The Editor,
A letter to Mayor Richard Stewart and Coquitlam council:
When we went through the Regional Liveability Strategy Conferences, transportation was discussed and debated a lot. Most of the participants agreed that there should be a mix of user-pay, tax-based and private sector portions. I don't think anyone believed in only tolling new bridges. We supported all main water crossings being tolled, or none. If crossings were tolled, then commercial drivers delivering goods to our region should get reasonable rates to keep the cost of our commodities down.
We agreed that all transit riders should pay for their trips and that there should be all available methods in place, such as turnstiles, to keep fare evasion down.
Municipalities should pay a share of transit building and maintenance costs in their jurisdiction and all projects should seek all federal support that is available.
Parking taxes, licence levies, insurance levies and gas taxes were all part of the user-pay resolution.
Now comes a proposal for a 0.5% sales tax hike to pay for transportation improvements.
Since we haven't been able to trust our governments or TransLink to do something good with all the options above, we probably shouldn't trust them to do something good with this tax as well.
All that being said, I believe this is a good idea. I believe it for the way that it is funded by those who can afford it the most. Those who would spend the most will pay the most amount of tax and those with the smallest of means should be taxed the least because they won't spend as much. This tax proposal is a equitable way to raise funding from the region's residents.
What we need, still, are workshops to outline what the citizens of this region want our governments and TransLink to do, with funding raised for transit and maintenance.
Right now, leaving all these methods of taxation in their hands is really bad, especially with how much they fight amongst themselves, yet agree to salary increases for themselves without public support.
I don't trust our politicians or TransLink but I am sold on this idea. I voted Yes and I hope many with a social conscience will.
Steve Mancinelli, Coquitlam
