To the surprise of no one, the TransLink funding vote has gone down to defeat.
Making good on a Hail Mary election promise, the Liberals handed the mayors the insurmountable task of winning a referendum asking for new taxes.
Worse still, those new tax dollars were going to be handed over to TransLink.
Despite a number of studies that have found it to be relatively efficient and reliable compared to other transit systems, TransLink is still totally unaccountable to taxpayers and therefore remains an organization everyone loves to hate.
Add in a few embarrassing missteps by the Yes campaign, and Thursday’s loss was all but a foregone conclusion, even with — or perhaps because of — $6 million in public money spent by the Yes side to convince voters to part with more cash.
One thing agreed on by virtually everyone outside the Liberal caucus: TransLink’s governance model is badly broken. Plenty of residents made it clear they were voting No to “send a message” to the province. Our transportation minister says he’s received that message. However, he has no intention of bringing about any meaningful change.
Meanwhile, our population continues to grow — something that also wasn’t on the ballot.
Our economy, our climate and our sanity depend upon having a well-planned transportation system that meets the needs of our region — and that’s not what we’re getting.
Instead, we have a total abdication of leadership by the province and no Plan B.
Somebody stop this train. We’d like to get off.
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