TransLink is likely doomed, at least in its present form.

The organization, which is a hybrid between municipal governance and provincial transportation and financial priorities, has done a good job in improving the transit and road system since its inception more than a decade ago. That it has done so with the very limited funds at its disposal is nothing short of amazing.

TransLink now wants to go ahead with an ambitious plan which would see its spending rise by $450 million a year over the next 10 years. This, says CEO Tom Prendergast, would allow it to meet the transportation challenges that it sees ahead. Few people doubt that those challenges are coming, and far more have confidence in TransLink’s ability to deal with them than a decade ago.

However, the resurrection of the car tax idea to help pay for this expansion shows the depth of TransLink’s problems. While TransLink sees the car tax, which never went ahead after a huge public outcry, as a critical tool in giving it more funds to spend on transit and roads, it is so patently unfair that it must not be considered.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts knows this. She chairs the TransLink mayors’ council, which votes on TransLink’s future spending plans. While Watts is supportive of TransLink boosting spending on transit and roads, she also says that the South Fraser area is so badly underserved by transit that any car tax punishes people in this region.

Prendergast also knows this area lacks good transit service. When I interviewed him about two months ago, he acknowledged the transit service in the South Fraser region was less viable as an option to driving, as compared to many other areas of Metro Vancouver.

If there is to be a car tax, it must be one that takes into account the area the car owner lives in. If the owner lives in Vancouver or Burnaby, the tax should be at its highest. If the owner lives in Langley or Maple Ridge, it should be much lower. Surrey, White Rock and Delta residents shouldn’t pay nearly as much as those north of the river.

A tax that averages $122 per vehicle per year is asking too much of people who are facing the prospect of additional sales taxes (the HST); higher gas taxes (part of TransLink’s plan); tolls on the Golden Ears and Port Mann Bridges, and possibly on the replacement for the Pattullo; constantly rising property taxes and a recession that is biting into their incomes.

A provincial review is underway to take a good look at how TransLink operates. While the appointed board brings expertise, it has no access to provincial funds. That is at the sole discretion of the cabinet, which has enough challenges right now.

Suggestions to use the carbon tax to help fund TransLink make some sense, but the cabinet will only budge on that if Premier Gordon Campbell is willing to admit the carbon tax does not have to be revenue-neutral. And if he does so, a key part of its appeal vanishes, because at its heart, the carbon tax is about making choices.

It makes the most sense to dedicate carbon tax revenues to green projects, such as transit. It is also important that such projects go into all parts of the province — not just Metro Vancouver.

The next few months will prove interesting in seeing just how TransLink fares in its bold plans to move ahead and fund transportation improvements, while under intense provincial scrutiny.