DISTRICT of North Vancouver mayor Richard Walton won't be adding the role of TransLink director to his tasks after local leaders recently voted to reject the offer to have two elected mayors sit on the appointed board.
Metro mayors said they rejected the province's plan, because it would give local government only marginal say in decisions without fixing the bigger problem of an unelected board.
"Our view is it's a bit of a Band-Aid solution," said Walton, who is also chairman of the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation.
The olive branch from the province would have meant Walton and Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender, the mayors' council vice-chair, would have had access to material currently discussed by the appointed TransLink board behind closed doors, but wouldn't be able to share that with their municipal colleagues.
"It places us in a difficult situation," said Walton.
Walton said sitting on the TransLink board would not have addressed the larger political issue, in which most decisions about TransLink are made by the provincially-appointed board, yet paid for partly by local property tax levies.
"The only part of the budget we deal with is the expansion parts - the politically risky, very accountable part of it," said Walton. That's difficult for the public to understand, he added.
The way decisions are made by TransLink has been a sore point ever since the province disbanded the previous board made up of Metro Vancouver mayors and councillors, and appointed nine professional directors in their place.
At the time, thenTransportation Minister Kevin Falcon described the political board as "dysfunctional."
But Walton said it wasn't. It just disagreed with the province on priorities for rapid transit, he said.
"It was a better model than we have now," he said.
Walton said that doesn't mean the mayors are asking for the old system back. The council's next move will be to hire a consultant to look at how other public transit systems are governed, he said.
Not all mayors agreed with the decision to turn down the seats on the TransLink board, with some arguing it was a step in the right direction.
Walton said he thought the pitfalls outweighed the advantages.
"It doesn't get at the fundamental issue," he said, of unelected people deciding how to spend tax money.
The province and local municipalities have been in a showdown over TransLink for some time. This spring, mayors refused to raise taxes to pay for transit expansion after the province rejected requests for a carbon tax or vehicle levies. TransLink subsequently put expansion plans on hold.
