At the transit town hall meeting in New Westminster last Thursday, one message was clear - no is not an option for the upcoming transit referendum.
According to the guest speaker at the Jan. 9 event, Gordon Price, former Vancouver city councillor and SFU expert, the Nov. 15 transit referendum needs to receive a yes vote for funding, but the issue is lacking real leadership from the province and poses a serious dilemma to taxpayers.
As of yet, the wording for the referendum question on the future of all transit expansion has not been determined despite the referendum being only 304 days away. On top of the lack of clarity, the ministers and premier have not decided if it will be multiple choice or if the province will lead a campaign on it, Price says.
"It's just really about the future of the region, and how we're going to shape and accommodate the next million people," he told the Burnaby NOW. "It shouldn't be about TransLink. We've been having a pretty good hate on, we've all contributed to that. Oddly enough, some can make a good case that it's a good organization, as its authorizing legislation is admired around the world."
Price said the province's political platform was to create jobs, and it needs to get involved with the future "economic heart of the province."
The referendum should not be used as a tool to delay a decision on how to fund regional transit, Price added, and it has not been "well thought out."
About 50 people attended the meeting inside Unifor Local 111's New West office. The meeting was part of a series of town hall meetings the transit operators union, Unifor Local 111, will be hosting until the referendum.
"The general message of the night was basically that we need to move forward with the fact that transit has to be funded," Scott Doherty, western director of Unifor, told the NOW. "The general consensus was that saying no to TransLink is not an option."
Doherty noted the majority of attendees were bus drivers, but more than a dozen people who came were curious citizens.
"Gordon Price did a very good job in describing the history of TransLink in the Lower Mainland and the region," he added, "and the important role it played in our history, and, generally, it was trying to make a positive message out of it."
Moving forward, Unifor wants to continue hosting public meetings and build a coalition addressing a "yes" vote to keep transit well funded, Doherty said.
No TransLink officials attended the meeting. TransLink spokesperson Jiana Ling said the authority is still in the dark about how the referendum will be phrased.
"Just like the public, we don't know what the question will look like," she told the NOW. "We do know the province and the mayors' council are working together to come up with that information."
In previous media reports, Premier Christy Clark has said the referendum could be multiple choice, and that the province will let voters decide.
Unifor Local 111 represents about 3,600 transit operators in Metro Vancouver.
