Dear Editor: Re: Transit change worries local, Letters to the editor, Burnaby NOW, Aug. 2 I read with great interest your Aug. 2 news item about TransLink and the concerns of Coun. Colleen Jordan over the loss of special discounts for riders on the transit system.
This is exactly why we have such an issue of excessive over-taxation by TransLink. No one should be riding the transit system at a discount or for free with the exception of the Transit Police.
Bus drivers should not be riding trains. Expo Line employees should not be riding the Canada Line for free. SFU students should not be riding at a discount and neither should the mayors' council be riding on TransLink for free.
Ms. Jordan's worry is ridership will fall. Wrong, there is nothing stopping the City of Burnaby from buying passes at face value and then discounting the passes to employees if it cuts costs on city parking.
There is nothing wrong with SFU students' union buying passes at face value and discounting to students from union dues. There is nothing wrong with a City of Burnaby property tax surcharge on residents who buy on or (live) close to transit services. In return, the city could give face value passes free of charge to those residents. What the local politicians do not seem to understand is that giving out free passes is not coming from a magic money tree out behind TransLink's corporate office. The money comes from the B.C. government from taxpayers in Prince George, Kelowna, Merritt, and even more from residents of Maple Ridge, Langley and Delta, through over-excessive fuel taxation. Last of all, it is time the City of Vancouver left Metro Vancouver and made it on their own, they get the most funding and contribute the least. Vancouver is a financial drain on the entire region.
John E. Kennett
Burnaby
