Richmond motorists will face higher gas prices next spring if the regions mayors secure a two-cents-a-litre hike in the gas tax to build the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said mayors on Wednesday voted in support of hiking the regional gas tax to help fund TransLinks $400-million contribution to the rapid transit line.
B.C. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom has promised to introduce legislation this fall.
"There has been real leadership shown in my mind by Minister Lekstrom in coming to a solution to these transportation solutions," Brodie said.
The move, which would boost TransLinks share of the gas tax from 15 cents to 17 cents next spring, would generate $40 million in revenue and help cover the borrowing costs of TransLinks capital contribution for the Evergreen Line, linking Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam.
The mayors are also considering a vehicle levy or possibly a small increase in property taxes in 2013 to boost annual revenues to $70 million.
Brodie said he disagrees with any option that involves raising property taxes. Rather, he supports raising such funds from motorists.
"I support the use of gas taxes because if people use cars as an alternative to public transportation there should be a price to pay. I have a real reluctance to use property tax," he said, noting that whether one owns property or not has nothing to do with one's transportation choices.
"I think the gas tax is in fact a toll. If you decide to use the roads then you have to pay to do that," said Brodie, who supports the idea of a vehicle levyA vehicle tax was introduced in the late 1990s to help to finance TransLink when the agency was created by the provincial government. But after a huge public outcry against the $75-a-year levy on automobiles, then-NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh backed away from it without providing other revenue sources, setting the scene for a decade of chronic financial shortfalls for TransLink.
The taxation proposals are part of TransLinks supplemental financial plan, which includes a raft of funding options to pay for transit projects, including the 11-kilometre Evergreen Line, major improvements to SkyTrain stations at Metrotown, Main Street, Surrey Central and New Westminster and the Lonsdale SeaBus terminal; a new B-Line along King George Highway from White Rock to Guildford; more bus routes in south Surrey and Langley; Highway 1 rapid transit from Langley to Lougheed station; and, road and cycling improvements.
TransLink is expected to put forward the funding plan to the mayors council this fall after extensive public consultation, scheduled to start next week.
West Vancouver Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, vice-chairwoman of the mayors council on transportation said she didnt know when work would begin on the Evergreen Line, which has been stalled since mayors last year refused to raise property taxes to come up with TransLinks share for the project.
