If his party wins the federal election, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised Thursday to work with Vancouver and the provincial government to extend rapid transit service along Broadway to Arbutus as part of a $20-billion investment in transit infrastructure across the country.
Speaking from the patio of a City of Vancouver-leased building at Cambie and Broadway, Trudeau didn’t say specifically how much of the $20-billion would go towards a Broadway rapid transit line. The cost of a subway along Broadway has been estimated at $1.9 billion.
“We will quadruple federal investment in public transit over the next decade,” said Trudeau, who fronted a stage crowded with more than a dozen Liberal candidates, whose backs faced a postcard-like scene of the North Shore mountains. “The lack of federal funding will no longer be a roadblock to action.”
Though Mayor Gregor Robertson campaigned last fall for a subway, and the City of Vancouver’s senior engineering staff recommended a subway over a light-rail system, Trudeau told reporters he wouldn’t favour one over the other.
“I don’t think that’s an opinion that the federal government should have but we’ve been conditioned to look at the federal government as the one who decides which projects get built, even though the expertise is right here at city hall,” he said.
Robertson didn’t attend Trudeau’s news conference but told the Courier later that he welcomed news of investment in transit and hoped other federal parties would make commitments to the city’s infrastructure.
Asked about the city allowing a federal leader to make a political announcement on city property, Robertson said “it’s public land, it’s city land and it’s available and accessible to all of the parties, if they want to make announcements during this federal election.”
The patio on which Trudeau made his announcement is used by city engineering staff, who works on the same floor. After taking questions from reporters, Trudeau mingled with staff inside the office, posed for photographs and had a brief meeting in a room with city manager Penny Ballem and chief engineer Jerry Dobrovolny.
Robertson’s office has strong links to the Trudeau campaign, with his press secretary, Braeden Caley, serving as president of the B.C. chapter of the federal Liberals. But Ballem said Caley did not request the location for Trudeau’s news conference. She also said Caley’s role with the Liberals was cleared with the city solicitor.
“So I’m very comfortable with that,” she said, noting the request for use of the building was made to her office by a member of Trudeau’s campaign team.
Ballem echoed what Robertson said about allowing all parties to use city property. She said the Liberals were not charged for use of what is called the Crossroads building, which is located on the northwest corner of Cambie and Broadway. One of the Liberal candidates who joined Trudeau was Jessie Adcock, the city's digital officer who took a leave to run in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam.
“I don’t think we’re taking a position,” she said. “If the Prime Minister or the leader of the Opposition wants to come and make an announcement that involves municipal issues -- particularly municipal infrastructure which is a major serious public policy issue -- we would absolutely make a location for them available.”
Added Ballem: “If we think it’s an appropriate setting and it’s not going to disrupt the public, we’re absolutely open to that.”
Ballem called Trudeau’s promise to invest in transit “unbelievably good news,” saying that transit drives the economy and the city has “the best business case in North America” for a subway along Broadway.
“If every other party wants to come and stand on our deck and make the same announcement – great,” she said.
Asked about the choice of location for his news conference, Trudeau said it was important to have a prime minister and federal leaders work with municipalities on local issues such as a transit “and from time to time, apparently, that involves borrowing their spectacular views of the city.”
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
