Billionaire business tycoon Jimmy Pattison will head up a “public accountability committee” to oversee the funds collected to help pay for a $7.5 billion transit and transportation plan in the region.
Pattison’s work, however, hinges on 50 per cent plus one of voters saying Yes to a 0.5 per cent sales tax increase in this spring’s plebiscite. The appointment of Pattison comes less than two weeks before mail-in ballots will be sent to Metro Vancouver residents.
“My experience is only in business, I’m not an expert in transit or anything like that,” said Pattison by telephone Thursday, noting his life has been devoted to business and wouldn’t comment on concerns raised by mayors and others about the governance of TransLink. “I’m not getting involved in how to run the place. This is an oversight of where the funds are spent, in the event the Yes vote occurs.”
Pattison spoke the Courier a few hours after Mayor Gregor Robertson and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner announced the owner of food and beverage companies and automobile dealerships will volunteer his services for the committee. Robertson said the committee will give voters another level of confidence in how the money is spent.
Pattison said he is “not an expert” on whether the mayors’ plan will achieve its goals, saying “all I can tell you is I’m willing to help with the accountability of the funds.” Pattison said he will be involved in selecting members of the committee, along with input from the region’s mayors.
As news broke about Pattison’s appointment, commentators on social media asked whether any of Pattison’s companies do business with TransLink and whether that presented a conflict in his new role with the committee.
“I can’t answer that,” he told the Courier. “I don’t know whether we even do any business with TransLink, but maybe we do. I don’t know.”
Pattison said he will vote Yes in the plebiscite, noting the anticipated population growth over the next 30 years will require “something better than what we’ve got to avoid the congestion. It’s only going to get worse.”
Robertson has previously reached out to Pattison for his advice on getting rid of the debt on the Olympic Village site. Pattison said, “all I did was steer him to some lawyers that I had high confidence in that might be able to help him.”
twitter.com/Howellings
