Yesterday, I attended the inaugural meeting of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation. Together with the TransLink board, it governs regional transportation and transit in Metro Vancouver.
The meeting started with a Cedar Brushing Ceremony, and we heard from Chief Rhonda Larrabee of Qayqayt First Nation and Michelle George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation about their family’s and their lived experiences.
Aftward, all members of the Mayors’ Council affirmed their Oath of Office. Brad West, Mayor of Port Coquitlam, was acclaimed chair of the Mayors’ Council. Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley put their names forward for vice-chair of the Mayors’ Council. The Council elected Mike Hurley as the vice-chair. The chair and vice-chair also sit on the TransLink board. The provincial government is working on updating legislation to allow a third member of the Mayors’ Council to sit on the TransLink board. Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie was acclaimed as the choice for the third member by the Mayors’ Council to sit on the TransLink board once the provincial government updates TransLink’s governance.
Next, Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink, provided a quick update to the Mayors’ Council. He noted that overall ridership was 81% of 2019 levels at the end of October, with weekday ridership at 74% and weekend ridership at 84%. He also stated that ridership is over 100% of 2019 levels in the South of the Fraser and Ridge-Meadows. Quinn said they recently increased transit service hours by 11% in the South of the Fraser. He said office work has fundamentally changed, and that will impact how transit service will be delivered going forward in our region. It will also affect how we fund transit. One of the systemic challenges that the Mayors’ Council must solve over the next year or so, with the province and the federal government, is getting stable funding for TransLink.
Quinn talked extensively about Bus Rapid Transit which is part of the new long-range plans for TransLink. I’ll be posting more about this over the coming months and years.
After the public meeting, Mayors’ Council members, including myself, attended an orientation workshop.
1 comment:
Please post all the documents that you received and all the slides shown by the CEO.
You should represent the south of the Fraser. Present governance is the worst in Canada.
Post a Comment