News that the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain line on B.C.’s Lower Mainland will cost 50 per cent more and come online a year later than initially forecast is being met with frustration.
The provincial government revealed Thursday the new line will cost just under $6 billion, with an expected service date of late 2029.
Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, whose council scrapped a previously planned light rail project in favour of the SkyTrain in 2018, said delays in getting shovels in the ground are to blame.
“It hasn’t started for six years, and in that time, inflation — we all know that’s skyrocketed,” he said.
“When governments announce these major infrastructure projects they need to start right away, like literally next month, then they will be on time and on budget. But they don’t.”
TransLink began planning for the project in 2018, but initial funding would have only covered one phase of the line to Fleetwood in Surrey.
In 2021, the federal government committed $1.3 billion for the project, and the province announced it would be built in a single phase. But construction on the first phase was delayed as TransLink grappled with ridership and financial challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, the province released the business plan for the revised single-phase project, with an estimated cost of just under $4 billion.
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Surrey Board of Trade president and CEO Anita Huberman said she was not surprised to learn the project had been delayed yet again, nor that it would cost more.
“There’s always these ballooning costs,” she said, adding she doubts the line will be in service before 2030.
“Every single cost when it comes to infrastructure, and in this case transportation, affects the bottom line of businesses, she said. “It’s businesses that bear the greatest burden of taxation.”
Huberman added that if the city had stuck with the proposed light rail project, streetcars would have already been in service in Surrey.
“We could have had it,” she said. “I wish we had it today.”
Township of Langley Mayor Eric Woodward said the delay is harder to swallow while the province is mandating communities like his to work quickly to build more housing near transit hubs.
“I have grave concerns the cost will go up even further and be delayed longer while they’re mandating us to build significant amounts of density long before the SkyTrain arrives,” he said.
Speaking with Global News Morning BC, Transporation Minister Rob Fleming defended the growing costs, pointing out that Calgary’s Green Line, Toronto’s Ontario Line and Montreal’s REM line have all seen similar increases.
“The costs of materials have gone up for construction about 60 per cent, labour rates are up about 20 per cent … and the cost to ship components for a complicated project like this from around the world are up over 100 per cent,” Fleming said.
Fleming argued that even with the higher sticker price, the new line is still needed, and is critical to tackling the housing crisis.
“The economic benefits of this project are immense,” he said. “We have to stop chasing growth in the fastest-growing, more dynamic parts of our province, we have to start shaping growth.”
With B.C. just two months away from a provincial election, the delay and cost increase have led to a war of words among political leaders.
The BC Conservatives jumped on the issue as an example of waste at the transit agency.
“The $6 billion Surrey Skytrain debacle is just another example of why the Conservative Party of BC has called for a TransLink accountability audit … to provide transparency on how taxpayer dollars are being spent,” Leader John Rustad said.
BC United Leader Kevin Falcon blamed the NDP’s Community Benefits Agreements, which prioritize unions, First Nations and women in certain public works projects.
Premier David Eby responded Thursday accusing both opposition leaders of failing to build the line when they were cabinet ministers in the former BC Liberal government.
“It would have been cheaper to build SkyTrain when John Rustad and Kevin Falcon promised it in 2008, but of course they didn’t build it so of course it didn’t cost anything,” Eby said.
The ministry said major construction on the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain line is expected to begin later this year, with guideway, station, systems and trackwork contracts now inked.
Early work on the project is already underway.