The TransLink Mayors’ Council staged a presser Wednesday in Surrey aimed at encouraging Metro Vancouver residents to help to put the squeeze on the federal and provincial government to fund what it says is urgent transit expansion in this region.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and PoCo Mayor Brad West, chairman of the mayors’ council, made their pitch at the Surrey Central Bus Loop, launching a campaign that will see ads posted at SkyTrain stations, bus stops and on social media with a link through which members of the public can lobby MPS and MLAs for more infrastructure by entering their email and postal code. The letter reads: “As a Metro Vancouver resident, I’m concerned that our region doesn’t have enough public transit to serve our growing communities…If we don’t act now, thousands of people will be left behind by full buses every day and new housing will be left unserved…I urge you in your role as an elected official to ensure the necessary commitments are made – now – to protect public transit as an essential service and keep our economy and residents moving.”
West said the senior levels of government “need to hear from the people of Metro Vancouver. Tell the federal government it’s time for them to step up.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and TransLink Mayor's council asking the public to lobby B.C. and feds to fund urgent transit expansion. Presser Wednesday at Surrey Central Bus Loop. pic.twitter.com/pU2nPy2zbs
— Tom Zytaruk (@tomzytaruk) January 10, 2024
West told the Now-Leader that the council has had “productive” conversations with senior levels of government but in this “critical phase” having the public “come on board” now “really sends a strong message to the provincial and federal government that this has to be a priority, that this is tied to so many of the different goals that they have stated around housing affordability, around the climate, this is the key that underpins all of that.”
The petition can be found at accessforeveryone.ca/petition and there will be a QR code throughout the public transit system as well.
PoCo Mayor Brad West, chairman of the TransLink Mayors' Council, tells the Now-Leader "We need the public to weigh in" on urgent transit expansion. pic.twitter.com/cHXlAi6adi
— Tom Zytaruk (@tomzytaruk) January 10, 2024
“When you talk to the federal and provincial government everyone aligns on these objectives, everyone aligns on these goals, but there’s a lot of competing priorities and I understand that and I think all of our colleagues understand that. The point here is we need the public to weigh in. The public has to make clear to the federal and provincial government that this is a priority for this region because it impacts the quality of life for the people of Metro Vancouver in such a profound way,” West said. “I think the people of this region get it. They’ve been telling us, and we’ve been listening, we’ve heard them, we agree, we’ve been doing our part, now it’s time for the provincial and federal government to do their part.”
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Locke said the transit system cannot keep up with the region’s demand “as it grows at a record pace, putting further pressures on affordability.
“We are here to call on the federal and provincial governments to commit the funding that is urgently, urgently needed to deliver the critical transit investment that our growing region requires,” she said. “Here in Surrey, transit is overloaded and overcrowded. It is all to common to see massive crowds at our bus loops, this one in particular.”
Meantime, the Surrey Board of Trade has called on the provincial government to use the revenue raised from the carbon tax to fund public transit.
During the Lower Mainland’s Mayors’ Council meeting on Oct. 26 TransLink disclosed its “daunting” $4.7 billion deficit, which Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman said is bad news for Surrey’s economy and workforce particularly considering the area is already “severely under-served” by public transit.
On Nov. 23 TransLink issued a press release indicating the mayors’ council has gone cap in hand to the Trudeau government, prior to the 2024-25 federal budget, for support in building three new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in this region to be completed by 2027, with one of them in Surrey, at an estimated cost of up to $300 million each. Surrey’s BRT aims to connect the city centre with White Rock, via what TransLink identifies as the King George Boulevard corridor.