New TransLink system due to fail: Hunt
The radical reform of TransLink is now law, sweeping away the current elected directors and replacing them with an appointed board that will take over in January.
The B.C. Liberals cut off debate Thursday and forced through legislation to create the new South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority.
A screening panel has already sifted through 250 applicants for the job of running TransLink and winnowed them down to 15 nominees, from which a council of mayors is to choose the final nine-member board.
Critics say the new structure is calculated to create a board aligned with the province and its business allies.
Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt, TransLink’s vice-chair, says the overhaul comes at the cost of local accountability and predicts the province will eventually scrap it as a failed experiment.
“I don’t think this is a sustainable model for transit or transportation,” Hunt said.
“When a future provincial government changes the legislation that governs transit and transportation in the Lower Mainland, I think very clearly they will be looking to a very different model.
“Whether you liked us or not, people had access to us, they could talk to us and we got things done.”
The new authority gets powers to raise fuel taxes three cents a litre, boost property taxes and transit fares by an equivalent amount and go after new revenues through property development near transit stations.
The mayors council is to have final say over tax hikes and long-range plans, but most power will rest with the yet-to-be-chosen appointed, unelected board.
jnagel@surreyleader.com
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