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British Columbia

Mayors call on province to act on TransLink funding

The chair of TransLink's Mayors' Council says he's frustrated with the province's inaction on funding proposals for the public transit system.

Playing politics with public transit

12 years ago
Duration 1:56
Metro Vancouver mayors are sparring with provincial MLAs over how to fund TransLink

The chair of TransLink's Mayors Council says he's frustrated with the province's inaction on funding proposals for the public transit system.

North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton says the council hasintroduced five proposals to the provincebut no action has been taken so far.

Walton says the province asked council to present funding options and strategies but it hasn't acted on any of them.

"The concern we have is we've been having these discussions for a very long time and we want very specific commitments to sit down and discuss these things and some commitment from the government that we're going to address these things," he said.

"The [provincial] election is only 90 days away and at this point we've been asking for the same thing for close to two years."

On Friday, Surreys mayor also called for the province to address transit concerns in the Lower Mainland.

"We are the second largest city in the province, we have half a million people ... and we only have onlysix kilometres of Skytrain track, which is absolutely unacceptable," Mayor Diane Watts said.

The council presented five proposals to the Minister of Transportation in late January, including a vehicle registration fee, a minor sales tax and carbon tax revenues.