Mayors balk at public referendum to pay for Vancouver transit expansion

B.C. Premier Christy Clark is signalling she might be ready to back away from a nasty confrontation with Metro Vancouver mayors over her government's plan to hold a referendum on transit funding.

The province plans to tag a regional referendum onto next November's municipal election ballot in an effort to break the logjam over how to pay for billions of dollars worth of transit upgrades in the Vancouver area.

But local mayors have opposed the fall referendum, concerned a 'no' vote could torpedo plans for much-needed expansion of rapid transit south and east of Vancouver.

The government is set to introduce legislation this spring to confirm the fall date but Clark said Monday talks are being held with the mayors on the timing for the vote, The Canadian Press reports.

The issue rivals and perhaps even dwarfs the debate over Toronto's contentious suburban subway extension. It highlights the dilemma for politicians who know mass transit is a high priority in Canada's biggest cities but fear asking taxpayers for more money.

In Toronto, the debate centred on whether to use a surface light-rail system to expand rapid transit into Scarborough or go with Mayor Rob Ford's preferred choice, a more expensive subway system.

[ Related: Montreal Metro's blue line to get major extension ]

Ford won that argument when Toronto council approved the subway proposal last fall in a close vote. The lion's share of funding for the $3-billion project will come from the Ontario government, with Ottawa kicking in a portion and Metro Toronto taxpayers contributing $1 billion.

But the matter's apparently not settled, as diehard subway opponents want to resurrect the discussion, according to the Toronto Star.

While in Toronto the fight was between the normally spending-averse Ford and his Cadillac subway plan and opponents in council, the feud in B.C. is between the province and a dozen Vancouver-area mayors.

The B.C. Liberal government has grown impatient with municipal leaders who seem unwilling to risk voter wrath by deciding how to fund TransLink, the agency responsible for both transit and roadways in the region.

TransLink gets its money from a variety of regional taxes and levies on everything from vehicle fuel, parking, property and utility bills.

TransLink's convoluted governance model features a council of all regional mayors, a chair and board of directors, a commissioner, CEO and transit subsidiaries with their own boards.

Despite a plethora of warm bodies involved in TransLink, the mayors say they haven't had enough time to prepare for a referendum, the wording of which has yet to be determined.

An exasperated B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone chided the mayors for failing to agree on transit priorities and how to pay for them. The price tag for transit and other transportation projects under TransLink's purview is estimated between $5 billion and $15 billion over the next two or three decades.

"What are the priorities of the region? Where is the vision for Metro Vancouver?" Stone said last week, according to CBC News.

"The mayors have not come together to unite on a common vision for transit and transportation priorities, yet it's their responsibility to do so."

[ Related: Hudak says Conservatives would not hike taxes to fund public transit ]

The real problem probably is that the mayors fear voters will reject any transit proposal that includes new taxes.

The suggestions for funding sources have been predictable: Boost the transit tax on fuel, boost the property tax transit levy, introduce a transit levy on motor vehicles or all of the above. The most novel idea has been the introduction of European-style road pricing, which has floated around for several years.

Putting tax measures to a public vote has a notoriously bad track record. In California, where no new taxes can be approved without a ballot initiative, public debt has ballooned with the government trying to maintain services while handcuffed in the revenue department.

British Columbians forced the Liberal government to scrap its harmonized sales tax in a 2011 referendum after the government negotiated an agreement with Ottawa.

The transit referendum, whenever it happens, is shaping up to be a messy, divisive affair, the Vancouver Sun editorialized last week. It's time for all politicians to show some leadership.

"What the politicians need to do in the next short while is to earmark precisely which projects are most pressing, then lay out clear options," the Sun said. "Once that is done, they must attempt to justify any fees or levies to their constituents.

"That is the first step, before any referendum is scheduled or political decisions taken."