It is depressing but hopefully it will spur some action….although with the current minister I doubt it…and that is too bad because it will take time after the new government comes in before they will be able to address the issue so it will probably be fall before any action happens.

At this point in time there is no point for the mayors to even create a plan. The current government will most likely be kicked out in May and they really have no say in the matter. In fact the liberals are acting like they know they won’t win the next election and are just sitting around and doing nothing.

Factio Liberalis Britannica Columbiae delenda est

Far be it from me to defend the liberals but with the exception of the recent past (Christy Clarke) they have had a very similar record on transportation to the NDP (both have had transit expansion but both focused more on highways). That said Christy’s liberal are clearly not handling transportation well. And yes it is clear they know they are on the way out and just dragging on issues when a more visionary government may look to create solutions or plans even though they know they will not be in government for the next term.

Kudos to the mayors for not caving. It’s nice to see political leadership showing some backbone. It’s terribly unfortunate that this will affect transit service, but I sincerely hope it turns out to be short-term pain for longer-term gain in the form of an improved funding model which will better meet our transportation needs.

Is Spartikus channeling Cato the elder (234-149 B.CE), up there?
spartikus // Mar 1, 2013 at 9:14 am #5

And why the Liberal MLAs, when they are similar to the soft Liberals in a Hurry of the NDP.

I could see all the Campbells yes. Gordon, Michael and Catherine

And it’s all about which “level” of government takes charge of the transit, but only used by less than 20% of the population.
Statcan.gc.ca “Employed labour force by mode of transportation to work, by census metropolitan area (2006 Census)” from the last “good” census.

Someone with clear sight would take over and tax everyone in some way to maintain low fares, good service, and whips on everyone to try it for a while.
Gasoline price increases may put some onto transit as every 10 minutes is a litre in smaller cars and 2 liters or 20 minutes is bus fare (currently)

[ Look up “Carthago delenda est” in Wiki or other quote books ]

Did I read in The Sun yesterday, the latest TX gambit is the city and UBC agreeing to tunneling Skytrain along Broadway @ C$2.5B?

I thought UBC was calling for street cars!

And the province dealing with a C$50B out rigger. Don’t forget all these big numbers come with debt charges in perpetuity.

Is there some kind of vicarious prestige in carrying unpayable debt?

Some day someone wont be able to pay the piper unless UBC starts offering classes on line at least so far as the Broadway corridor is concerned!

@RK

With these types of projects, the increases in tax revenues generated by just the construction related economic activity, come close to the amounts that the provincial and federal governments contribute.

Then there are all the other economic benefits generated by transit like those in the study released the other day.

The debt “problem” is generally way overstated by those with some agenda.

QFT from Voony:

“The mayors can certainly vote a motion asking Translink to study some scheme, they didn’t.
They like to speak of road pricing, but so far it is very difficult to understand what they means by that:
-Why they don’t ask Translink to study a couple of model and to see how it can work in the region

Why keep all the things vague…Why not come with a clear sustainable scheme people can discuss and submit it to the Province? … expect more power, including more power to tax, At this time who understand what the mayors are asking exactly?

———–

On the governance
I notice that Obama could say exactly the same as the Council of Mayors (He can only sign or not the bills coming from the congress, not initiate them)…but a better comparison could be the European Union, where Appointed commissioners draft the European laws…European parliament member can’t introduce a bill, just vote on what the commission propose…and if it has been designed like that by the founding father of Europe (Rome Treaty 1957), it is for good reason (avoid bill drafted on patriotist interest)…basically the same reasons are prevailing in Metro Vancouver (Parochialism)…Of course in practice, in US like in the EU, you can send some message on what you want to see on the table…and The council of Mayors can do exactly that with the Translink board…but so far thy didn’t have expressed the leadership required for that.”

http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/the-mayors-vs-the-minister/#comments

Be careful of what you wish for, mayors…

“Borrowing money to pay for operating cost of government makes much less sense.”

Yes, Richard @ #18, I see your point. Mayor Philip Owen also saw Vancouver’s future in high tech. Mayor Owen chose the False Creek flats as a Silicone Valley clone way back in the mid-90’s.

Needless to say his concept fell flat on the flats. Kal Tyre etc., ain’t no Silicone Valley!

Mayor Robertson cherishes the anachronism, putting his hope in UBC: the same everybody’s doing it myth thirty years too late: indeed, everybody’s already done it!

Be sure tunneling will eventually degenerate into cut and fill then it will be back to the Cambie fiasco and along Broadway it will be fiasco+.

That is not a good reason to take on more debt, on top of an already extenuated debt, provincial, civic and personal.

We need forward thinquers and this mayor just doesn’t cut it: not to saddle ourselves with shop-worn proposals @ C$2.5B+ and rising!

Frances,
I liked the title. Especially the “frustrated mayors…” part.
What I see is a bunch of Alpha dogs tied up at the same slade and not happy. Only if you keep Vancouver’s into consideration… they all wanted their own sleds, they don’t like to be tied up, and have a “human” for lead. 🙂
They need to hear it more often… “Mush!” or ” Hike!” or whatever makes the mayors to move forward! No barking o0r biting allowed., or you’re off the sled.

“Frustrated mayors . . .” FRUSTRATED MAYORS?

C$2.8B looks like 2,800,000,000 in the North American numerical lexicon and that is bandied around with the excuse hi-tech UBC and a few offices and condos along Broadway will pay for it!



Nobody, in their “irrational exuberance” mentions annual carrying charges over and above initial payout. To wit: 2.5% annual, and that’s lowballing it.

So after paying off all the contractors etc., etc., we then have the daunting challenge of paying annually C$70,000,000.00 in perpetuity just to keep the bank happy: to say nothing of operating, maintenance, staff and depreciation.


Then there is the delicate matter of paying off the principal that is, well, such a horrifying number it’s brushed under the rug.

And remember none of these bankers’ profits stay in the community or even Canada. They’re loaded off to London for our Carney to play with!

No one looks at it from that direction do they? Too busy enjoying the gossip!

No way will any half-baked UBC courses or research make up for that! No way will any half-baked wall of gray and glass condos and offices make up for that.



How about irresponsible mayors? Vancouver’s Mayor and UBC are reckless to even consider such chatter. And Frances should know better than to write, in her G&M article, such uncritical drivel!

Vancouver has, for as long as I remember (60 years +), reveled in a world-class-mountains/sea-paradise myth it has never really face reality.

So, off you go all you transportation enthusiasts: break a leg!

I don’t mean to slight Surrey, but they did just get a brand new bridge. There is no way for access to UBC to expand, no room for roads and the 99B line is maxed out. It should be the priority.

PS Or Vancouver world-class dead-beat!

I seem to remember that this tax was introduced in the first place on the theory that it would not really need to go into effect because somehow against all odds and experience a better plan was going to be developed. I wrote at the time that I had nothing, as such, against such a tax, but a spade should be called a spade and it should be admitted that if this tax was passed, then presumably a tax there would be as any other plan being put in place was highly speculative and in fact unlikely, largely due to the stupidity and cupidity of the Provincials.

So, it seems I was partly right and partly wrong: indeed the Provincial government has continued to jerk everyone around and not allow any reasonable conclusion to this; on the other hand, the tax will not be going into effect after all it seems, and so there will be no funding of any kind. Worst of both worlds.

Hopefully after May something different will happen. Myself, I say “bring on the tax” if that is what it takes, and be upfront about it and why it must be done.

Ned @ #28

Taxes (road traffic taxes I suppose, but isn’t that supposedly on the wane?) to keep annual C$70M at bay is some leap!

And what about Evergreen . . . and, god knows, all the other TX boondoggles in the pipes?

I am convinced tax and spend shills get busy 0n-line whenever the conversation turns to big money projects.

Am I paranoid?

Roger Kemble said (#26):
“On-line attendance was touted, when I was at UBC (some classes up to 80+) in the eighties, but has since slipped off the radar!
When the mayor uses, “Vancouver is way behind other cities“, as his reasoning he just shows juvenile thinqing, not 21st century city planning!”

Ah, but they are concerned about MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses) [see Wiki ] because the flurry of recent openings (Coursera, Edx, Khan’s Academy, etc.) are frightening them as other schools (McGill, Harvard, Stanford) schools stars can and do teach better than UBC.

I’ve taken a few MOOC in the past months, and some are hard, some are uneven, but it is a full lecture with aids, and open software course with several written assignments (Massively Peer-Reviewed) required for a ceritificate.
Faculty at UBC are hearing about it everyday and wonder what and when the university is going to do something about ‘it.’

I say, throw UBC out to Chilliwack where it belongs as starting out as a farm and forestry school.
Build afresh, not jury-rig 1950s buildings for the 21st century, including enough lines, power, data, wifi and such for the new age of learning.
Do it right the first time.
Cheaper housing, a bucolic setting, and some isolation to do thinking, not get drunk at Faculty Club/Fraser Arms (both lamentedly closed)
And the valley might get fast rail to its eastern end.

I’ve read the 53 page drivel from the Broadway corridor transit report written by MMK under contract to KPMG Consultants.
What a load of old codswallop and self-serving press cuttings.

No one trusts UBC. They have always wanted full control, never an equal partnership.

And this week UBC and McGill fell 6 places down from their lowly position into the netherworld in the Times Higher Education world survey.

Bill Lee, what you wrote is one of the most astonishingly naive things I have ever read:

“I say, throw UBC out to Chilliwack where it belongs as starting out as a farm and forestry school.
Build afresh, not jury-rig 1950s buildings for the 21st century, including enough lines, power, data, wifi and such for the new age of learning.
Do it right the first time.”

Most of the mayors are attractive, talented and hard-working people. However, in this case I see no evidence that they have tried to engage the public in designing a system of TransLink governance that would achieve the goals of efficiency, transparency and fairness. Each one of them is an experienced and successful campaigner. Why haven’t they campaigned?