Metro Vancouver mayors' decision to raise an extra $130 million a year to keep TransLink on life support is being endorsed by B.C.'s transportation minister.

Shirley Bond called the Oct. 23 vote a "tough but appropriate decision."

But she's not saying much more than that until she sees the pending report of B.C.'s Comptroller General, who was tasked to review TransLink's financing and governance and look for cost savings.

Metro Vancouver's fuel tax will be raised from 12 cents to 15 cents a litre next year as a result of the mayors' decision, and fares will also rise, particularly monthly passes and prepaid ticket books.

Mayors want to pry loose more money yet for TransLink to finance a much more ambitious expansion plan, rather than one that merely averts deep cuts.

They hope the so-called "funding stabilization" plan will be short-lived, and replaced next year by an enhanced 10-year plan they say is critical to assuring the region's continued livability.

TransLink has proposed an extra $150 million come by charging an annual levy averaging $122 on every vehicle in the region. (The vehicle levy would fluctuate between $65 and $165 based on fuel efficiency to encourage conservation and punish gas guzzling.)

The cities also want Victoria to authorize more sources – potentially some form of road pricing or regional tolling.

Bond said she has no intention yet of altering B.C.'s policy on road pricing, which allows tolls only on enhanced routes when motorists have a free alternative.

And she said Metro Vancouver should expect no special deals.

"We have transit needs all across British Columbia," she said. "There is an equity issue here with the rest of the province."

But she promised continued dialogue with area mayors.

Bond also said she remains optimistic a way can be found to build the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line, which mayors and TransLink say is unaffordable without more money being found.

"We need to figure out a way to deliver that," she said. "There's $400-million-plus of federal money on the table."

Planned rapid transit extensions further through Surrey toward Langley and west in Vancouver along Broadway will also be shelved indefinitely without a bigger TransLink refinancing.

Those projects, plus a variety of RapidBus lines crisscrossing the Lower Mainland, were promised in the $14-billion Provincial Transit Plan announced by the premier in early 2008.

Now that mayors have approved the extra $130 million through higher fares and gas tax, that funding supplement can't be undone, but rather becomes entrenched within the "base plan" for future years.

Although the approved plan averts catastrophic cuts to the transit system, there will be some cuts.

Some bus service will be pulled and the third SeaBus will be docked after the Olympics end.

Spending on roads and bridges minor capital would be cut 50 per cent to $10 million a year in 2012, leaving local cities to make up the difference or accept road deterioration.

Cycling infrastructure spending would be halved to $3 million a year.

And administrative spending would be gradually reduced by five per cent.

TransLink has frozen hiring and management pay and officials say they are continuing to search for cost savings within the organization.