NDP leader John Horgan vows to boost transit in Metro Vancouver
Published on: September 29, 2016
Kelly Sinoski![UBCM 2016 address by the Leader of the Opposition John Horgan on Sept. 29, 2016. [PNG Merlin Archive]](http://wpmedia.vancouversun.com/2016/09/ubcm-2016-address-by-the-leader-of-the-opposition-john-horga.jpeg?quality=55&strip=all&w=840&h=630&crop=1)
Provincial NDP leader John Horgan recommitted Thursday to a massive transit plan to get goods and people moving across the province, particularly in traffic-heavy Metro Vancouver.
HorganAi??told delegates at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention that if in powerAi??he would work with mayors and councils and ai???not pick fightsai??? with them over local priorities, such as Metro Vancouverai??i??s 10-year transportation plan. He added that his governmentAi??wouldnai??i??t tell municipal politicians to ai???suck it upai??? when it comes to funding orAi??build ai???one offai??? pet projects. He gave as an example the $3.5-billion Massey Bridge.
ai???(The B.C. LiberalsAi??are) a government that doesnai??i??t get it,ai??? Horgan said in an election-style speech.Ai??ai???Weai??i??re expecting a million more people by 2040. Every community benefits from transit expansion in Metro Vancouver.Ai??Itai??i??s not urban versus rural or us and them.ai???
Horgan said his party will launch a 20-year infrastructure strategy to get goods moving across the province, create jobs and ai???break the B.C. Liberal roadblockai??? when it comes to transportation. The NDPAi??will alsoAi??boostAi??B.C.ai??i??s capital share of projects from 33 per cent to 40 per centAi??and reduce local governmentai??i??s contribution from 17 per cent toAi??10 per cent. He promised to create 43,000 job and $4.5 billion in investment across the province with projects likeAi??four-laning the highway from Kamloops to the Alberta border.
Horgan estimates the strategy will cost the province an extraAi??$50 million a year, but will beAi??ai???good news to those in small towns stuck in their cars.ai???
ai???The B.C. Liberals put their priorities ahead of the community,ai??? HorganAi??said. ai???I want to make it absolutely clear to mayors and councils in all corners of B.C. that I will be on their side and not picking fights.ai???
Kelly Sinoski is truly a disgusting toady working for TransLink. What a snake. She makes me want to puke. It’s always more of the same from her: “how to fund TransLink”. Never is there any rational or truthful argument for us to dissolve TransLink in order to rid taxpayers of the pigs at the trough at TransLink. She’s part of the crime ring screwing over taxpayers to profit from unnecessary and costly infrastructure spending on public transit. There are a myriad of other and better ways to create jobs than to fund TransLink.
Anyhow, here’s a timely (and rather long) letter from a group of citizens preparing for the next provincial election. TransLink is going to be facing a class action lawsuit (which I can’t disclose too much about on this site). If the NDP get elected (foregone conclusion given the lousy performance of the Liberals) and try to steal further from citizens to fund the scamsters at TransLink more, John could be joining his pals at TransLink, in it.
Dear John Horgan, NDP Leader and Official Opposition Party in British Columbia:
We’re a group of citizens in Vancouver and would like nothing more than to see the Liberal “party and debauchery” in British Columbia end and the crooked Liberals ousted in the 2017 provincial election. For the NDP to include in its platform the plan to increase funding from 33% to 40% for municipal public transit by TransLink in the Lower Mainland alienates us and the almost 70% of the citizens who voted against any further funding to TransLink in the 2015 plebiscite. For the NDP to dismiss the wishes of the electorate opposed to more funding to TransLink undermines the democratic process which the Canadian Charter of Rights protects and lessens the probability of the NDP winning the next provincial election.
http://johnhorganmla.ca/news/horgan-commits-to-break-transportation-funding-gridlock-creating-thousands-of-jobs/
“Funding and transit”
In Canada, TransLink already receives the highest gross amount of revenue from taxation which is 50% greater than the taxation revenue collected for public transit in Toronto. Despite the stupendous amount of revenue from taxation which the provincial government siphons away from public education and health care to spend on public transit by TransLink, instead: public transit by TransLink moves one-half as many people as the public transit authority (TTC) moves in Toronto. In Canada, TransLink moves the fewest number of people (bodies or revenue passengers) on its public transit system, buses and trains (see Figure 4-11 in the following link).
http://www.caw111.com/TranslinkEfficiencyReview-Mar2012.pdf
Perhaps, you are too far removed on Vancouver Island to realize that TransLink is essentially a self-serving bureaucracy created to pay stooges working for the provincial government $20K to $30K monthly to plan and re-plan the same thing over and over, again, in Metro Vancouver. These sorts of salaries are nowhere in line with what anyone at TransLink deserves to be paid for the trivial work, if any, performed. Might we suggest a modified election platform for public transit to improve the chances of the NDP in the 2017 provincial election?
All the do-nothings at TransLink are there for who they know and who they blow. They don’t do any real work. They hire others expensive consultants (typically from SNC Lavalin having shady connections and mediocre engineers) to do their work and to think for them. Employees at TransLink tend to have political ties to family or friends in the ruling provincial government. They are basically stealing from taxpayers to earn money in fake and overpaid positions. Their hundreds of positions can be axed and the $100 million in annual savings can be put into paying for electric buses or trams.
http://www.hess-ag.ch/en/busse/trolleybusse/lightram.php
http://sydneylightrail.transport.nsw.gov.au/
Public transit is primarily a social welfare service for individuals who can’t or won’t drive due to mental, physical or financial limitations. Public transit neither fixes gridlock nor improves air quality and to claim otherwise is disingenuous. In fact, public transit by TransLink causes more road chaos than it alleviates and more pollution as well as carbon emissions than it reduces. Any job creation to build concrete subways and viaducts for public transit is transitory and saddles citizens with massive ongoing payments to pay for their operation and maintenance. It isn’t shrewd fiscal policy.
“The irrelevance of transit service to urban traffic volumes goes against both intuitions and the claims of many transit analysts… if drivers switch from cars to buses or trains, it has much the same effect as adding new road space: traffic clears up temporarily, but faster travel quickly attracts more drivers who take longer trips.”
https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/workingPapers/tecipa-370.pdf
http://www.sightline.org/2011/12/14/study-more-roads-more-traffic/
TransLink earns $1 for every $3 spent. More public transit robs single mothers and pensioners, to name a few, of income. Public transit hobbles the economy and is a drain on the economy. Current gas taxes and proposed road-bridge taxes for TransLink make goods and services more expensive and take money out of the pockets of struggling families. Might we recommend the dissolution of TransLink and the adoption of frugal tram and trolleybus services?
Electric tram and trolleybus services don’t require further taxation for public transit whose relevance is diminishing. Car sharing is competing directly with public transit and public transit use is falling, as a result. Now is not the time to spend money on obsolete and costly public transit (subways and viaducts fed by carbon emitting diesel buses) planned by TransLink.
Inexpensive electric vehicles curb air pollution and carbon emissions more than public transit by TransLink does. Subsidies to promote private electric vehicle use or hybrid vehicle use are a far more cost effective way to not only cut air pollution but also reduce carbon emissions than to fund TransLink to put more diesel buses on the roads. Investment in the electric vehicle market stimulates the economy and creates long term jobs paying taxes as opposed to public transit taxing the economy for “organized crime paying no taxes” to launder money in condo developments along public transit corridors.
http://sam-of-usa.com/
“Drugs and TransLink”
Under the pretense of tackling traffic gridlock and cubing air pollution, successive provincial governments in British Columbia have funneled billions of dollars to criminal organizations behind the expensive and unnecessary infrastructure (concrete subways and viaducts) for public transit projects (Millennium Line extension and Cambie Street subway). Developers are buying off provincial and municipal politicians approving high rise condo developments along public transit corridors by TransLink.
Organized crime makes money from the drug trade in Vancouver and launders money from the sale of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin into the construction of condo developments along subway and viaduct corridors constructed by TransLink. Remove TransLink constructing subways and viaducts making the construction of condo developments possible and the money laundering disappears. In essence, employees at TransLink earn their salaries from the death of teenagers hooked on fentanyl and other drugs. This is the ugly reality of public transit and all the drugs sold at subway and viaduct stations operated by TransLink.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-coroner-latest-overdose-statistics-fentanyl-1.3772661
Wake up John Horgan, fella. You’re looking a tad slimy right now, you and your buddies at TransLink. If you continue to commit to funneling more taxes to TransLink robbing the citizens of British Columbia for organized crime to profit from public transit by TransLink in Vancouver, there is only one logical conclusion which can be drawn. It isn’t a good one.
And that as we say it that.