A choice is before us. Metro Vancouver's upcoming transportation referendum is a rare opportunity to significantly enhance transit services, boost local employment and tackle climate change.
It will mean road and bridge improvements, and substantial new transit infrastructure including 400 new buses, new rapid transit lines in Surrey and Vancouver and new bike routes.
These transit enhancements are especially vital for low-wage and immigrant workers, who often have to commute long distances, and who frequently work night shifts when transit options are currently limited (the Mayors' plan would see an 80-per-cent increase in night bus service). It's also of special importance to youth and seniors, who rely more heavily on transit, and to seniors and people with disabilities who rely on HandyDART services (which would be boosted by 30 per cent).
With Metro Vancouver's population expected to grow by a million people, we desperately need more transit and we have to pay for it one way or another.
That said, many are understandably worried about the impact of a sales tax increase on low-income people. As social justice researchers, we share those concerns. But whether or not the tax increase is fair depends on how the tax is structured and what we use the money for. It is true that sales taxes in isolation are regressive, meaning that while upperincome households pay more in dollars, lower-income households pay more as a share of their income.
However, the PST does not apply to core necessities such as rent, groceries and child care, so much of what lowerincome households spend their money on is exempt from the tax. For example, households with income of $20,000 would see their costs go up by about $4 per month.
But it's not enough to look at the revenue side alone - what we spend the additional revenue on also matters. In this case, because the new investments will go mainly to transit improvements, which particularly benefit lower-income people, the plan is progressive overall.
The proposal before us is imperfect, but it would be a mistake to let the perfect defeat the good. We should not let our frustrations with the provincial government or TransLink stand in the way of this rare opportunity to improve our quality of life.
If you're angry about the choice of a sales tax increase to fund the transit plan, we invite you to channel your energies into pushing for a fair tax system rather than voting "No" on this proposal.
Seth Klein is the B.C. director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova are senior economists with the CCPA.