OMC #5 – Who Made $8 Million?

An interesting passage from Bob Mackin’s Breaker News has peaked my interest concerning the the Operations and Maintenance Centre #5.

“A Dec. 11, 2023 NDP cabinet order, signed by Surrey-Green Timbers MLA Rachna Singh, took a nearly 37-acre parcel of land at 176th and the Fraser Highway out of the Agriculture Land Reserve on which to build the $1 billion operations and maintenance centre for TransLink. 

B.C. Assessment Authority valued the land at $5.65 million in July 2023. It was sold for $8.052 million last November.”

I find this remarkable because TransLink, the Minister of Transportation and the premier have refrained from all discussion about OMC #5.

Rail for the Valley knew about OMC#5 since 2018 and the government’s flip-flop from light rail to SkyTrain light-metro. Rail for the Valley were told that the cost would be between $500 to $1 billion.

There is no question about the need for the OMC#5, but certainly questions must be asked over the lack of any public input taking land out of the ALR for the OMC#5 and who made the massive profit selling ALR land for the OMC#5.