The unions representing transit workers are urging Metro Vancouver mayors to accept TransLink's proposed funding supplement plan - including a two-cents-a-litre boost in gas taxes - to pay for transit projects such as the 11-kilometre Evergreen Line.
A City of Vancouver staff report is also recommending approval of the plan, while the Vancouver Board of Trade is polling residents on what they think of the higher fuel tax for transit projects, just days before the mayors vote on it.
The mayors' council on regional transportation will vote Friday on the proposal, which also calls for potential property-tax increases in 2013-14 if alternative funding sources such as road-congestion charges or a vehicle levy can't be secured to pay for future transit projects.
Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver District, Delta and Langley Township have said they will probably vote against the plan, which would generate $70 million annually. Surrey, Vancouver and the Tri-Cities are expected to support it.
The vote is weighted, with Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond and Vancouver holding the most votes because of their size. If the plan is accepted, the province will then have to change legislation to allow the increase in the gas-tax funding, while negotiations will continue with the government on other long-term funding sources.
Don MacLeod, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 111, which represents 3,000 transit operators, said the funding is a "small step forward" to meeting the needs of transit riders in Metro Vancouver, by adding 415,000 service hours - a sevenper-cent increase - to bus and SeaBus service by 2014, in addition to getting the Evergreen Line built.
The plan includes 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.
"We're so buried, in the bus system, that any additional services will help," MacLeod said, noting that drivers are constantly passing up riders across the region. "Ridership continues to increase but we haven't put any additional services into buses in some time."
The City of Vancouver is pushing for rapid transit along the Central Broadway corridor to the University of B.C., noting Broadway has the second-highest concentration of employment in the region and the province, second to the downtown core, and is among the busiest bus corridors in North America.
