NEW WEST'S POSITION: Acting mayor will vote in favour of higher spending
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Updated: October 22, 2009 4:57 PM
When New Westminster acting mayor Jonathan Cote votes Friday on future funding for TransLink, his preferred option is unlikely to have a chance of succeeding.
Cote wants TransLink to expand, requiring an extra injection of $450 million. It’s the option that best serves the City of New Westminster and its residents, he says.
But with the provincial government unwilling to ante up $175 million, it’s looking like that plan won’t win succeed.
As a result, the two options before the region’s mayors at Friday’s meeting are one involving significant cuts or another that would keep the transit system running on life support.
Both options negatively affect New Westminster but if the mayors vote in favour of cutbacks, it would be disastrous for the city.
The construction of the North Fraser Perimeter Road would mean no substantial improvements to the route as it travels through the city, meaning more traffic gridlock and pollution.
Since New West residents are high transit users, fewer buses and more crowded SkyTrain cars would be noticeable.
“I don’t think that option will proceed but if it did the city would be severely impacted.”
Cote won’t support increased property taxes as a way to fund TransLink, as the province has suggested.
“It’s not an equitable way to finance things,” he said. “And it’s not a demand side form of taxation that would impact people’s driving habits while other forms like the vehicle levy, even the carbon tax, have more of an impact.”
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