Anton unsure on TransLink rejig
Straight Talk By Matthew Burrows
Publish Date: September 6, 2007
Its been a while since I wrote on this issue too. I don’t know what there is to be unsure about. Kevin Falcon wants a more co-operative board i.e. one that does not publicly doubt some of his ideas. Clearly, any board that feels it has a sense of responsibility to the people of this region is going to question the view from Victoria. It doesn’t mean that either of them is necessarily right, just that regional issues in Greater Vancouver are not the same as provincial issues in Victoria. For the provincial government, drunk on the power vested in them by the conventions of parliamentary sovereignty, as embodied by our written constitution, it is hard to recognize the legitimacy of the views of other levels of government. Hard but necessary.
And for what it is worth, I agree with the view expressed by Caroline Bowering Gould. I do think that Falcon is acting “ultra vires” (beyond his legal powers) and that there are legal remedies to stop him – one them a writ of “certorari“. So there!
Stephen Rees's blog 
From Public Eye Online:
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Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon is getting hot under the collar about New Democrat critic Maurine Karagianis’s proposed “cold-blooded” approach to Lower Mainland transportation issues. Last month, Ms. Karagianis told Public Eye the fact she represents a Vancouver Island riding, gives her “a better opportunity to look at “the government’s controversial highway expansion project “in a cold-blooded way and to look at it in a practical and political sense without a lot of background in the community affecting my thinking one way or another.”
Asked for comment, Minister Falcon said, “When it comes time to talk about the Gateway Program, I can’t wait. Because I would love to know when the last time she actually drove across the Port Mann Bridge was, if ever. To me, that’s just a fundamental issue. I haven’t gleaned any advice whatsoever that she has a clue about what the issues are in the Lower Mainland in terms of traffic congestion – particularly the Port Mann Bridge” – which is set to be twinned. “I’ll be you, you can’t even get her to point on a map as to where the South Fraser Perimeter Road goes…I just can’t think of a person who’s less qualified to understand from the actual experience of knowing the area or driving the area” to debate the Gateway Program.
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Gee, I gues we can look forward to *transit users* on that Translink Board – if that’s the criteria Mr. Falcon.
Maybe shutting up now would be a good idea…
ghostsmachine
September 6, 2007 at 10:27 pm