Few organizations are weighted with as many societal problems as a regional transportation authority. Whether it’s rising fuel prices, traffic congestion or climate change, the called-for solution is often to get more people on trains and buses. That’s certainly the line B.C.’s provincial government has taken, pledging more than $14 billion worth of new and ongoing transit improvements over the next 12 years, for which the province is contributing $4.75 billion.
And while managers at TransLink seem happy about the attention, they’re also curious about how the rest is going to be paid for. While the province can demand services, it’s up to TransLink to figure out how to pay for them. The province has granted TransLink the authority to raise money through user fares, road tolls, vehicle charges, property taxes, fuel taxes and hydro taxes.
However, what the province gives, the province can just as easily take away. When TransLink tried to generate income in 2006 by taxing parking stalls, opposition from businesses persuaded the province to take away its powers to create new parking taxes.
As it stands, TransLink is set to run a deficit just trying to keep up the service it currently offers. So the question remains: where’s the money going to come from for all these wonderful new services? BCBusiness convened a round table to tackle the thorny issue of TransLink funding. Weighing in are TransLink CEO Thomas Prendergast; Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, who is also the chair of TransLink’s Mayor’s Council; and Lawrence Frank, an associate professor in UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
Tom, what is TransLink’s funding situation?
Thomas Prendergast: Although we have a surplus right now, if we sustain our current service levels, we will be short the funding we need at the rate of about $150 million a year. We are in a region that is going to see another million people, I think, in the next 20 years. You’d assume you’d have to grow that service; you couldn’t just sustain it. On top of that, commitments have been made from a standpoint of greenhouse gas emissions and in terms of goods movements for the Pacific gateway strategy.
The $150 million just sustains where we are today, which I think most people would hold as not acceptable. I mean, Surrey’s demands for public transportation are probably greater than other areas across the region. Mayor Watts’s constituents aren’t going to sit still if
we just sustain where they are today.
What are Surrey’s needs as far as expanded transit services?
Dianne Watts: The high-growth communities that will absorb 68 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s growth over the next 20 years are Langley, Surrey, Coquitlam and Abbotsford. In Surrey, for instance, we are the second-largest city in the province, with 453,000 people, and we’ve got four stops on the SkyTrain line. Unacceptable.
So what does a good future plan look like, if it’s more than just sustaining the current system?
Lawrence Frank: This region has to catch up with the demand that’s already here. We’re in a fortunate position: we have people hungry to use transit. People are waiting an extra bus to get onboard.
From a philosophical perspective, we need to look at the role of public transportation in society. I think it’s to promote the environment and to help balance opportunities for people who don’t have as much access to cars. We have to be looking at affordable housing near transit as well. This is a critical issue, and I think it’s going to become region-wide as Surrey continues to develop.
We have an incredible amalgam of factors that make investing in public transportation the right thing to do for our society. We just need to find the resources to do it and it will pay for itself in many ways that we don’t currently account for. It’s money well spent.
What sort of expansion is TransLink looking at, and what’s it all going to cost?
Prendergast: If you start with the SkyTrain extensions, it looks like we have all the partners lined up for the Evergreen line to Coquitlam. Then there’s a need to extend the line into Surrey and an extension possibly to UBC in the western part of Vancouver.
We also need bus rapid transit (BRT). We need the frequent transit network. The SkyTrain investments: billions of dollars. BRT investments: hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequent transit network: scores of millions of dollars.
Watts: There’s also the $14.2-billion announcement made by the provincial government. They’re coming to the table with $4 billion; $500 million is to be raised outside of the Metro Vancouver area; and you’ve got the rest coming from the feds and TransLink. Well, the feds haven’t stepped up to the plate, so we’re trying to plan transit based on a grant process, and a wish and a prayer that someone’s going to hand us the money.
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