Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay is disappointed but not surprised that Metro Vancouver voters came out heavily on the No side in the transit referendum, saying the plebiscite shifted focus from a regional transit plan to a resounding rejection of TransLink.
PoMo residents were more closely tied than in other municipalities, voting 42.61% in favour of the plan and 57.39% against it (11,386 votes total, just a little over half the city's eligible voters).
Clay said he hopes the vote spurs the provincial government to look more closely at the Mayors' Council's requests to reform TransLink.
In the meantime, he said, nobody really wins with the No vote.
"It doesn't matter where you are, this plan was a regional plan and it was intended to move goods and people around the region more effectively," Clay said. "There will be more congestion, less transit service, more gridlock and cars sitting idly" due to the No vote.
The mayors' plan included an increase in bus service, upgrades to existing SkyTrain lines, new transit exchanges, more West Coast Express trains, more bike paths, more HandyDART service, adding transit to new neighbourhoods and more.
One of the key benefits of the plan was that it would have brought transportation improvements to all Metro Vancouver cities, Clay said, without municipalities competing against one another for provincial and federal funding.
"But Surrey is already talking to the feds for funding for them to go ahead with their own transit improvements, Vancouver is going to work hard to get the Broadway [SkyTrain] extension," he said. "That was the good thing about this plan: It was agreed-to priorities for the region. Now we're back to the days of Delta competing with Port Coquitlam, and it doesn't work."
Clay suspects the province will suggest mayors raise property taxes — which he said councils throughout the region will "resoundingly reject" — but he hopes they see the need for TransLink reform.
"They've made it clear [TransLink] is their organization, it was their legislation that took power aways from the mayors and councils to create an entity that's not working well. We don't have the power to change that."
• Port Moody residents who want to have a say on the city's new Master Transportation Plan, TransPort Moody, can join a discussion at city hall on July 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. Visit www.portmoody.ca/TransPort for details.
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