Posts from — May 2011

Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom levelled a broadside at the Translink Mayor’s Council during Legislature debate yesterday, blaming municipal leaders for lack of progress on the Evergreen Line.

This will no doubt complicate efforts by Mayor’s Council Chair Richard Walton, of the District of North Vancouver, to get a negotiated deal on future Translink funding.

With the provincial government now imposing closure to shut down the house, the chances of a legislative change to actually give Translink new funding tools has evaporated. The Mayors remain unanimous in their determination not to fund transit capital expenditures through the property tax.

Message to transit riders: relief not yet in sight.

The BC Cycling Coalition has just released a proposed provincial cycling safety strategy which focuses, sensibly enough, on collision prevention. The only element likely to attract criticism: “choice” on helmet use, meaning repeal of the helmet law.

The province’s decision to require a non-binding dispute resolution process between Metro Vancouver and the maverick municipality of Coquitlam should not put the entire Regional Growth Strategy at risk, says Ida Chong, minister of community, sport and cultural development.

A vocal business lobby has been seeking to turn Coquitlam’s dissent into a compete rethink of the RGS.

Coquitlam is the only municipality refusing to provide its consent to Metro’s new plan, which has been years in the making. Metro sought binding arbitration to resolve the outstanding issues. Chong ordered a non-binding process instead.

But that doesn’t mean she is content to see the process stall, she told NDP MLA Scott Fraser during debate on her ministry’s estimates. She expects Coquitlam and Metro to find consensus, as the region did with every other municipality.

Here’s the excerpt from Wednesday’s Hansard, page 1540:

[Read more →]

Who is responsible for ensuring the economic well-being of the 22 municipalities that make up Metro Vancouver?

According to BC Business Council economist Jock Finlayson, it’s Metro Vancouver itself, the regional body that oversees water, liquid waste, garbage and overall land use.

Finlayson is the latest business leader to slam the Regional Growth Strategy in the Vancouver Sun, blaming  hapless Metro Vancouver planners for a scheme he says will maintain the region’s low median incomes.

Metro planners have been accused of many things, but this is the first time they have been called out for perpetuating poverty.

“The RGS is essentially a land use plan,” Finlayson complains, “dressed up as a strategy for managing growth.” [Read more →]