Doing away with tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges is welcomed news for Burnaby, according to one city councillor.
Coun. Colleen Jordan expressed her support for the announcement, made by the B.C. NDP on Friday, and said it will lessen traffic in Burnaby.
“Ever since everyone’s been using the Pattullo Bridge and Canada Way to escape the tolls, it’s put a huge increase in traffic going through our city. If they go back on the freeway, that’s a good thing for us,” she told the NOW.
Tolls will be eliminated as of Friday, Sept. 1.
Families who regularly cross the Fraser River will save an average of $1,500 a year, according to a government press release, while commercial drivers will save $4,500.
As annual operating costs have outpaced toll revenue, there’s still $3.6 billion owing on the Port Mann Bridge and $1.1 billion owing on the Golden Ears Bridge, which is owned and operated by TransLink.
Lost tolling revenue will be budgeted and paid for in the annual fiscal plan, notes the press release, “in the same way all other major capital projects are funded, such as highways, new schools and new hospitals.”
The provincial government also plans to work with TransLink on a “long-term funding agreement for future years.”
Jordan, who belongs to the NDP-affiliated Burnaby Citizens Association, doesn’t suspect taxes will go up.
She says tolling was never meant to pay for infrastructure.
“We, in British Columbia, have been co-opted into this concept that that’s how you pay for things. Tolls are supposed to be a demand management tool rather than a paid-for-the-infrastructure tool.”
“(Demand management) is a process by which many other urban centres in the world have used tolling to try to get people to go at different times of the day, so that if you go down the freeway at 3 o’clock in the morning, you don’t pay a toll, but if you go at 7 o’clock in the morning, you pay.”
The province estimates around 121,000 vehicles cross the Port Mann Bridge daily, with another 40,000 vehicles taking the Golden Ears.
“Many people have been travelling out of their way to avoid tolls because they simply cannot afford them,” said Premier John Horgan. “Getting rid of tolls will shorten commute times and clear up other routes, so people can spend less time stuck in traffic and more time with their families.”
Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party, called the toll announcement a “reckless policy.”
“Increasing taxpayer supported debt is worrying. The province’s borrowing rates are largely determined by our credit rating and overall taxpayer supported debt load. Increasing this debt load risks the potential of downgrading our credit rating, which in term would increase borrowing rates on the entire provincial debt,” he said in a statement. “More than $250 million annually will now have to come from other sources. This is money that is desperately needed in health care, public education, and social services.”
He described the announcement as “a desperate attempt” by the B.C. NDP to pander to voters south of the Fraser.
