The Mayors’ Council on Transportation has made Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan its new chair.
Corrigan defeated Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson who had been in the position for three years.
However, concerns were quickly raised by city councillors.
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Langley Coun. Nathan Pachal said it will be interesting to have someone like Corrigan as chair.
“If you look at some of the history, he’s been opposed to the Evergreen Line being SkyTrain. I believe he voted in opposition to the Mayors’ 10-Year Vision, which had the support of pretty much every other mayor,” he said.
He’s glad the council’s votes are weighted and Corrigan doesn’t have complete control over the council. Otherwise, he said provincial and federal funding would stop flowing.
“From a regional perspective, I just hope that we don’t end up slowing down the process of what we’ve been building the momentum up over all these years,” Pachal said.
But Corrigan said he’s keen to carry on with the mayors’ 10-Year Vision plan.
“It’s going to be a question of prioritization,” he said. “It’s what can we move forward with quickly and what will have to be done at a later date.”
Corrigan said he’s “honoured” that his colleagues chose him to be chair, adding that his priority is to give mayors greater control over TransLink.
“I think most mayors were pretty frustrated when transit was taken away from them in 2008,” he said. “And there has been a push for the past eight or nine years to bring transit back to the mayors.”
He said this would allow mayors to address individual transit needs in their cities.
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