Metro Vancouver’s TransLink Mayors’ Council has unveiled an election guide for voters focused on transit.
The guide looks at whether parties have committed to creating a permanent fund for future transit projects and their approaches to mitigating congestion.
“All the major parties say they recognize the importance of investing in transportation. They see the record transit ridership here that we’re having in Metro Vancouver and how that’s helping provide people with more transit options, helping getting more cars off of the road and reducing road congestion there,” said council chair and New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote.
“Where it really hits the road, though, is whether that actually translates to dollars that we can actually invest in the system.”
The mayors’ council called for a permanent transit fund earlier in the election campaign and has also suggested the Conservative Party’s plans to defer Liberal infrastructure investments could derail the region’s planned SkyTrain expansions.
The council argues that a permanent fund is needed to guarantee full SkyTrain extensions to Langley and the University of British Columbia in a single construction phase and to add all five planned Phase 3 RapidBus lines.
Currently, funding is only secured for the completion of SkyTrain extensions to Fleetwood in Surrey and Arbutus Street in Vancouver. TransLink’s RapidBus program is set to launch in 2020, but the agency has not revealed which lines will be rolled out first or the timeline for launching these routes.
The council also says a permanent fund would allow for the construction of a proposed gondola to Simon Fraser University and the creation of rapid transit of some kind on King George Boulevard.
Grading the parties
“The mayors’ council, along with major cities across the country, have been calling for actually stable, predictable funding to support transit so we’re not going from project to project,” Cote said.
“If that fund existed that provided long-term, predictable funding, we would be able to basically say we’ve got the funding in place from the federal side to move ahead with projects like SkyTrain to Langley or SkyTrain to UBC in a properly planned way.”
Cote said the Green, Liberal and New Democratic parties have all committed to a permanent transit fund. The Greens are offering $3.4 billion, the Liberals $3 billion, and the NDP has committed to funding but hasn’t specified how much.
The Conservatives have committed to completing currently funded infrastructure projects but would slow future funding rollouts and have not committed to a permanent transit fund once those commitments expire, the council says.
The guide notes the Conservatives have also pledged to fund the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel and reintroduce the Harper-era tax credit for transit passes.
It also highlights parties’ positions on bus electrification, noting that all the major parties, save for the Conservatives, have committed to targets or funding.
The Greens are pledging a hard target of 2040 for all public transit to be zero emissions, while the Liberals are promising a $180-million annual fund to electrify public transit. The NDP has set a 2030 target to electrify transit with a $1.45-billion annual fund.
The guide also includes the parties’ answers to the council’s four-point Cure Congestion Questionnaire.
That survey asks whether the parties think reducing regional congestion should be a priority, whether they support accelerating the council’s 10-year vision, whether they would establish a congestion relief fund and what they think the role of the federal government should be in funding local transit.
You can read the full answers to the questionnaire below.
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