Stephen Rees's blog

Richmond Review Editorial

(note: the editorial published in the Review was a shorter version of one that appears in the Surrey Leader) This article has been revised in view of comments received.

The Black Press is gradually becoming more critical of the BC Liberal Government. This in itself is not remarkable – it is almost inevitable that over time the media will become more critical of any government. This particular editorial though is mainly about accountability – and how there will be less of it in future.

But the real stinger for me is this:

The board ultimately agreed—but only just—to push the Richmond-Vancouver rapid transit line ahead of other priorities. It drained any trust Victoria had in the locally elected mayors and councillors, who will be booted off TransLink’s board in January.

It is not about “trust”. The Board of Translink was doing what it was appointed to do, as set out in the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Act, a piece of provincial legislation. Every government, once it is elected inherits a system from previous governments, and it has to continue with what it inherits until there is enough legislative time to change some parts of it. It is simply unrealistic to think that a new government can simply come in and start doing everything differently, since they are as much bound by the law as everybody else.

The Canada Line was not in Translink’s strategic plan, as Richmond already had the B Line. The GVTA is bound to support the LRSP as it is the legally mandated Regional Growth Strategy. The BC Liberals did not repeal any of the legislation (Growth Strategies, GVTA Act etc). The Canada Line was a recreation of a former idea of a rapid transit line to Richmond that had been around prior to the previous NDP government. But that was a while ago. The thing about plans is that they only work if you stick with them. That is what a strategy is: we all agree to follow the same path – even if privately we might have reservations about it – since that will ensure the best chance that we will end up where we intend. Now this is not as exciting and daring as making it up as you go along. But is also less confusing for everybody, since a strategy works by replacing uncertainty – and if there is anything that markets, and investors, and indeed almost everybody involved in trying to achieve some goals, is uncertainty.

Not only was the Canada Line not in the strategic plan but it had features that were unknown. It is the first major public transportation P3. It would not connect with the existing SkyTrain. It would be in a very expensive bored tube – something not seen in any line so far built here or planned here. And it would run through a relatively low density area (where change in land use was not very likely) to a place the LRSP had determined should not be a growth concentration area since it was subject to both flooding and ground liquefaction in the event of seismic activity. Let us leave aside any consideration about the political allegiances of the area.

Given the above, the Translink Board would have been derelict in its duty not to question the province’s proposal. Except that it had been cooked up by its own former CEO who had personally directed the creation of the project. And he is a man who does not recognize that anything he has a hand in can have any taint of conflict of interest. As he himself has always been at pains to make clear. And, by the way, he was also City Manager for the City of Vancouver prior to going to Translink, and the City of Vancouver was not going to see much rapid transit spending as the Broadway rapid transit line was itself highly controversial, and the Coquitlam extension (now known as the Evergreen Line) had been the on again, off again priority for years – even before the extensions into Surrey. And the best thing about the Canada Line, as far as the City of Vancouver was concerned, was it removed a threat to the home of the “creme de la creme” – The Arbutus corridor.

The Black Press is right. It is a “serious erosion of local democracy”. The problem is that the GVTA itself is not especially democratic and hence not known for its responsiveness to local concerns. Some might think that is an advantage in a regional body, but the real problem that I see in a “two steps removed” election process is that people do not feel that – despite its cloak of legislative authority – the Board is representative or responsible (in the sense of other democratically elected bodies).

The GVTA is sui generis. There is nothing else like it. The GVRD is one step removed from municipal elections – and that in itself causes a problem for most voters. There are all sorts of crown corporations and provincially mandated boards and agencies, but the GVTA does not report to the Province – not should it. The whole idea of the GVTA was that the province was supposed to get out of the regional transit business. Nowhere else in Canada does the Province deliver local transit services itself (with the exception of GO Transit – where there is no one regional municipal body covering the whole of its service area).

The proposal that will be brought back to the leg this fall is driven by a combination of spite and pique. Neither of these is a respectable reason for legislating administrative changes to regional transportation. It is based on a misconception, that regional transportation should be run just like any other commercial enterprise. That is a big mistake. We can already see the damage that this approach is doing to the region by the attitudes and aspirations of the boards running our port and airport. More business for them is not necessarily the best thing for the region – far from it. The residents of the region are suffering now from more pollution from shipping and truck movements and noise from aircraft, as the traffic for other places is now routed through here rather than Seattle or Oakland. And it is just not good enough for these boards to simply shrug their shoulders and say that this is a cost of doing business.

I think that reform is needed. I think what we need is a democratically elected body that is in charge of both regional planning and transportation. All of it. You cannot possibly be successful trying to plan transport if you do not ensure that it fits the development pattern. The LRSP is being whittled away, as is the ALR. Yet this region has made it clear that it did not, and does not, wish to develop in the same way as most other North American cities have developed. The fact that one or two politicians elected to the provincial legislature think differently is simply not important. The fact that they can command a parliamentary majority is. But one of the other meanings of “responsibility” is that an elected politician is supposed to set aside personal preferences, and allegiances, and act in the best interest of all the people – not just those who might vote for him next time. And in my mind there is no doubt that the integration of regional transport and land use planning is very important, and must be done better in future than it has been up to now.

The problem with the new Board is not so much that it is not going to respond to complaints about fare hikes: none of its predecessors did either. The problem will be that that the people running it in future will not be concerned about much more than “the bottom line” – the way most business people learn to think. We even have the Premier telling us the Evergreen Line does not have a business plan! Well, it is actually better planned than any other line – including the Canada Line. And what is the value of a plan (build it in bored tube) if you change it once you see the size of the invoice (ok, cut and cover along Cambie)? Making cities livable is not entirely and solely about making money.