Official Report of
DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(Hansard)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007
Morning Sitting
Volume 24 Number 3
Second Reading of Bills
Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority
Amendment Act, 2007
(Bill 43) (continued)
R. Sultan
R. Sultan: I am pleased to offer my support for Bill 43, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Amendment Act, 2007.
My constituents have a significant stake in the restructuring of TransLink, both as users of the system and as funders of the system. The North Shore generally feels underserved by this organization by virtue of the quite sparse public transit network available to us and by TransLink's relative absence in the planning and maintenance of our road system. (I'd remind all of us of TransLink's involvement in the road system as well as in public transit.)
At the same time, North Shore citizens feel very heavily taxed by TransLink by virtue of its heavy reliance on real estate taxes which, when coupled with the North Shore's relatively high property values, result in a felt imbalance among costs and services and benefits received.
Some would attribute TransLink's modest local service to the feeling that we have but a small voice in the management of its affairs. However, on the basis of population, with a 9-percent share and a declining share, we perhaps only deserve the one out of 12 GVRD appointees on TransLink's board.
Also, TransLink's absence from our shores is partly explained and explainable by our reluctance to embrace urban densification, which is really a precursor to running an efficient urban mass-transit system.
Now, I've listened with great interest to the impassioned speeches, the simulated outrage and forecasts of doom from members opposite when commenting on the new governance structure proposed by Bill 43.
However, from a North Shore perspective, TransLink service levels are already so meagre that it's difficult to believe that services could be even less under the new arrangement. The taxes paid are already so heavy that it's difficult to believe they could be more onerous under new management. Frankly, since our governance voice is so muted already, the outcries we have heard in this chamber about failing democracy, uneven representation and frayed accountability don't resonate with my constituents.
In sum, the contrived outrage of those who oppose Bill 43 is not shared.
My support of Bill 43 is also influenced by the voices of municipal politicians and others who have observed the actual working of TransLink up close and personal with respect to governance, planning and finance through their own involvement and day-to-day contact at a higher level than I can claim.
On the matter of governance, consider this.
- Doug McCallum, then-mayor of Surrey and TransLink chair, said: "We have a serious structural problem in governance." Vancouver Sun, June 22, 2004.
- Larry Campbell, then-mayor of Vancouver and TransLink board member, said: "Quite frankly, I don't see it" - TransLink - "working. We have to get rid of the parochialism." Vancouver Sun, June 22, 2004.
- Jeff Lee, independent journalist. Headline: "Mayors Want 'Unworkable' TransLink Scrapped." Story: "The mayors of the two largest cities in the lower mainland say the collapse of the RAV project shows TransLink is not working properly and should be replaced with something that does." Vancouver Sun, June 22, 2004.
- Editorial titled: "TransLink is Broken; It's Up to Victoria to Fix It." "TransLink has come to represent political gridlock in the lower mainland rather than a transit system that moves fluidly…. What we need is a structure that can override the inherent conflict that has paralyzed the current board, which is comprised of local mayors and councillors and yet must act in the interests of the entire region."
- Dianne Watts, mayor of Surrey and TransLink board member: "There needs to be one plan that everybody's working together on. There's no point in having different levels of government having different plans." The Province, April 18, 2006.
- Sara MacIntyre, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation: "The regional transportation board has blurred lines of accountability. Citizens and voters are left guessing who is responsible for what and wondering why their tax bills keep rising." June 5, 2006.
- Derek Corrigan, mayor of Burnaby and TransLink board member, speaking on the $4 billion ten-year outlook transportation plan: "We're not gonna cooperate with totally and financially undoable projects." Burnaby Now, December 13, 2003.
- Derek Corrigan again: "We are extremely frustrated. We are looking at huge increases in the TransLink levy on the property taxpayers with no end in sight and without accountability to the electorate. They'll continue spending like a drunken sailor." Delta Optimist, August 10, 2005.
- Finally, Mayor Corrigan was quoted on March 9, 2006, in the Vancouver Sun. According to the article quotation, Mayor Corrigan was reported as saying that he has no confidence in the panel. He said he has always regarded TransLink as a way for the former NDP government to offload some of its responsibilities on the region.
Therefore, those in this chamber who accuse the Transportation Minister of insulting municipal politicians by saying that TransLink needs fixing should reflect on the fact that the minister is merely repeating the words of the TransLink governors themselves.
The question now is what to do about it.
In the fall of 2005 I initiated two private member projects: firstly, research into governance structures of other mass transit organizations around the world; and secondly, the recruitment of what I might call a personal panel of experts from my riding - people who could provide experience and advice.
On the informal and unofficial panel was a former Attorney General of B.C.; a former chairman of B.C. Rail; and two members of the board of directors of YVR, our very successful airport authority. Two were professional engineers. Two of them had been MLAs in the past. All of them offered decades of top management experience.
To better understand the experience of other transit systems, we examined ten transit governance structures around the world:
- Calgary Transit;
- Toronto Transit Commission;
- TFL, Transport for London, as it's called in the U.K.;
- Sound Transit in Seattle;
- MBTA, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston;
- the Massachusetts Port Authority;
- Hong Kong Mass Transit;
- Singapore transit authority;
- B.C. Ferries and
- YVR.
Our findings were three principal ones.
Firstly, the transit systems with lots of control by municipal and county politicians day-to-day tended to rank lower in terms of cost-effectiveness, service levels and perceived quality of service. The contrary was the case in those organizations marked by a high degree of professional management and control.
Secondly, effective transit systems were systematically reducing reliance on the private automobile as the principal mode of urban travel. In London, England, for example, tolling those who wanted to even drive into the central city had been successfully implemented - perhaps a harbinger of the future for us on the lower mainland.
Thirdly, all of the successful systems received heavy government subsidies. The idea that mass transit can be self-supporting from the farebox is an unrealistic dream. The means of raising the requisite tax revenue varied enormously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Of course, the fact that taxes are inevitable in this business does mean that having effective political say on what is going on is important.
This private panel, the one I had recruited, presented its conclusions and advice directly to the TransLink Governance Review Panel appointed by the government. I am sure that few in this chamber would question the long experience and impartiality of this panel.
- For example, Marlene Grinnell, chair, has 25 years in public office. She is the former mayor of Langley and served on the B.C. Transit Commission, TransLink, the Municipal Finance Authority and the GVRD. She is also on the intergovernmental and corporate affairs committee and knows her municipalities.
- Wayne Duzita - 35 years of experience in the transportation and logistics field, Calgary International Airport, Richmond Chamber of Commerce - knows his business.
- Dan Doyle, P. Eng, a former Deputy Minister of Transportation with 37 years of experience in the field. He served the Social Credit, NDP and B.C. Liberal governments impartially and equally, with distinction. Last weekend at an event I attended, he received the highest recognition award offered by the Association of Professional Engineers of B.C. at their annual general meeting. Knows his engineering; knows his governments and government process.
These three told it like it is. Their governance recommendations are what we see in Bill 43.
One final point. Members opposite suggest that Bill 43 is tantamount to a provincial takeover of the governance of the transit system. I would say it is anything but that. The government, in bringing forward Bill 43, has done handsprings to avoid either the appearance or the reality of control.
Those who do not believe this have not examined the proposed new governance structure or, for that matter, the accounting philosophy of this government. Under GAAP rules - generally accepted accounting principles, as judged by the independent accountants across the land - the professional accountants from outside government determine whether an entity such as TransLink is controlled by government and, if so, whether or not it should be consolidated into the government's financial accounts under GAAP.
The Finance Minister of this government would, I believe, not enjoy the prospect of incorporating the capital-intensive, capital-absorbing, deficit-running and perennially harassed municipal transportation system into her set of accounts. The debt-rating agencies would not be amused.
Furthermore, politically, how would you explain that to the voters of Prince George or Kelowna? Why, they could fairly ask, are we being saddled with this municipal operation, even if it does account for such a huge chunk of the province's population? It doesn't make either economic or political sense.
What we have in Bill 43 is an artfully designed governance structure explicitly put together so as not to be controlled by the provincial government.
To conclude. With passage of Bill 43 we see the creation of a regional transportation authority whose mandate will extend, eventually, from Hope to Pemberton. The new governance structure will include a council of mayors - all of the mayors - a TransLink board and an independent TransLink commissioner.
I was, as I listened to the member opposite, reflecting on the old maxim: "It's always nice to have a belt-and-suspenders oversight." Here we have belt, suspenders and a safety pin, I would suggest.
The new TransLink board will be composed of non-elected officials with the expertise which has already been commented on at length. Candidates must submit to a screening panel appointed by the minister, by the council of mayors - that is, all of the mayors - the chartered accountants, the board of trade and the gateway society.
It will be the council of mayors - all of the mayors - that actually takes the final step of selecting and appointing the new TransLink board from the list of candidates presented to them by the screening panel - which, by the way, disqualifies current and past politicians and their close friends and relatives, I believe.
In the years ahead, transportation governance on the lower mainland will be more challenging than ever before. As British Columbia comes to grips with the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that 40-percent share of total provincial greenhouse gases generated by transportation is key.
In order to reach this goal, we shall surely see a more deliberate and accelerated transition to higher reliance on TransLink and mass transit and reduced reliance on our favoured and favourite private automobile. It will need the best governance that our civic leaders can devise. Let's not underestimate the challenge.
So, sayonara and good luck, Metro Vancouver. You are soon to be on your own to work out the specifics of your own transportation system, and that is how it should be.
I urge us all to pass Bill 43 without delay.
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