The mayors of Metro Vancouver are once again reaching out to the provincial government with a new proposal to fund a billion-dollar transportation and transit plan.
On Thursday, the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation announced the proposal for the funding strategy.
The pitch incudes several local funding sources, including a $3-per-household property tax increase, a one-time two per cent transit fare rate increase in 2018, the sale of surplus TransLink properties, and implementing a regional development cost charge that equates to $1,000 for every new unit in the region.
New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote explained the mayors came up with the plan after it became clear there was going to be an opportunity for more federal funding for transit than previously thought.
The federal Liberals have made a commitment to fund 50 per cent of the Mayors’ Council’s 10-year regional transportation plan.
Even though the mayors’ last plan went to a referendum and failed, Cote believes the majority of Metro Vancouver residents want to see investment into the transit system.
“We think the residents of Metro Vancouver would actually be incredibly disappointed if we lost an opportunity and saw billions of federal money go to all the cities across Canada expect our region... because we couldn’t solve a relative small funding gap,” he told the Record.
The mayors’ new proposal would cover 17 per cent of the capital costs of the transit plan and 100 per cent of operating costs.
Cote said the plan would essentially leave a $50 million annual gap that would need to be covered by the provincial government, which is smaller than the $250 million gap that was part of the failed referendum in 2015.
The mayors’ proposal is also asking the province for $3 billion over 10 to 15 years to cover a 33 per cent share of capital costs in the plan and redistribute and return $50 million in Provincial Carbon Tax subsidy provided to households outside Metro Vancouver back to the region to fund transportation improvements.
“The mayors have put forward several different smaller funding options to help piece together that funding gap, and now we’re waiting for the province to come to the table and say (to the province), are you able to help us fill in that small remaining gap, or not?” he said.
But whether the mayors and province can come to an agreement is a different matter.
On the same day, the provincial government made its own announcement that included confirming the commitment to the 33 per cent share of capital projects, and $246 million over three years for transit improvements in the Metro Vancouver region.
But the announcement didn’t impress Cote, who suggested it was a re-announcement and didn’t offer anything new.
“It comes across as a bit disingenuous to make an announcement in suggesting that commitment in anyway is helping us move forward to seeing a solution to this,” he said.
The mayors’ proposal also calls for regional mobility pricing, or tolls, by 2021, but Cote said the idea still needs a lot more discussion. He added road pricing is not needed in the mayors’ short term transportation plan.
