According to the company, the employer and the union are $600 million apart calculated over 10 years.

TransLink is warning that the wage and benefit demands of unionized transit workers could trigger increases to gas, parking and property taxes, and transit fares.

A confidential update on negotiations to the TransLink board and regional mayors notes that the two sides are more than $600 million apart over a 10-year planning period, which is roughly the same amount the transit authority needs to implement its proposed Phase 2 service expansion.

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Funding increases to bus service, cycling and road infrastructure, and buying new SkyTrain cars required a 1.5 cent increase to the gas tax, a three per cent increase to the parking tax and a hike in property tax equivalent to $5.50 a household, according to the memo from TransLink’s acting CEO, Gigi Chen-Kuo.

Unifor is seeking a 15.2 per cent increase compounded over four years for bus drivers and 16.7 per cent compounded over four years for maintenance workers. The employer, Coast Mountain Bus Company, is offering 9.6 per cent for drivers and 12.2 per cent for maintenance workers.

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“In order to fund these additional costs, the region would need to raise new funding, at a level close to what was required to support the Phase 2 investment plan,” wrote Chen-Kuo.

Mike McDaniel, presidents of TransLink’s Coast Mountain bus and SeaBus operating subsidiary, rejected the union’s use of Toronto’s transit contract, wages and benefits as a target for their workers.

“We don’t recruit drivers and workers from Toronto, we recruit them from this market and that’s where we need to be competitive,” he said.

A recent TTC recruitment ad offers bus drivers an hourly rate of $27.15 to start, ramping up to $35.45 over 24 months. The salary range for CMBC drivers is $24.46 to $32.61 after 24 months.

“The deal that we have on the table represents more than what other parts of the public sector in British Columbia are getting today,” said McDaniel.

There are also benefits increases and improvements to working conditions, specifically targeting recovery periods for transit operators. Drivers have said increasing road congestion has been routinely delaying buses, leaving drivers with no time to take their breaks.

Last year, 200,000 B.C. government employees agreed to a two per cent annual wage increase over three years.

“We recognize that we have to do a wage lift for operators and skilled workers, and that is built in to our offer,” he said.

In addition to a two-per-cent wage increase each year, Coast Mountain is offering $1.55 an hour lift over the term of the contract for skilled trades and $0.45 an hour for drivers, he said.

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The cost of living is higher in Vancouver than it is in Toronto, but the company has rejected that comparison, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director.

“TransLink has won an award for having the best service in North America and this is a major transit hub in the middle of a multi-year transit expansion, but they don’t care about comparisons with places like Toronto,” he said.

“If they need to scale back their service expansion a per cent or two to treat their drivers and mechanic fairly, that’s what they should do,” he said.

He notes that Coast Mountain — technically a private sector employer — pays skilled tradespeople nearly $3 an hour less than their counterparts at TransLink proper, which is considered a public sector employer.