Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced Thursday that the provincial government has accepted a request from the region’s mayors to increase the seven per cent sales tax by 0.5 per cent as a funding tool to help pay for a $7.5 billion transit and transportation plan.
Now it’s up to Metro Vancouver residents to mail in a ballot in a referendum vote in the spring and decide whether they support what the government is calling the Metro Vancouver Congestion Improvement Tax.
The finalized question, which was refined from the mayors’ original draft, is: Do you support a new 0.5 per cent Metro Vancouver Congestion Improvement Tax to be dedicated to the mayors’ transportation and transit plan?
If the referendum passes, the estimated cost per household would be $50 to $125 per year, depending on how much a person spends. The tax would only apply to the majority of goods and services subject to the PST that are sold or delivered within Metro Vancouver, which stretches from West Vancouver to Langley.
The voting period will run between March 16 and May 29, and the question will only pass if 50 per cent plus one of voters agrees to the new tax. The tax increase would raise $250 million a year to help pay for the 10-year plan that relies heavily on contributions from senior levels of government.
In a letter Thursday to North Vancouver District mayor Richard Walton, who doubles as chairperson of the mayors’ council on regional transportation, Stone said the mayors’ original question was refined to “reflect input from Elections B.C. in order to meet their ballot fairness requirements.”
The mayors’ wording of the recommended question was whether voters would support the tax increase “with independent audits and public reporting.” In reaction to Stone’s announcement, Walton didn’t comment on the change to the wording of the question but said in a release “this is a significant milestone in our proposal to keep this region moving as we accommodate a million more people in the next 30 years. We simply can’t afford to do nothing.”
Mayor Gregor Robertson echoed Walton’s points in a statement his office released Thursday, saying “the alternative is crippling traffic congestion, more air pollution, cuts to transit and lost economic opportunity. The future of our region’s economy and environment is at stake in this transit referendum.”
The mayors’ plan calls for $1.9 billion to build a 5.1-kilometre subway line from the Vancouver Community College-Clark SkyTrain station to Arbutus Street. Annual operating costs are estimated at $22.3 million.
Other investments in the plan for Vancouver include new B-line buses from downtown to Southeast Marine drive, downtown to Simon Fraser University’s main campus in Burnaby and from Joyce-Collingwood to UBC. Total capital cost is estimated at $21.9 million and an operating cost of $11.1 million.
More frequent bus, SeaBus and HandyDart service is called for, as are continued investments in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and road maintenance. The subway would be built in the six to 10-year range of the plan — the same timeframe for a $2.1 billion light-rail project in Surrey. A new four-lane Pattullo Bridge for New Westminster at $980 million is the other big expense outlined in the plan and calls for tolls once it is built.
The provincial government will pay for the referendum but will not contribute money to the yes or no campaigns expected to ramp up in January. The vote will go ahead despite the mayors’ council having earlier rejected the referendum, saying the government didn’t need approval from voters to build the new Port Mann Bridge or widen the TransCanada Highway. The government said the referendum was necessary when a new funding tool is proposed.
twitter.com/Howellings
