The Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce is urging local mayors to approve a two-cent gas tax increase and work with the province to come up with user-pay options to fund the Evergreen Line and and other road and bus improvements
The chamber is backing TransLink's Moving Forward supplemental plan expected to be voted on by the mayor's council Oct. 7 in a bid to spur-much needed investment in road and transit infrastructure.
Chair Richard Rainey said the chamber isn't "overly enamoured" about the plan to impose additional fuel taxes, but said they are required to ensure the long-term health and productivity of the region.
"There's never a good time to propose something like that, It's also important to get moving on these projects. It's not going to get easier if we keep waiting," Rainey told the News.
In addition to the two-cent-per-litre increase in fuel taxes beginning in April, 2012, additional funding is required - either a property tax increase of about $23 per home or a new long-term source of funding still to be worked out with the province - to fund the plan.
Rainey said the chamber opposes both a hike in property taxes and any proposed vehicle levy because businesses would be hit the hardest. He said the Tri-Cities chamber supports instead the B.C. chamber's proposal of a comprehensive road pricing plan.
"The key point in the policy is that road pricing - if properly thought through - can have value not just through generating tolling revenue, but as a means of managing traffic flow in the region," Rainey said.
While he's concerned that the mayors are being asked to vote on a plan that doesn't nail down all the funding measures, he's hopeful TransLink and the province will come up with a way of generating new, long term, sustainable funding without relying on property taxes as a back up.
"I think we've got a lot of reason to be anxious. There's been a decade now of half-fullfilled commitments. We are supportive of this plan on the understanding that they are gong to diligently work on a resolution," Rainey said.
If approved, the Moving Forward plan would generate an extra $700 million over 10 years, with $400 million to be TransLinks' share of building the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam and $300 million earmarked for upgrades elsewhere, including Rapid Bus connections to Langley, Surrey and Burnaby, enhanced bus service throughout the region and $13 million for roads and cycling infrastructure.
Rainey said these transportation investments are significant and important to ongoing growth, business productivity, job creation and future prosperity in the Tri-Cities and across the region.
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