Mayors recommend gas levy to pay for Evergreen Line
 

Metro Vancouver's mayors are recommending two cents a litre of gas tax be added in the region to pay for TransLink's $400 million share of the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line rapid transit project.

The extra tax, which Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom has promised to introduce to the legislature in the fall for implementation in the spring, will raise about $40 million annually.

That will be enough to pay debt servicing and operational costs to begin construction on the 11-kilometre SkyTrain extension to Coquitlam from Lougheed Town Centre.

But the mayors really need $70 million for their 'Moving Forward' plan of transit expansion.

The rest of the cash would come from a graduated vehicle levy — not the flat fee that TransLink previously tried to impose on the Lower Mainland, but which met huge opposition from drivers.

That new graduated levy could go to the legislature as soon as the spring, but everything will be subject to public consultation that begins next week.

Mayors recommend gas levy to pay for Evergreen Line

I already went from an IS to a Honda Fit... they keep on doing this and I'll be forced to ride a Vespa 40km/h the 80KM I commute each day to work...

:failed:

LOL sure they lower the HST to 10% but raise other tax by 2x as much Typical gov.......

The Canadian answer:
"Let's tax it!"

expecting it already, not a news

:fuckthatshit:

Hmm, how about we get the people who are actually going to ride the skytrain to pay for the cost of creating it? Novel idea.

I'm so sick and tired of Translink mismanaging our transit system and then dipping their hands into motorist pockets to cover their expenditures.

Skytrain Turnstiles? Where the hell are those? Announced in 2009 and still nothing in sight. Is it really that hard to implement? Perhaps all the lost revenue from fare evasion would have helped pay for their lovely new Evergreen line.

About the only thing the Translink board can implement correctly are salary increases.

Fuck them.

Kev

:IDL there needs....what aboout the people

They HAVE started putting the turnstiles in at Burrard (I think, I know it's one of the DT stations). And I DO think the Evergreen line will get a lot more commuters from this side of the city onto transit and is much needed.

BUT I want to know if the translink bosses got raises again this year to the tune of a few million, and what they're doing to keep down their costs to try and pay for this themselves before they gauge us all.

FUCK Translink. Gas levy... really??

Carbon tax was just raised Friday night at midnight by $0.02/L. We weren't informed by that and the government is just trying to fuck us all over once again.
I agree with Kev 100%, motorists should not be paying for transit riders upgrades. Motorists pay for road upgrades. This is ridiculous.

The sick part is when they raise the taxes and then you see the board members getting millions of dollars of bonuses every year. A complete joke and the worst part is we can't even do anything about it!!

Once again, nothing will change unless voters and citizens start taking our elected officials to task. Write the mayors office in your area if you are affected. I know i will be.

Being forced to pay for a service I make a conscious decision to avoid (I have used a translink services 1 time in the last two years) because of mismanagement and lack of transparency is not something I will be very happy about. Any elected official in my area is going to hear about it.

Its all you can do, so do it!

EDIT: thanks for posting this artical

Exactly, raise fairs or find a way to make the transit users pay for it. I don't understand why motorists have to fit the bill when we aren't the ones using it.


Uh huh. These fuckers saying they don't have the money but at the end of the year you hear about their big ass bonus', complete bullshit.

Well, I think motorist should pay for it. They are the ones causing congestion, and this is the way to alleviate it. It's just like how we have free health care here. I'd gladly pay a bit more so your grandma doesn't die without insurance (like in the states) or that your smoking dad can go get lung cancer treatments later. I've not traveled much in the world, but from where I have gone to, almost everyplace is a reminder how much vancouver is nicer for 3 simple things:
1. clean air
2. clean water
3. moderate climate
We can't control #3, but if we've can even remotely affect #1 and 2, then we should be throwing our weight behind it.

However, I think that motorist have paid enough for it. I don't think translink should be going and raising taxes on anything until they get their own internal crap sorted out. I want bus shelters that SHELTER me from the rain and cold. I want electronic passes like other transit systems had have for the last 15 years. I want the translink execs to have their wages frozen.

Is that really so hard to ask?

^^ I will be happy if the skytrain can run a week without issue.

Just this Monday during morning rush hour 9I think it started around 6am or so) and skytrain came to a haul for SEVERAL HOURS. My Co-worker usually can get to work by skytrain in about 20mins took him well over 1hour and 30mins.

Fix the issue at hand first before expanding your services.

Aaaaand the anal rape continues

It's one of those circle arguments. You can't expand the services without money. You can't get money unless you charge more. You can't charge more without improving services.

And I've heard tons of people here say, that they would take transit more if the service was better (ie, larger coverage, more frequent buses/trains) BUT, they are unwilling to pay for it.

That said, both federal and provincial governments has budgets for transportation. Those budgets go towards maintaining municipal, provincial and federal highways, which all drivers drive on, AND, everybody who pays taxes pays towards (whether it be directly or indirectly, through income tax, sales tax, property tax). If taxes from cars/gas are the only ones that pay to maintain our roads, then yes, you can say then that people who take transit should be the only ones to pay for it - but unfortunately, that's not how our system works.

And really, I have to say, our Skytrain is pretty reliable. How many times do you really the trains down? Monday was the exception, rather than the rule.

^I would be willing to pay a bit more IF the service in my area was actually better and it still was easier on my bank account than a car. Also to my knowledge the schedule hasnt changed at all.

Back before I had a car, on numerous occasions the bus didnt even show up!
It would take me 40 mins to get to work taking the bus, but if I drove, less than 10

The previous company I worked for was a consulting firm and we had been doing work for them nonstop for the past few years. The reason is that after the orignallly decided to go through with it, they had us do some testing. Then later they decide not to go thru with it, the report became garbage. Then later they decided to go thru with it again, so the same testings had the be done again. This happened quite a few times so they had been paying for the same consulting work many many time. Imagine that multiply by many different consultants they hired. No wonder the bill becomes outrageous. Guess who's gonna end up footing that bill.
Posted via RS Mobile

what..the FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once it goes up, it will never come down...

The Evergreen line is necessary there's too much growth in the Tri-Cities to ignore it anymore, but it's not fair to only hit motorists for funding.

I say fuck this.

Yes, motorists are the one who cause congestion, but Vancouver officials have to realize something, Skytrain, as our economy and population is not an economically viable plan. Very few percentage of population live close to the stations. Our public transportation has fundamental problems, self-sustainability.

I don't even bother to google what's the amount of ppl translink serves in a year. But I will be you NYC can do that in a month.

Lower mainland officials should spend the money to promote urban development. Develop "downtowns" outside of current centers. So people don't need to commute that far for their jobs.

And I have said many times, make our "park and ride" program better. There is not a single riders designated parking anywhere along our skytrain system that I know of. People drive for a reason... our public transportation SUCKS and don't get us anywhere except 2 or 3 transfers at least.

so is this tax only to raise the $70 million?
so after two years they will get rid of it?

I'm sure they will. :troll: