In Bill 46, government is amending the South Coast Transportation Act to increase the ability of TransLink to increase the allowable parking rights tax rate as per the request of the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council.
The change increases the percentage rate to 24% from 21% and providing up to $10 million more revenue for transit services in the Lower Mainland.
The BC Green Caucus supports the amendment and in my second reading speech I voice this support and I tackle some of the absurd comments made by official opposition during the debate.
[Transcript]
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to Bill 46, the South Coast B.C. Transportation Authority Amendment Act and to provide my comments, our comments, on behalf of the B.C. Green caucus.
After hearing the member of the official opposition speak to this bill, it really does kind of make your…. It’s quite shocking, frankly, to hear the perspective that was put forward, this perspective that we are going to be one of the only metropolitan areas in the world that’s going to be fighting for parking and not taking the money that we need to be and investing it in transit and moving people around metropolitan areas like Metro Vancouver in a more efficient and effective way.
To the member’s comments: how are we going to support small business, or how does government support small business? Well, it provides proper transit and transportation infrastructure in this province, something which hasn’t happened over the years. Part of the reason why we’re facing congestion in getting into areas of Surrey and into areas of Delta is because there isn’t a proper long-term transportation plan in this province that was inherited by this government just a few 15 or so months ago.
Funding transit
To hear this ridiculous argument that was made just a few minutes ago about how the impact on job creators…. You know, the impact on job creators has been tremendous — the fact that there hasn’t been enough investment in the Lower Mainland. Frankly, the former government forced the people into a referendum to talk about…. Just because they simply could not bear to have a discussion about raising the money that was needed to be raised in order to make the investments that needed to be made to support the families and the people — frankly, my generation and those that need the transit and the transportation networks — those investments weren’t made.
It was really difficult to just stand up here and speak to Bill 46 and not get dragged into the swamp and have to make some of these comments in direct response to, frankly, the ridiculous arguments, the absurd arguments, that were made about Delta and about Surrey — dragging me into issues around the Mayors Council and what a new mayor of Surrey’s campaign was about, which ignored the fact, of course, that that new mayor of Surrey has got a council. They’ve got to work through those issues. Then that mayor has got to go and have the conversation at the Mayors Council with all the other mayors. Mayors council actually has a job to do, and we here, in this place — or at least this member from this seat and maybe even representing the two other seats to my left here — respect the fact that the Mayors Council has a job that it will do.
Mayors’ Council has a job to do
It will sit down, and it will take a look at what the Mayors Council ten-year plan will be. It will, maybe, revise some of those things. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it will come forward and say: “Look, we still stand on this plan that we’ve got.” I expect that, for the most part, we’re going to hear that the vast majority of that Mayors Council plan is going to be moved forward. There might be some amendments, and that’s the job they have to do.
But to have members opposite here stand up and speak on behalf of the Mayors Council, like has been going on in the last few days, to me is, frankly, completely inappropriate. It should be called out for that. We have the mayor of Surrey, who will stand up and speak on behalf of what he heard during the election and speak on behalf of his constituents. But frankly, he’s got a very important job ahead as he and his new council sit down.
Unless things have changed since I got from the council table just a few short years ago, the mayor has to also reflect the will of his council. As well, the chair of that Mayors Council, which is the broader group in Metro…. The chair of that Mayors Council will have to reflect the will of the council in its entirety.
It’s really critical here that we’re not standing up in this place and inappropriately reflecting views that I think have yet to be formulated, frankly. I find that very problematic.
The world is changing
To the point of the cost on parking. You know, increasing the cost on parking — the reality is that the world is changing. The former member who spoke was the former Minister of Transportation. And the fact that during his time in this place as the Minister of Transportation that we don’t have ride-hailing, to me is absolutely ridiculous.
The fact that that was allowed to just continue to go on the way it was — that we’re not providing people in our society, people in the Lower Mainland, the answers to the transportation questions that they have, the needs that they have — and then you can stand in this place and talk about what the cost of this is going to be….
The cost of congestion
What’s the cost of congestion for those families? What is the cost of congestion for a father or a mother — my peer group — who are sitting in their car because they couldn’t get access to the right kind of transportation infrastructure because the former government wouldn’t make those investments in improving the transit system? They’re sitting in their car while the dance class is going on or while the soccer practice is going on.
We hear a lot of bluster about it, but the fact of the matter is that there’s an incredible cost to congestion. While we’re here fighting for more parking, we’re not making the investments and the decisions that are needed to generate the revenue to invest right back into the community in transportation and transit.
We look across North America, and we see other metro areas that have been able to do this in a responsible, respectful way — been able to generate the revenue that’s necessary to invest back in. This is what Bill 46 starts to do. It starts to recognize that we are actually in a changing world.
I know that some members opposite don’t like to admit that the world is changing. They’d like to just see the world remain in the status quo, the same way that it’s always been for the last 16 years or whatever it was — to just stay right where it was.
Embracing change
But the fact of the matter is that the world is changing. We have got to get on with being a part of that world that’s changing and not dig our heels in and still fight for the same old things that we’ve been fighting for like the dinosaur world. We need to actually start to embrace the change that’s here. This is one part of it. Transit will be a major part of the changes ahead.
I’m going to sit down. I think that, from my comments, you might sense that my colleagues and I will be supporting this bill. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to it.
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