Category Archives: Urban & Transport

Abbotsford Councillor Patricia Ross Takes Stand Against Water Privatization

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Read this story from TheTyee.ca on Abbotsford Councillor Patricia Ross’ brave stand against a private model for water services in her community being pushed by the town’s mayor and others.

“Ross is the sole incumbent to oppose a public-private partnership
(P3) that would see the private design, build, partial finance and
operation of a water works project in Mission’s Stave Lake, a contract
of 25 years. Originally a partnership with neighbouring Mission as a way to address future water shortages, in April the district dropped out of applying for a federal P3 grant for the project, in the wake of strong public opposition.

To Ross, Abbotsford broke a ‘gentleman’s
agreement’ by going ahead with the P3 without the partnership of
Mission. But she has other concerns, including the private operation of
the water system, cost uncertainties, and what she sees as the lack of
choice given to the public in the matter — concerns shared by other
opponents, including some new council hopefuls.” (Nov. 10, 2011)

Read full article: http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/11/10/Abbotsford-P3-Deal/

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Delta Independent MLA Vicki Huntington

Port, Province Set to Steamroll Over Delta’s “Meaningless” Farmland

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We’ve known it all along, but at last we hear it out loud. Robin Silvester, the President and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, has stated that:

“Agriculture is emotionally important, but economically [of] relatively low importance to the Lower Mainland. And in terms of food security, [it] is almost meaningless for the Lower Mainland.”

So there we have it…finally, honesty from someone in a position of power. Our Premiers and their governments have known it was too political to admit to — that Delta’s agricultural land will be turned into an industrial park.

And to put the icing on Delta’s cake, so to speak, the Premier commented at a recent dinner to the construction industry that those silly people in Delta don’t want the Port: how unpatriotic can they be? Look at the jobs, the opportunity to be “Canada’s face to Asia,” to contribute to the good of the province and of Canada!

Well, Madam Premier, we know the value of Deltaport to BC and to Canada. We live with it. We accept its presence. And we have given up more than you can imagine in order to host the port, as well as its access roads, its rail tracks, the overpasses, the highways and the causeways it requires to operate efficiently.

We have contributed to the economic prosperity of our country and region. And enough is enough. Credible alternatives are available in Vancouver harbor and at Prince Rupert so it is irresponsible to destroy more farmland and internationally-significant habitat for world-renowned salmon runs, Canada’s major stopover for migratory birds of the Pacific Flyway, and endangered southern resident orcas.

Now we know that the Premier and her industrial supporters intend to lay waste to what is left of the Fraser estuary. Now we know that any obligation to community, to family, to history, to wildlife (both marine and avian) migrations, to the finest agricultural land in Canada, is not on the provincial agenda. Habitat and farmland are being sacrificed for business and a plan that could ultimately be unfeasible. This is also about rezoning farmland, a lucrative enterprise for the business associates of government.

Many of those fighting to preserve what is left of Delta’s agricultural heritage and the migratory bird flyway that depends on those uplands have known that government policies supported Silvester’s position. It has been clear from its reports that the Gateway Council controls the government agenda. But to hear the comment finally spoken aloud is still a jarring experience.

Yes, Mr. Silvester, it is emotional. Our community – our families, our history, our agricultural industry, our soul and our quality of our life depend on the land. So does the entire Pacific population of migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. But the people don’t matter. Nor does wildlife or the morality of protecting an international Treaty obligation to preserve the habitat on which that migration depends.

The people of B.C. recognize the importance of credible business and trade but question the motives of unnecessarily destroying the environment and fine agricultural land.

We deserve a say in the decisions that affect our communities and lives. Does anyone else feel there is a reason people are occupying Wall Street?

Vicki Huntington is the Independent BC MLA for Delta South and a contributor to The Common Sense Canadian

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Dana Maslovat of Southlands the Facts, in front of a barley field on the Southlands property

Delta Council Paves Way for Massive Housing Development on Farmland, Over Public Opposition

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On the eve of municipal elections, Delta Council has unanimously voted to begin amending its Official Community Plan, paving the way for a highly controversial housing development by Century Group atop the Southlands (aka Spetifore Farm). The October 17 decision could override a recent lengthy public consultation process that rejected changes to the Tsawwassen Area Plan (one of three communities that constitute Delta) to rezone the property for development.

“Given the two years and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars spent on updating the Tsawwassen Area Plan, I am extremely disappointed that Mayor and Council are proceeding with this application,” said Dana Maslovat of Southlands the Facts, a community group fighting to save the farmland.

“The public has clearly indicated their wishes to keep this land agricultural and it makes me wonder why all that time and money was spent to update our Area Plan if it is to be changed almost immediately. Furthermore, they are proceeding with a change to the Official Community Plan without a specific development proposal which is basically akin to giving the developer a blank cheque.”

The 500-plus acre parcel of land in Tsawwassen’s Boundary Bay was removed from the ALR by a 1981 order in council – at the urging of several ruling Scored MLAs who were interested in developing the property at the time. The order overruled the Agricultural Land Commission, which opposed the property’s development, based on its high soil quality – yet the Southlands has remained protected by its municipal agricultural zoning.

Despite numerous polls and meetings over the past several decades that have consistently demonstrated the community’s overwhelming opposition to rezoning the Southlans for development, Delta Council is now poised to override the Tsawwassen Area Plan and push ahead with the unpopular proposal from Century Group that could see between 1,000 and 2,000 homes on the property.

There will be some form of public consultation before the amendment to the Delta OCP is ratified, which sets the stage for yet another round of heated criticism of the plan. According to Maslovat, “A proposed timeline would involve public information meetings early in 2012 with a possible Public Hearing in the spring. The OCP designation change application was submitted without a specific development plan application, which would involve a separate process and Public Hearing.”

It remains to be seen what political fallout will arise from the decision, which comes just one month prior to municipal elections.

Watch this recent documentary by Damien Gillis on the battle over the Southlands

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This group of Metro mayors recently took a stand together and passed a new funding plan for numerous regional transit initiatives. Photo: Jason Payne, PNG

Motorists Who Slam Transit Levies Have the Wrong Target

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This past week – as the debate was raging over whether Metro mayors should vote for a 2 cent hike to the gas tax and a tiny (avg. $23/yr), temporary property tax increase in order to fund several badly-needed and long-awaited transit improvements for the region (they did, thankfully) – I read with interest some of the reader comments on the topic in the mainstream press. While the following aren’t direct quotes, they roughly represent three of the most common sentiments expressed by those opposed to funding this package of transit solutions – which includes building the Evergreen Line to the Northeast corridor, putting more buses on the streets South of the Fraser and adding a B-Line rapid bus route along King George Highway:

  1. “Enough is enough! Get your greedy hands out of our pockets, Translink!”
  2. “If transit users want more buses, they should pay for them themselves!”
  3. “Great for people in Vancouver, but we don’t have good enough transit South of the Fraser for me to get around without my car!”

It’s understandable that motorists are fed up with paying more taxes and levies – we all are. But it’s also telling what facts they fail to consider when making these claims (and it’s not their fault – the whole system is out of whack, politically, and in terms of how the media presents these issues).

The first point (stop taxing me, damn it!) is a result of what the late urban planning guru Jane Jacobs would have called a lack of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is the principle that governments are most effective and provide the highest return on tax dollars when they’re closest to the people they serve.

It’s plain to see that the lion’s share of government services we depend on in our day-to-day lives – garbage, recycling, sewer, water, parks, libraries, museums, street cleaning and maintenance, public transit, arts facilities and festivals, school boards – are provided by municipalities and regional governments. And yet, these governments receive only 8% on average of the total tax dollars citizens spend (including all income, sales, capital gains, and real estate taxes – with roughly 60% going to the federal government and a third to the Province). Thus, what we have is essentially the opposite of subsidiarity, whereby the political power and tax dollars rest in the hands of those furthest removed from the communities where they will ultimately be exercised.

The never-ending saga over the unbuilt Evergreen transit line is a perfect example of the problem with this system. The feds and Province maintain they’ve each kicked in their $400 or $500 million – now they’re just waiting on Translink, which just can’t get its act together (or so they suggest)…and so the line remains unbuilt, more than a decade after if was first put on the drawing board.

Of course Translink doesn’t have the $400 million! The minuscule tax base they have to draw on is already stretched to the limit, and there’s never much appetite amongst the region’s homeowners and businesses to further raise property or gas taxes. But since that’s virtually the only tool available to them – and they believe in what they’re doing, as do I – they have to make this difficult choice, knowing full-well they will be blamed and heckled for it. So it is to its great credit that the Translink Mayors’ Council had the courage to state their case to the public and stick to their guns when they voted to move forward with their plans this past Friday.

As to the argument that transit users should pay for system upgrades themselves – ostensibly because motorists won’t be making as much use of them – this view is patently hypocritical.

For instance, I haven’t owned a car for 7 years. That was a conscious decision – part and parcel to moving to a walkable, densified urban community where a car becomes more of a burden than a convenience (incidentally, my Gastown address gets a perfect 100 on walkscore.com, a neat tool that calculates how easy it would be to live without a car at any given address in North America – check it out).

That’s not to brag. Not everyone can move to Gastown, the Drive, or the West End – nor can everyone avoid having a vehicle. But I say this to put things in perspective. I’m a member of a car sharing program called Car2Go, through which I borrow a car for an hour, once or twice a week (at a rate of 20 cents a minute, including gas and insurance); I also ride the bus from time to time; and most of the goods I consume traveled at some point on our roads. So I am a road-user, to some degree.

And yet, it’s clear that I depend on our roads, highways and bridges far less than the person who commutes everyday in a single occupant vehicle from Abbotsford to Burnaby and back. But when the topic of drivers paying a toll for traversing a bridge or new stretch of highway comes up, invariably they get hopping mad. They forget that every time I take the bus or skytrain, I pay a toll – otherwise known as a “fare.”

For example, if I want to go to Surrey from Vancouver – unless it is for a few short minutes before jumping back on the train to Vancouver, lest my 90 minute fare expires – it costs me $10 to go there and back by skytrain! That is, unless I’m really thinking ahead and save one dollar by buying the $9 all-day pass. If we are trying to incentivize public transit use, we’re certainly not doing so with money; rather we punish transit users with the heftiest tolls around – and there are no “toll-free” skytrains or bus routes to choose from, unlike our road system.

Plainly put, transit riders have been on an expensive “user-pay” model for decades, while road tolling remains a hated and relatively little-used tool. Not only that, I’ve been subsidizing road building through my tax dollars far more than motorists have been subsidizing my transit infrastructure. And because these big-buck highway projects have the backing of the Province and feds, we’re all paying for them – through provincial and federal tax dollars. They aren’t subject to the complaints of local motorists confronted with unwelcome property tax and gas tax hikes because their funding is secured from upon high and, thus, less visible. But make no mistake, I am subsidizing the hell out of blacktop and bridge projects I will use relatively little of.

On that note, four or five years ago, when the BC Liberal Government was holding a few token public meetings regarding its massive Gateway highway program, the issue of which tax dollars should subsidize which transportation infrastructure came up. I recall cycling advocate Richard Campbell confronting a woman on the government panel about the billions being spent on highways while public transit funding languished. The woman told him, “Of course we need to build some public transit too, but we need to balance our investment between roads and transit” (emphasis mine). Mr. Campbell’s retort: “For the past half century we’ve been spending roughly ten times as much on highways and car-based infrastructure as on public transit; so ‘balance’ would mean for the next 50 years spending ten times as much on transit.”

But that’s not what we’re doing. Even today, that “(im)balance” remains roughly the same.

Moreover, transit infrastructure (with the possible exception of cadillac projects like skytrain) is far cheaper to build per mile and employs more people in the process. While the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and widening of Hwy 1 will likely exceed $4 BILLION, a study by one of the world’s top transportation engineering firms (that designed the Chunnel), showed we could get the old Interurban Line running again between Surrey and Chilliwack – passing through Langley and Abbotsford’s city centres in the process – for something like a mere half billion.

This was the iron artery that linked the Lower Mainland from 1910 to the early 1950s, carrying up to 70,000 people a day back then! Imagine how useful it could be today – offering commuters South of the Fraser a faster, safer, cheaper, more comfortable alternative to get to work, thus freeing up asphalt for those trucks and work vehicles that need to use the highway.

The final point often raised by motorists who don’t get it is that transit’s never worked for them in the past, so why should they support it now? This is a self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.

The bulk of the package of transit solutions Translink’s Mayor’s Council (which suffers from a major governance problem and sorely needs more local authority and political independence from Victoria – more on that in a subsequent piece) voted to fund recently were for the Northeast corridor (the Evergreen Line) or Surrey and other communities South of the Fraser, via a new B-Line route down King George Highway and more buses on the streets in general.

To the people who claim transit’s not working in their community, I say, “Exactly!” And to make it start working, we need to invest in transit throughout the region, which is precisely what Translink is trying to do (though they really should be prioritizing that Interurban Line!)

And that was cycling advocate Richard Campbell’s point: we’ll never get people out of their cars unless we make a priority of investing in the tools that will enable them to do so. And we’re never going to do that so long as people have the misconception that spending tens of billions of dollars on autimobile-based infrastructure is a wise use of tax dollars, while spending anything on transit is a useless burden.

 

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Mayors Approve Tax Hike to Fund Transit Improvements, Including Evergreen Line

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Read this article from News 1130 on the historic vote by Metro Vancouver mayors to approve a package of minor tax increases to fund a package of transit solutions for the region, including the long-awaited Evergreen Line to the northeast corridor.

“Mayors approved the two-cents per litre gas tax hike, set to come in
April 2012, as well as a $23 property tax hike for 2013 if they can’t
find another additional funding source before then. Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender, who voted in favour, says the plan isn’t perfect but it is a good first step. ‘For the first time in a number of years we see dedicated increase[s] in
hours, the rapid buses on Highway 1 when it opens, and improvements to
the major road network,’ he says. The vote was 81-34, weighted by population. The gas tax itself is
projected to bring in about $40 million, but they still need to find
another $30 million.”

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/286131–mayors-approve-two-cent-gas-tax-hike-to-pay-for-transit-plan

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Vancouver Sun Op-ed: Prosperity Possible Without Growth

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Read this op-ed in the Vancouver Sun by Profs. Tim Jackson and Peter Victor on the need to rethink our dogmatic pursuit of growth at all costs.

“Fixing the economy is only part of the battle. We also have to confront
the convoluted social logic of consumerism. The days of spending money
we don’t have on things we don’t need to impress people we don’t know
are over. Living well is about good nutrition, decent homes, good
quality services, stable communities, decent, secure employment and
healthy environments. The ability to participate in society, in less
materialistic – and more meaningful – ways, is not the bitter pill of
eco-fascism as Enchin would have it, but our single best hope for social
progress.” (Sept. 19, 2011)

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Prosperity+without+growth+possible/5423370/story.html

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Canadian Engineering Giant and Canada Line Operator SNC-Lavalin Raided by RCMP in Corruption Case

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Read this report from The Wall Street Journal on the RCMP’s raid of the Toronto offices of Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin in connection with bribery charges regarding a bridge building project in Bangladesh.

“A World Bank spokesman said RCMP executed search warrants in ‘several
locations’ following a referral by the Bank’s anti-graft unit, which is
investigating allegations of corruption in the bidding processes for
the Padma Bridge Project in Bangladesh. The World Bank signed a deal in April to lend $1.2 billion to
Bangladesh to build the four-mile bridge over the river Padma. The
bridge will link Bangladesh’s underdeveloped south with the capital,
Dhaka, and the country’s main port, Chittagong. Once completed, it would
be the largest bridge in the country.” (Sept 2, 2011)

http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2011/09/02/mounties-raid-snc-lavalin-in-corruption-probe/

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Container volumes for Port Metro Vancouver haven't grown at all since since 2007

Port Metro Vastly Exaggerating Need for More Container Capacity, Infrastructure

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The way Port Metro President and CEO Robin Sylvester tells it, we’re facing a major shortage of port capacity in the coming years, justifying the plans of his organization and both senior levels of government to continue a massive build-out of Tsawwassen’s Deltaport, along with associated container storage and highway infrastructure.

But is there any real truth to this claim?

Sylvester alleges that recent statistics “highlight the importance of infrastructure upgrades.” In fact, recent statistics – supplied by the Port itself – reveal that planned Gateway container infrastructure projects at Deltaport are simply not needed. These numbers do not support the $1.2 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road that is currently under construction. Nor do they support plans for a second Terminal at Deltaport with three new container berths.
 
It is true that Port Metro Vancouver’s container business has increased 5% since last year, making up for the dip during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009.  However, it has increased just 0.1 % in total since 2007!
 
For years now, the Port has been making unrealistic predictions of container growth to help justify port expansion. Back in 2005, the Port predicted container traffic would reach between 2.8 and 3.5 Million TEUs (the standard metric for container volumes) by 2010. They used this prediction to justify construction of a third berth at Deltaport’s original terminal, completing construction in late 2009 (now they want to build a second terminal there, with three new berths). 

But in reality, the Port’s lowest case prediction (as of 2005) of 2.8 million TEUs for 2010 has still not been realized. The actual total for 2010 was 2.5 million TEUs, the same as 2007 – basically no growth at all in five years.
 
Worse still, Port Metro Vancouver already has the potential to handle 6.7 million TEUs with efficiency improvements and without a new terminal at Deltaport.
 
In addition, the Port of Prince Rupert has the potential to expand to handle another 5 million TEUs. That would more than quadruple BC’s current container traffic capacity, to a total of nearly 12 Million TEU’s – roughly four times the current total for the whole of Western Canada. And what growth in shipping demand there is, will more likely occur in Prince Rupert, not Vancouver, due to significant logistical advantages (2 days less sailing time for starters) that no amount of government aid can take away.
 
Statistics also show that the big growth in the container business is in Prince Rupert, where traffic grew 29.5% in 2010 and 16.5% so far this year. The infrastructure in Prince Rupert is already in place and they are using only 50% of capacity.

So why spend millions more tax dollars to trash top-grade farmland and critical habitats for salmon, orca and millions of migratory birds of Canada’s major stopover of the Pacific Flyway at the mouth of the Fraser River – especially when we plainly don’t need the added port capacity and associated infrastructure?!

Port Metro’s repeatedly incorrect projections and misuse of data need to be challenged. The consequences of the continued mass-industrialization of Delta for our environment, health and tax coffers are simply too great to be making the wrong decisions, based upon bad information.

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Record Translink Ridership Numbers – More Funding Needed to Meet Demand

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Read this story from the Vancouver Sun on the continued sharp increase of transit ridership in the Lower Mainland.

“Ian Jarvis, the chief executive officer of TransLink, called the
figures “amazing,” but said there’s little room in the system for more
riders unless services are expanded. He is asking the public to support
plans that include a significant tax increase with revenue earmarked for
the transportation authority…TransLink’s
figures over the first six months of the year suggest 2011 ridership
will outpace 2010’s tally of 211.3 million riders by a large margin. To
date this year, the company has logged 114.4 million passengers. Year-over-year
increases in ridership is nothing new to the transportation authority,
with TransLink reporting nine straight record breaking years.” (Aug. 21, 2011)

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Record+number+riders+TransLink+2011/5285944/story.html

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Georgia Straight op-ed: Keep Stanley Park Oil Spill-Free

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Read this op-ed in The Georgia Straight by the Wilderness Committee’s Tria Donaldson on the threat to Vancouver and Stanley Park from plans to dramatically increase oil exports out of Vancouver’s Westridge Terminal.

“Kinder Morgan has been operating the Trans Mountain pipeline for years,
but in 2007, the company started shipping larger quantities of oil. And
now Kinder Morgan wants to increase the capacity of their Trans Mountain
pipeline and reduce the amount of oil being refined locally, taking us
from 50,000 barrels a day of oil that is exported to close to 700,000
barrels a day of oil tanker traffic travelling through Vancouver’s
harbour” (Aug. 19, 2011)

http://www.straight.com/article-434271/vancouver/tria-donaldson-lets-keep-vancouvers-stanley-park-oil-spillfree

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