Dear Editor:
This paper and many others have devoted a lot of ink to the ongoing transit vote. However, nobody is writing to laud the governing B.C. Liberal party for the clever shell game they’ve constructed to relieve themselves of any political responsibility regarding transit, and more generally transportation, in the Lower Mainland.
First, the B.C. Liberals set up TransLink at arm’s length to insulate the provincial government from being meaningfully involved in the process for Metro Vancouver transit decision making, thus ensuring that underfunding and underperformance of our transit system is perceived as a TransLink efficiency problem not a political one.
Second, the Liberals floated the idea of distilling the complex task of transit planning and funding to a simple public referendum question to be proposed by local government.
The mayors’ council, eager to have any sense of participation in regional transit planning, quickly jumped on board thereby removing any B.C. Liberal responsibility for the content of the referendum question itself.
Now that we’re in the thick of this vote, the B.C. Liberal party cannot lose.
A No vote allows them to deflect blame for the current state of transit towards TransLink, while further supporting their low tax agenda with a concrete test of public opinion.
A Yes vote allows the Liberals to increase taxes while looking like the defenders of direct democracy, all the while without actually obligating the provincial government to implement the infrastructure and services proposed by the mayors’ council.
It’s ultimately up to the elected provincial government to take steps to ensure that Metro Vancouver’s transportation system is effective and funded in a sustainable way. As we’re dragged through a divisive and costly exercise designed to distract us all from understanding this fact, regardless of the outcome we the public lose simply because this vote exists.
Dan Rankin
North Vancouver
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