LETTERS: Watts jumps to ‘sinking lifeboat’
Good luck to Mayor Dianne Watts, in defeating Malcolm Brodie for the mayors council on TransLink.
Richmond’s Mayor Brodie was certainly no friend of the taxpayer and the transit customer.
Sadly, Mayor Watts has jumped from a sinking ship into a sinking lifeboat with this move as transportation minister Kevin Falcon is now the chief guru running things.
Falcon’s hand-picked “board of experts” is nothing more than a dumping ground for political friends and political has-beens, to ensure Falcon’s wishes are granted. There is not one modern public transit expert on the board, it is truly a ship of fools.
All this pathetic charade has shown is the regional mayors are taking their orders from Falcon and not their electorate and I hope taxpayers send a message in a year’s time, when civic elections take place.
If regional politicians had any moral fibre at all, they would have voted to disband TransLink and throw the whole mess back at the province.
For the taxpayer and transit customer: more hidden transit taxes; higher property taxes; much higher fares; and a very poor public transit system.
D. Malcolm Johnston
Delta
New transportation authority is accountable
An important piece of legislation was recently passed by the B.C. Legislative Assembly.
That legislation is Bill 43, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Amendment Act 2007 to reorganize the existing TransLink governance and funding structure.
The Lower Mainland needs a responsibly financed transportation system that promotes the socio-economic development and growth of the region into the future, and meets the needs and interests of the users, the province and its taxpayers.
Bill 43 is proposing a governance and funding structure to achieve just that.
Among other things, Bill 43 provides for a new mayors’ council to maintain public accountability, a professional board of directors, and an independent commissioner to enhance transparency and due diligence regarding TransLink’s plans and initiatives and greater flexibility to better balance revenues for fairness and to ensure equity.
Too often in the past, TransLink decisions have been marred by parochial decision-making and irresponsible transportation financing.
The 23,000 members of the Park the Tax Coalition look forward to working with the new fiscally accountable transportation organization to be called the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority.
The coalition thanks the B.C. government for the leadership they have demonstrated as they work towards the establishment of sustainable governance and funding framework that provides the tools needed to develop and maintain a better, more effective transportation system that benefits us all and meets our collective goals of a competitive economy and a cleaner environment.
Ted Williams
Chair
Park the Tax Coalition
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