Vancouver city staff knifed a Non-Partisan Association campaign pledge to start up a downtown streetcar line, saying Thursday the city has no plans to do something that rightfully is a TransLink responsibility.
In an uncharacteristically blunt rejection of a political election promise, both city manager Penny Ballem and city engineer Peter Judd said Vancouver can’t afford the $100-million-to-$200-million debt and that there are much higher priorities on the city’s list of needed transportation improvements.
The two seasoned bureaucrats, who like all city staff are normally careful not to stray into political commentary, were boxed in by Coalition of Progressive Electors Coun. David Cadman during debate about the city’s new $702-million three-year capital plan.
To laughter from Vision Vancouver colleagues, Cadman mischievously asked staff if the NPA’s promise to build the line if it forms the next administration could be funded from the capital plan. On Tuesday NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton, who is challenging Mayor Gregor Robertson in the Nov. 19 election, pledged that within 60 days of taking office her administration would prepare a business plan to finish a streetcar system linking Canada Place to Granville Island. A two-car streetcar ran along track between the Olympic Village Canada line station and the island during the 2010 Olympics.
Cadman, whose party didn’t renominate him to run for council, repeatedly asked questions in several different ways in an effort to show the city couldn’t afford the promise.
Judd eventually reacted by saying the streetcar plan, while laudable, is not in the city’s plans.
“I know you want an answer, but the answer is this is not a project the city would pursue on its own. It is a project that has to be pursued integrally with TransLink,” he said. “Our focus and priority right now is the Broadway system. Quite frankly, the Broadway line will have a far improvement and impact on transit use in the city than the streetcar.”
When Cadman persisted about how the city would fund the line if it chose to go it alone, Ballem interjected.
“Given the process we went through to get our capital spending down from $770 million to $700 million over the last three months, it would be a very significant challenge – almost not feasible – to find that money within our existing plan,” she said. “To actually even remotely consider that, it would be a question of incurring even more debt.”
Anton did not respond to the statements in council. In an email she said she was unfazed by the comments.
“They are working on the premise that the city would fund it. I am looking for other funders, including a private partner. The streetcar will be full the day it opens,” she wrote. “To get the streetcar back into Vancouver, you need to take the first step. I’m planning to do that. After that it will be unstoppable. I do not buy into the theory that it is either/or between Broadway line and streetcar. We can and will do both.”
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