over the next three years.
And throughout all this, a provincial government with revenue issues of its own has steadfastly refused to grant TransLink any additional revenue streams to maintain and expand services. And the TransLink commissioner has, so far, held transit fare increases to the mandatory minimum while he encourages TransLink to continue to reduce its costs.
So what would the NDP do should they come to power? And will they be any different from the Liberals? Best to ask what the NDP have done in the past.
When they were in government, the NDP made a commitment to impose a vehicle levy to generate funds for TransLink. Ujjal Dosanjh was the NDP premier who had that obligation. He choked. Rather than thinking of the public good, he was more concerned about his own political skin. The Liberals have made the same choice.
And when former NDP premier Glen Clark decided to build his own SkyTrain line he paid no more attention to local sentiments than his predecessor Bill Bennett or the next guy up, Gordon Campbell.
As for the future, I put that to NDP transportation critic Harry Baines.
He says, for funding, We need a little from many sources. Everything will be on the table from vehicle levies, levies based on mileage, tolls and revenues from increased corporate taxes.
But what he was most clear on was this: No government can afford not to deal with this anymore.
To which I would say: Show me the money.
