Dear Editor:
I support Mayor Corrigan's stance on the upcoming transit referendum. He believes, along with a lot of other people, it is too aggressive and should be scaled down to a slimmer list.
The referendum has put us in a difficult position. We are being asked to vote on a regional increase to our sales tax of half a percent; however, by voting "yes," we are also giving approval to the Mayors' Council of a laundry list of transit improvements with a variety of price tags attached.
While I can agree to the need for many of them, probably the majority, I find it difficult to accept the most expensive one - a subway along the Broadway corridor. There are two reasons why I do not support this proposal.
First of all, I think there are other, less expensive options for rapid transit along this busy corridor. Other major cities such as Amsterdam, Calgary and Portland make at-grade rapid transit work; why can't Vancouver? We've been told by many we can't, but we've been told by other, equally intelligent, professionals we can. What everyone does agree upon is that above-ground is cheaper. In Surrey, 19 LRT stations and six B-Line stations and a total of 26.8 kilometres of Light Rail Transit is proposed at a capital cost of $2,440 million. That works out to $91 million per kilometre of rapid transit. It's expensive, but necessary, and I can support that.
As a proponent of cycling, I am also supportive of the expansion of cycling infrastructure, but I don't believe the council. In the first 10 years, the proposal would add to the existing bikeway
network up to 300 km of traffic-protected bikeways on major streets in urban centres (currently 518 km) and add 2,400 km of designated bikeways (currently 1,156 km). To do this they say they will need to spend an average of $13.1 million per year. According to TransLink, the company invested about $3.65 million per year between 2000 and 2011. History shows that when belts need tightening, cycling budgets get cut first.
In contrast, along the Broadway corridor, the plan is to extend the Millennium line from its current terminus at VCC-Clark west along Broadway to Arbutus at a capital cost of $1,980 million.
While "the City of Vancouver will be responsible for the incremental cost associated with any additional tunnelling beyond where technically or functionally required," it is probable the powers that be will agree that the entire 5.1 kilometres to Arbutus will be underground. That works out to, at the least, $388 million per kilometre. Inevitably, tunnelling to Arbutus will cost more than predicted in the plan. Furthermore, the plan does not include the additional cost to extend the system to UBC, which is another 7.3 kilometers. That will be an additional $3 billion-plus your Mayors' Council will ask you to vote for later.
The Mayor's Council, the provincial Liberal government, the NDP, the Chamber of Commerce and others want you to approve the whole package with a single vote. They want us to buy less than half the Cadillac, without telling us what the cost of the rest of the luxury car will be. I can't support that. Going green needn't be expensive, but it does require political will to make good, fiscally responsible decisions.
Rick McGowan, Burnaby
