The Story of TransLink Part 3 – How Metro Vancouver got a bum deal, and how we can fix it

One of the things I wondered about was why the region’s mayors didn’t just raise property tax to pay for much needed regional transportation investments in Metro Vancouver. I mean if the mayors increased property tax, we would actually be able to properly fund regional transportation in Metro Vancouver and make the Mayors’ Transportation Plan happen today.

Under the currently mandated provincial funding regime, property tax would have to be doubled to pay for the Mayors’ Transportation Plan. Using June 2015 benchmark price data for the City of Surrey and the 2015 Surrey property tax rates, out of the $3,213.81 a person would pay in property tax for the typical detached house in Surrey, $218 would go to TransLink. Similarly, a person in a townhouse would pay $1510.68 in property tax of which $102.86 would go to TransLink. An apartment owner in Surrey would typically pay $938.93 in property tax with $63.94 going to TransLink. These numbers don’t include any grants or utility fees such as water charges.

While a doubling of the property tax for TranLink is in the realm of possibility, why are the mayors so against increasing property tax for the agency? Well, as I posted over the last two days, the province promised several things that it didn’t deliver on.

First, the province promised to introduce a vehicle levy as a way to pay for regional roads, bridges, and transit in the region. Second, the province promised to pay for 60% of the cost of new rail rapid transit lines. The province broke both those promises. When it comes to funding the cost of building new rapid transit, the province now only commits to funding 33% of the cost.

It is clear that the province has an obligation to pay for its fair share in Metro Vancouver. In 2014, the province paid for about 15% to 20% of the cost to run TransLink. It paid about 30% for the BC Transit system in Victoria, and 50% for transit systems in the rest of the province. Before the creation of TransLink, the province paid for 46% of the cost of transit in Metro Vancouver.

Provincial Funding Levels for BC Transit and TransLink in 2014.

So how do we fund the Mayors’ Transportation Plan while bringing back equity for Metro Vancouver taxpayers? As a first step, the province should agree to fund 30% of TransLink’s costs in a similar fashion to how it does for the Victoria Regional Transit System. This 30% would include an adjustment for the 6 cents per liter of fuel tax that the province gave up in Metro Vancouver.

To simplify things and bring back transparency, the provincial government should reintroduce the Hospital District Levy in Metro Vancouver.

Even with these changes, there would still be about a $100 million per year gap in revenue needed to fund the Mayors’ Transportation Plan. If an annual $64 vehicle levy, indexed to inflation was introduced, the funding gap would be filled.

Metro Vancouver would finally get the transportation system we need, and some equality would be introduced back into how the province funds transit in Metro Vancouver. Also, all this could be done without the need of another wasteful referendum.

The Story of TransLink Part 2: How the province got out of paying its fair share for transit in Metro Vancouver

Yesterday, I set the stage for the transit funding pickle that we find ourselves in today. Briefly, the province didn’t want to increase funding for transit in Metro Vancouver while the region was looking to expand our dismissal transit service to support creating a livable region.

A regional vehicle levy was supposed to have been introduced by the province to provide the required funding needed to expand not only transit, but also pay for the maintenance of regional roads and bridges. No new property tax and no new gas tax would be needed. Of course the province, both the BC NDP and Liberals, reneged on the commitment made to introduce a regional vehicle levy.

While the province got what it wanted, getting out of paying for the operation of transit in Metro Vancouver, the region did not. What Metro Vancouver taxpayers got was a bum deal.

With the exception of Victoria, the provincial government pays around 50% of the cost for transit service in BC. If you live in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Kelowna, or Kamloops, the provincial government writes a big fat cheque for around 50% of the cost to operation transit. The remaining 50% is made up from property tax and fares.

In Victoria, the situation is a bit different. The provincial government pays for 30% of the cost of transit. The remaining 70% is made up from a local 3.5 cent gas tax, property tax, and fares.

Back in 1998, the year before the creation of TransLink, the provincial government paid for 46% of the cost of transit in Metro Vancouver. That works out to $357 million in today’s dollars. The province paid for 35% of the cost of the Victoria Regional Transit System that same year, $24 million in today’s dollars. There was a local gas tax in Victoria and Vancouver to help pay for transit.

The reason why the province paid for a higher percentage of the cost of transit in Metro Vancouver was due to the SkyTrain and the West Coast Express systems.

When the province made the deal with local governments in our region to create TransLink, the province agreed to eliminating the hospital property tax, increasing the local share of gas tax, and continuing to pay for SkyTrain debt. They also agreed to pay for 60% of the capital cost of new rapid transit lines.

While this might have sounded like a good deal at the time, the BC government broke its promises to the region, and Metro Vancouver taxpayers suffered.

What would it look like if transit in Metro Vancouver was funding the same way that the Victoria Regional Transit System is funded today? In 2014, the BC government would have had to pay $428 million into TransLink.

For comparison, the following graphs show what the BC government is actually contributing to transit in Metro Vancouver, and what it would have contributed if we had the same deal as Victoria. I’m not even suggesting that we get 50% of our transit service paid for like the rest of the province.

As a note, the hospital property tax varies greatly throughout the province and year-to-year. In the Interior, it worked out to $46.84 per capita in 2014. It was $29.98 in Northern BC and $25.21 on Vancouver Island per capita in 2014. I’ve created a high hospital tax and a low hospital tax version of graphs that show the provincial funding gap in transit. I’ve also included lost fuel tax revenue that the province gave up to TransLink, the old Expo and West Coast Express debt, plus the Millennium debt, and Canada Line operation costs which the province pays for.

The 2014 Provincial Transit Funding Gap with $25 per capita Hospital Tax In Millions. Select graph to enlarge.

The 2014 Provincial Transit Funding Gap with $50 per capita Hospital Tax In Millions. Select graph to enlarge.

As you can see, there was a $137 million to $199 million gap between the 30% ideal and what the province paid into TransLink in 2014. The province is actually paying less for Metro Vancouver transit today than it did in 1998!

It is interesting that Metro Vancouver, home to 50% of the people in BC, gets the worst transit deal in the province.

While there is no Plan B for transit in Metro Vancouver, tomorrow I will post about a possible Plan B.

The Story of TransLink Part 1: The Old Funding Bait and Switch

Funding, or lack thereof, and control of transit in Metro Vancouver has been an issue since I’ve existed on this planet.

Under BC Transit, the provincial government was running Metro Vancouver transit service into the ground. In 1996, Metro Vancouver “compared to other major areas in Canada, on a per resident basis, [had] the lowest supply of transit, second lowest transit ridership, and highest car ownership” rates in the country according to the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

Metro Vancouver adopted the Livable Region Strategic Plan and Transport 2021 in the 1990s. These sibling policies set the stage for building our region around people, not cars. By building walkable and transit-accessible neighbourhoods, the region could accommodate growth while preserving precious greenspace and farmland; the very things that make our region a special place. There was a hitch though.

If the newly minted region growth and transportation plans were to go anywhere, more transit service would be needed; BC Transit was in a sorry state. The region needed more transit, but the provincial government was not looking to increase spending on transit in Metro Vancouver. Something needed to be done.

The province wanted to cap spending on transit while the region wanted more control, and the ability to grow the transit system. After much back and forth, a deal was struck.

A new transportation agency would be created for Metro Vancouver. This agency, now TransLink, would be controlled by a 15 member board. This board would be comprised of 12 Metro Vancouver appointees, with sub-regional representation and weighted votes, like other Metro Vancouver boards. There would also be 3 board members appointed by the provincial government. This would finally give local governments in Metro Vancouver control of transit. Local governments would also be getting control of some former provincial highways and bridges too. The idea was to have a transportation authority that could carry out the vision of Transport 2021.

Funding was a sticking point. In the end, the province agreed to keep paying ongoing capital payments for the Expo Line and West Coast Express. The province also agreed to pay for 60% of the capital costs of the yet to be built Millennium Line and Evergreen Line.

The provincial government would stop charging a Hospital District Property Tax in the region, worth $70 million (2015 dollars) at the time, and reduce the provincial gas tax in Metro Vancouver by 6 cents. The idea was to create a replacement property tax and gas tax for the new regional transportation authority.

Gas tax stays at 15 cents per litre, the bill of goods sold by the province.

As an old information brochure said “gas tax stays at 15 cents per litre” and “there would be no need to increase residential property taxes.”

The new transit authority would also get the other funding sources that existed at the time including fares, the parking sales tax, BC Hydro levy, and non-residential property tax.

Now it was known that more funding would be needed if the region was to remaining livable by meeting the goals of the region growth strategy and Transport 2021. $265 million per year (2015 dollars) in new funding would be needed.

The lynchpin for the whole plan was a proposed vehicle levy to be introduced after the 2001 provincial election.

On paper, both the province and local governments got what they wanted. The region got control of transportation while the province was able to stop funding the operation of transit in Metro Vancouver out of general revenue. Metro Vancouver residents would finally get the transit system they deserved.

Of course, this wasn’t to be. The NDP fearing the vehicle levy would get them unelected, scrapped it. The BC Liberal won that election, and also didn’t move forward with the levy.

The BC Liberals agreed to raise gas tax by 2 cents per liter, if local governments agreed to jack up property tax to collect an additional $20 million per year for TransLink. Fares would also be hiked to collect an additional $25 million per year. It was though this would bring in $85 million per year (in 2002 dollars). It was enough to keep things going while getting the Millennium Line running. It was far short of the money required to meet the vision of Transport 2021.

Not much has changed since 2002, TransLink is still lurching from crisis to crisis, and we still don’t have the funding needed to build the transportation system we deserve.

Tomorrow, I’ll be looking in more detail on how Metro Vancouver taxpayers got a bum deal from the province.

Land-use planning in Township of Langley controversial at local and regional level

The Township of Langley has the tensest relationship with Metro Vancouver among all 21 municipalities and the Tsawwassen First Nation. While the Township of Langley has no problem with the conservation, recreation, water, sewer, and waste services that the region provides, the Township of Langley seems to butt heads with Metro Vancouver when it comes to land-use planning.

Beside the whole Trinity Western University district affair, the Township of Langley has the dubious distinction of being the only local government in the region that had its Regional Context Statements rejected. Metro Vancouver and the Township are currently going through a dispute resolution process. Lions Bay is the only other municipality without accepted Regional Context Statements. Lions Bay will be submitting its Regional Context Statements in the fall of this year.

Regional Context Statements are what link a local government’s official community plan to the regional growth strategy. It short, they bind a local government to following the regional growth strategy which includes land-use designations.

South of Fraser regional land-use map. Rural areas in yellow. Select map to enlarge.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about land-use planning in the Township of Langley, it is that it can be very explosive and controversial. Brookswood, Trinity Western, and the upcoming fight over Tall Timbers come to mind. Is it this highly charged atmosphere around local land-use planning that causes spill over controversy at the regional level?

Could it be that many people in the Township just really hate anything with the word Vancouver in it? Do they feel that regional land-use designations are just a way for the Burnaby NDP to punish the Township for being conservative? I know this sounds crazy, but more than one person has told me this is why they don't like regional land-use planning.

Some people might think it is because of the rural and agricultural nature of the community, but that is not the case. Delta, Surrey, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and Richmond all contain rural and agricultural areas, and they seem to be able to work with Metro Vancouver on land-use planning.

Rural Density By Municipality (2014). Select table to enlarge.

The Township of Langley has another dubious distinction. It is the only municipality in the region to see an increase in density in rural areas. People in Salmon River Uplands should hope to goodness that the Township of Langley is brought in line with the regional land-use plan. It will protected their community from massive urban development.

The status of the general urban land-use designation (2014). Shows the remaining land, and land developed between 2011 and 2014. Select map to enlarge.

The Township of Langley contains 32% of Metro Vancouver's urban zoned land that is under or undeveloped. The Township of Langley will continue to be ground zero when it comes to controversy around land-use decisions at the local and regional level.

2014 Annual Report, Metro Vancouver 2040: Shaping Our Future