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Details are sketchy, even at this late stage in the process. Ballots land in mailboxes soon. Voting begins mid-March, with a May 29 deadline.

TransLink has great employees who offer good service, overall. But its executives are often accused of incoherence, thanks in part to TransLink’s complicated, multi-level governance structure. “No one seems to be in charge,” writes former Vancouver city councillor and prominent “Yes” side organizer Peter Ladner, in this week’s Business in Vancouver magazine.

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Earlier this month, at the height of its plebiscite campaign, TransLink’s board terminated its long-suffering CEO, while keeping him around in a consultancy role for another year. A $32,000-a-month interim CEO is managing the corporation until a permanent replacement can be found.

The board’s decision provoked outrage. No one seemed surprised last week when a public opinion survey found the “Yes” campaign forces are losing ground. A slight majority of people polled told Insights West they will likely turn down the proposed tax increase.

Hence the bitter responses, the name-calling. The desperation, one might say.

Metro Vancouver’s proposed transit improvements will cost an estimated $7.5 billion over 10 years. It’s money TransLink doesn’t have; the corporation is already $5 billion in debt and barely meets its annual operating costs with existing fares and various tax-funded mechanisms.

Even assuming TransLink can raise $2.5 billion over 10 years with the proposed transit tax, the balance of the investment — $5 billion — will have to come from provincial and federal coffers. No government politician in Victoria or Ottawa has made any funding pledges — an important point missing from the “Yes” side persuasion campaign. Accept the tax hike or expect the worst, the pro-tax people warn. Filthy air. Traffic congestion like no one has ever suffered before. Billions of dollars in lost revenues. It’s been suggested there will be more obesity, more traffic accidents, even more deaths.