BC mayors can't agree on TransLink funding

BC mayors agree on one thing: TransLink’s two week period for input in July wasn't enough, and TransLink must give the public more of a chance to respond to a new funding plan that includes an extra two cents per litre in gas taxes.  However, mayors remain divided on TransLink's proposal for paying for new transit projects.

Vancouver mayor Gregor "Extreme Green" Robertson and Surrey's Diane Watts support the plan, while the mayors of Burnaby, Delta, and Richmond are among its strongest opponents.  If this proposal fails, The Globe and Mail notes, "it will be the latest in a long string of failed efforts over the past two years to find a solution to TransLink’s $400-million share for the long-awaited Evergreen line to serve the region’s northeast cities – and ultimately, to find a formula for paying for future transit projects."

Besides the new gas tax, which would see Lower Mainlanders paying 17 cents per litre in local taxes alone on gas, TransLink is also pushing for extra property taxes.  The plan would only cover new projects, and would require the provincial government to pony up additional funding as well, potentially leaving mayors on the hook if the government doesn't come through.

Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan, who leads a group of mayors opposed to the plan, said he will never support the TransLink supplement: TransLink is continually forcing local taxpayers to pay extra taxes because its board and bureaucrats make all the decisions about what will be included in the base budget and then go to local politicians for extra money.  According to Corrigan, mayors have no say in the choices the TransLink board makes, and TransLink has many times spent money in its base budget on things the mayors would never agree to fund through taxes if they had a say.

TransLink is known for forcing stupid and widely hated policies on its users, for mismanaging money, and for then coming up with loony ideas for raising more of it, leading Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon to call it a "disaster circus."

Take the train from 1-800-Got-Junk? Station

Metro Vancouver mayors are considering a plan to sell naming rights to SkyTrain stations in the Lower Mainland.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says naming revenue could help play for the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line, and criteria could be set out to keep the names "thoughtful and tasteful."  Would those be the same "thoughtful," "tasteful" criteria that gave Victoria the Save On Foods Memorial Centre?

Possibly: "For instance," said Watts, "you look at Stadium Station. The natural fit would be ‘Rogers Stadium Station,' so something as simple as that."  Actually, the current name of that station is Stadium–Chinatown Station.  So it would be Rogers Stadium–Chinatown Station?  The Chinatown Business Improvement Association is going to love that.  Watts's response? "I'm sure there are people who aren't going to like this, but they also don't want to pay higher taxes."  No, they don't.  But they do want a TransLink that isn't a "disaster circus," doesn't mismanage everything it does, and doesn't keep raising fares and taxes and levying additional fees on people who are already struggling in a province with the country's lowest minimum wage, highest cost of living, and largest number of children living in poverty.  And they don't want to have to board the train at Jenny Craig Station or get off at Canadian Tire Station either.

And worst of all, even if this terrible idea is approved the two-cents-per-litre gas tax increase proposal approved by the Mayors' Council last week would not be scuppered.

In 2009 it was alleged that Watts's husband was running a business from their home in a residential area without a license.