Editor: Last Thursday’s $740 million photo-op with Justin Trudeau, his protégé for the next federal election, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robinson, and B.C.’s premier, was nothing more than flimflam to get regional taxpayer to ante up their portion for the mayor’s very poorly thought-out, grossly expensive 10-year plan, which will benefit developers more than transit customers.
The two centerpieces of this 10-year plan — the Broadway SkyTrain subway and the Surrey LRT — are too expensive and won’t reduce congestion, instead forcing more people to drive.
We have already invested $10 billion of taxpayers’ money on rapid transit, while transportation mode share by car in the Metro Vancouver Region has remained static at 57 per cent for a quarter of a century.
The real winners of the $740 million investment in regional transit:
1. Bombardier Inc., who will get $345 million for new West Coast Express cars and proprietary ART cars (SkyTrain).
2. TransLink’s bureaucrats who will get $157 million, so they can continue to “play trains” with the $3 billion Broadway subway and the $2.5 billion for Surrey’s poor man’s SkyTrain.
3. Land developers who will get relaxed zoning at proposed rapid transit stations.
The big losers:
1. The transit customer, who will suffer more incompetent planning. Not one new bus for South of the Fraser was included.
2. The taxpayer, who has to pay for this questionable transit planning for two grossly expensive transit projects that will do little or nothing to ease road congestion.
It also seems our politicos slept through their high school math classes because how can $250 million a year ($750 million over the next three years) fund a $7.5 billion “10-year plan?”
Do the math: $250 million a year for 10 years gets you $2.5 billion — a $5 billion shortfall.
I had hoped that Trudeau the younger would usher in a new era of fiscal prudence, but he has just telegraphed that the federal Liberals are as ”open for business” — especially for Bombardier Inc. — as they were a decade ago.
The Liberals have learned nothing and forgotten nothing, leaving the taxpayer vulnerable to their political excesses.
D. Malcolm Johnston,
Delta