Editor: There have been several letters in The Times regarding the transit referendum, and statements in some of those letters referring to the possibility of TransLink increasing this .05 per cent tax at its discretion.
This is correct. This is exactly why mayors want this type of funding — they can increase the tax without any accountability. I have been trying to understand why anybody would vote to have an increase in taxes piled on top of them.
Further, the money from this tax will all be going to the two major cities. Vancouver will get $3 billion for an underground system to service 25,000 people in the UBC Endowment Lands. And Surrey will get billions for light rail to Guildford and Newton.
Oh, TransLink will throw a bus or two at us here in the hinterlands. Mike Buda, spokesman for the Mayors Council, stated that we will be getting a rapid transit line, be it light rail or SkyTrain, from Surrey City Centre, which will start to be built in approximately 12 years.
Give your head a shake Mike. You will not see Translink spend $1 to $2 billion on that upgrade to service the Langleys in your lifetime.
In 12 years, Vancouver and Surrey will need (want) upgrades and expansions to their transit systems. We will always be the helper, the giver, not the getter.
Before I would vote for any increase in funding for TransLink to handle, I would want to see all members of the TransLink board fired and a new system installed, where the public has a say in the way the transportation finances are handled.
Why we in Langley are even part of this association I do not know. I have been asked that question several times, and I do not have a reply.
Will Ramage,
Langley City
