British Columbia’s Liberal government gets a failing grade when it comes to managing TransLink, according to a new poll.
Insights West and Business in Vancouver released their annual B.C. government report card on Monday, which asks people to rate Premier Christy Clark’s government on a range of issues.
The lowest ranked category this year is the government’s management of TransLink.
Just 10 per cent of survey respondents said the government has done a “very good” or “good” job managing the transit authority.
Thirty-three per cent rate the government’s management as “bad”, while 44 per cent say it has done a “very bad” job.
NDP transit critic George Heyman said he’s not surprised the government’s performance on TransLink ranks lowest during a year when it imposed a plebiscite on transit funding on the Metro Vancouver region and ruled out any changes in the transit authority’s governance model after the plebiscite failed.
“They have frustrated the people of the region who want to see the problems fixed,” said Heyman. “This government is just not there for them.”
The provincial government has taken steps recently to put more attention on TransLink.
In July, Clark took the portfolio out of the Ministry of Transportation and made Peter Fassbender the Minister Responsible for TransLink.
It then appointed former Vancouver police chief Jim Chu and former Surrey city manager Murray Dinwoodie to be the first-ever provincial representatives on TransLink’s board of directors.
Speaking to the Urban Development Institute last week, Fassbender admitted he’s been put in charge of a challenging portfolio.
“I’m not naïve enough to believe it’s going to be easy, and there has been a lot of debate,” said Fassbender. “But we clearly, as government, know how important an integrated, sustainable transportation system is for the future of B.C. and Metro Vancouver.”
Despite “critical” demands for reform by the region’s mayors, Fassbender has ruled out changing TransLink’s governance.
Instead, he has called on TransLink’s board, the mayors and the provincial government to concentrate on improving their working relationships.
Fassbender also expressed urgency to take advantage of the increased infrastructure spending promised by Justin Trudeau’s new federal Liberal government.
But Heyman said that will be impossible if the region can’t first find a way to fund its third of the mayors’ proposed 10-year, $7.5 billion transit plan.
The province’s insistence that any new funding source must go to a plebiscite vote has handcuffed the region, the critic argues.
“They’re going to be standing at the back of the line [for federal funding],” said Heyman.