To District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little, the kilometres-long traffic jams North Shore commuters face every day at the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge are emblematic of the transportation issues all of Metro Vancouver is facing. Read More
Metro Vancouver mayors call for federal funding to replace the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and the Massey Tunnel, a SkyTrain extension to the University of B.C. and funds for TransLink.
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Metro Vancouver mayors call for federal funding to replace the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and the Massey Tunnel, a SkyTrain extension to the University of B.C. and funds for TransLink.
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To District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little, the kilometres-long traffic jams North Shore commuters face every day at the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge are emblematic of the transportation issues all of Metro Vancouver is facing.
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And officials will be looking to Ottawa for help in dealing with them.
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The aging crossing, which has had the same lane capacity since 1968, carries some 160,000 vehicles per day, which leads to lineups 11- to 12-kilometres long of commuters struggling to get to jobs that pay well, but often not well enough for them to put down roots in the region’s increasingly expensive housing.
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“The deficiency of infrastructure is a widespread problem throughout the region and there’s no question we all need more improvements for transportation and transit infrastructure throughout the region,” Little said.
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Sunrise
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Within the region, the bridge is bookended by another major bottleneck at the Massey Tunnel crossing of the Fraser River on Highway 99, which is due to be replaced by another $4.15 billion tunnel, but the project is still in need of federal support.
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Metro Vancouver’s municipalities also say that TransLink is stretched to its limits. It’s facing a $600-million operating deficit by 2026 while also trying to expand as governments try to keep up with building housing for an expected million more people by 2045.
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Postmedia News canvased Metro leaders on the key transportation priorities they want federal candidates to address. Below are some of their responses. (Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke didn’t get back to Postmedia by deadline.)
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Little said that the daily traffic jam on the bridge “impedes our ability to connect with the South Shore economy.”
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Little said North Shore communities are trying to advance transit objectives, which include TransLink’s plan to extend its existing R2 RapidBus to become a link from the North Shore to Metrotown and BCIT.
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The last federal government promised TransLink $1.5 billion to help pay for some of the cost, but Little added that it needs to be “properly funded and implemented to give us a viable alternative to the car to get to and from the North Shore.”
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Little said a long-term plan to deal with road infrastructure, including replacement of a bridge that is within 20 years of its useful lifespan, would be welcome.
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“It would be pretty hard to run as a local candidate and not understand the traffic issues,” Little said.
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Burnaby
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North Vancouver’s key priority for transit, establishing rapid bus transit to Metrotown, is equally important to Burnaby, said Mayor Mike Hurley.
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Hurley said the city is served well from east to west by SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines, “but our north-south routes are really, really challenged to move around unless you have a car.”
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Considering the traffic jams that crawl through Burnaby along Highway 1 every day, Hurley added that “congestion is never going to get better until we have a really, really robust transit system.”
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Hurley will be lobbying candidates to consider federal contributions to operating funds for transit to help repair TransLink’s funding formula, which is strained by dwindling gasoline taxes and a limited ability to increase fares or property taxes.
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“We’ll start to see transit getting worse and services getting cut because the funding is just not there to support it,” Hurley said.
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As it stands, he argued that the federal funding coming to the region falls short compared with contributions that go to Toronto.
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“If you want all the housing that’s being demanded by other orders of government, we can’t do that without the proper transit that goes with it,” he said.
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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim lists the extension of TransLink’s Broadway subway from Arbutus Street to the University of B.C. as “one of the most critical transportation priorities for our region.”
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Ottawa needs to “provide full funding” to move ahead without delay, he said.
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Sim argued that Vancouver is “doing the heavy lifting on housing,” but needs support.
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“Vancouverites are disproportionally impacted when the federal government falls short on infrastructure support,” Sim said in an email. “As one of the fastest growing major cities in Canada and the country’s gateway to the Pacific, Vancouver plays a vital national role, yet federal investment hasn’t always reflected that.”
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Richmond
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Replacing the Massey Tunnel and dealing with traffic congestion that will migrate north from an expanded crossing is a key priority for Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. But he’s also acutely aware of the need for proposed rapid bus transit as part of that project.
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“We’ve been working with the province on (TransLink’s) operating side of things, but certainly it would be a priority to get operating support from the feds,” said Brodie, who is also vice-chairman of TransLink’s advisory mayors council. “And also capital dollars.”
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Brodie said it’s early days in the federal campaign, so he hasn’t had many chances to lobby candidates, but every time he’s seen incumbent MPs in recent years “there’s some kind of discussion about public transportation and the need for it.”
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“There’s been a huge emphasis on our housing crisis and it’s all dependent upon transit-oriented development,” Brodie said. “So if we don’t have money for that transit, that whole approach has great limitations.”
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Delta
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The Massey Tunnel replacement, including a second highway exit for Ladner, remains the City of Delta’s top priority.
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Mayor George Harvie said his colleagues agree “this bottleneck is just unacceptable” for the booming communities south of the Fraser River.
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“We feel like we’re just not getting enough recognition from our provincial government or the federal government,” Harvie said. “Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau promised me twice in-person that he was going to be looking after the tunnel for us.”
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Harvie is trying to get to the bottom of stories that emerged last week about a federal contribution that was on the table last year that hadn’t been accepted by the province.
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His perspective is that even if the amount fell short of the province’s expectation, “if that offer was enough to do the second exit in Ladner, take it and then we can go back and try to get some more.”
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On transit, Harvie worries Delta could lose much of its bus service so he echoes other mayors in lobbying the feds to offer operating support to TransLink. He feels municipalities are being pressured to increase property taxes to fill the transit agency’s budget gap.
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“Over the years, all we get is, I describe it as a box of Band-Aids,” Harvie said. “Those Band-Aids get used up pretty quick. We do need some sustainable funding from the federal government, and also the provincial government.”
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Coquitlam
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Coquitlam Coun. Brent Asmundson said his city is looking for stronger federal leadership in delivering better infrastructure for the movement of goods, specifically on the Pitt River Interchange at the Lougheed Highway and the CPKC Rail corridor.
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Asmundson said the corridor is important to regional mobility for commuters and freight as well as the future needs of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation, and without “a strategic investment” in the project, the region will continue to suffer delays that stunt growth and slow the movement of goods.
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Asmundson said the feds’ recent $1.5 billion contribution to TransLink from its permanent transit fund was welcome, but stretched over 10 years would only scratch the surface of the transit agency’s capital needs.
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“From our perspective, the issue is not that Metro Vancouver receives less than other cities,” Asmundson said. “The problem is the size of the overall funding envelope, which remains inadequate for the demands of fast-growing urban regions.”
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