It didn't have to be this way.
TransLink could have not wasted so much of our money on silly gimmicks and instead put precious tax dollars into important things like maintaining the Expo Line properly and avoiding massive shutdowns.
We could have had TransLink executives and a board of directors held accountable by our elected officials when they greenlit bad projects that didn't move a single person a single inch, when they acted in an unaccountable, high-handed way or when they continually came in for more money and more perks.
The premier, the minister of transportation and the TransLink Mayors could have pushed harder to stop TransLink waste before it got out of hand, before we had dozens and dozens of examples of our money being devoured by bad planning and a poisoned corporate culture.
Our elected leaders could have stood up for us, reminding the board and the executives that they had been handed a sacred trust - and firing them when they failed the taxpayers and riders footing the bill. The TransLink Mayors could have worked together to prioritize their $7.5-billion wish list, thinking instead about what the region and its taxpayers could bear, not what they could package politically.
The TransLink Mayors did not have to pitch a new sales tax. TransLink did not have to allocate $4 million of your tax dollars to try and "educate" the public to vote "yes." The provincial government did not have to spend $5 million to prepare a mail-in ballot on a tax few are excited about.
As a new independent accounting analysis of the TransLink Mayors' spending plan reveals, they could have funded their wish list without a sales tax that will hurt struggling seniors and financially-squeezed families, already facing another expensive year of property tax, MSP, Hydro, ICBC, Ferries, EI, and CPP hikes.
The 50-page analysis, done by a Certified Management Accountant, shows that local government - Metro Vancouver, TransLink and the 21 Metro municipalities - will see an annual revenue growth rate of 4.8 per cent over the next decade. By earmarking just 0.5 per cent of that 4.8 per cent growth rate to transportation priorities, the TransLink Mayors could have generated enough revenue to spare us the sales tax. Their cities would still see 4.3 per cent growth, a rate far exceeding the inflation and the growth at the federal and provincial levels.
This contribution would have likely enhanced their position in TransLink discussions, giving them the greater voice they claim they crave.
It could have all been so different, if only someone on the TransLink file had shown real, gritty, tough leadership.
Where were the leaders willing to do the hard work, pushing back against raising taxes and finding the money within government's ever-growing revenues? Where were the other organizations which were supposed to be watching out for small business owners and cash strapped working families? Why weren't they pushing for less TransLink waste and other funding options?
In the absence of common sense leadership from our elected officials, voters must step into the vacuum.
Taxpayers should visit Notranslinktax. ca to learn more about this failure in leadership. Lower Mainlanders must vote "no" to the TransLink sales tax, and force these politicians to fix TransLink and aggressively address waste in the system.
From there, they can prioritize their plan and earmark a portion of the revenue windfall local governments are projecting to fund transportation. It can all be so different - but only if taxpayers show the politicians a better way.
Jordan Bateman is the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.