SFU president Andrew Petter thinks a Yes win in the upcoming transit referendum would be best for students at his university.
He and UBC counterpart Arvind Gupta came out in support of the proposed $7.5-billion transit plan, including a new 0.5 per cent regional sales tax, this week.
“I tend not to speak out on issues unless I think they are of core importance to the university and its operations and its community,” Petter told the NOW, “but when they do, I think I have a responsibility to speak out.”
Existing transportation and transit services in the region already fall short of university students’ needs, he said, and without action now, the future looks even bleaker.
“The thought of going five years or 10 years before we see any significant expansion is, I think, a horrific thought for not only our students but for the general community,” Petter said.
Eighty-eight per cent of SFU undergraduate students report regularly using public transit to get to school, according student surveys, and they spend an average of 22 minutes more a day commuting than the national average.
In Burnaby, the biggest need is for more capacity on existing services, according to Petter, including more buses across town from Metrotown and up the mountain at Production Way at peak hours.
The transit plan would deliver just that, he said.
Regional improvements in the plan, including three lines of light rail in Surrey and a subway along a portion of Broadway in Vancouver, would also help SFU students move between the university’s Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey campuses in the long term.
“I think it’s very much a community issue but one that the university has a particular perspective on,” Petter said.
With the mail-in vote coming up between March 16 and May 29, Petter said his office will work with the student association to get as many students out to vote as possible.
“We certainly won’t be telling students how to vote,” he said. “We’ll be giving them the information … Students are the ones who have the most stake in the future. They have an immediate interest in this issue because they’re the ones spending time sitting on a bus instead of in the classroom or in the library or out in the community doing exciting things.”
Asked if he would like to have seen more support for the transit plan from Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who voted against it, Petter said he would leave the local mayor to defend his own position.
“I said what I think is the best position for our students and for the university and for the community,” Petter said, “and I fully expect that many other people will disagree with that, although I hope everyone acquaints themselves with the issues … I think it is very much about the future of the community. The question for me is, are we going to shape the future of the community or are we going to let circumstances tells us the kind of community we have, and those circumstances will be more congestion, more chaos, more traffic, less access to universities.”
