This fall, Vancouver’s business community is hoping to bend the ear of Transportation Minister Todd Stone on the contentious transit funding issue.
“With a referendum, we’re very nervous out here as to what will happen as a result of that,” Anita Huberman, president of the Surrey Board of Trade, told Business in Vancouver. “We need our transportation infrastructure to be funded here also, in terms of our light rail initiative and all of that.”
Stone will address BC Chamber of Commerce members, including the Vancouver Board of Trade, this Monday in Vancouver. Both groups have yet to come up with a formal position on the issue.
Huberman said that she is currently trying to set up a separate December meeting with Stone to talk about transit issues particular to Surrey.
Urban Development Institute president Anne McMullin has suggested using development fees to pay for transit.
During last spring’s provincial election campaign, Premier Christy Clark promised to hold a referendum on transit funding options, to be held no later than the November 2014 municipal elections.
Metro Vancouver’s mayors were not impressed.
“It was a unanimous vote when we expressed lack of confidence in the referendum as adequate funding when that came forward in our [mayors’ council] meeting in May,” said Richard Walton, mayor of the District of North Vancouver and chair of TransLink’s mayors’ council.
As it’s become clear that the referendum will go ahead, Walton said that during September the mayors will focus on nuts and bolts questions, such as who will lead the campaign.
“I think the province is assuming the mayors’ council is going to lead the charge,” said Walton.
“If you’re talking about a referendum in an election year and you’re expecting the mayors’ council to lead it, it’s problematic.”
So far, there has also been no indication of extra funding to run a referendum campaign.
“The challenge with the referendum is that it has to be led,” he said. “There’s the wording, there’s the timing and there’s the cost.”
Last March, the premier rejected a vehicle levy that had been proposed by the mayors’ council. In June, Metro Vancouver endorsed road pricing as a method of raising funds for transit. Three years ago, Metro Vancouver mayors and the province committed to exploring ways to fund transit other than raising property taxes.
