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“I think we’ve been very nimble in adjusting to virtually every variable that we’ve had to,” Sarai said.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has said he is confident the SkyTrain extension from King George Station in Surrey to Fleetwood and on to the City of Langley will proceed as expected. The provincial and federal governments are reviewing the business case for the project, which was submitted earlier this year.

He said last week that in his discussions with the federal government there have been suggestions that projects like the Surrey-Langley line should be expedited so that work can begin as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and that there may be more federal money available to do that.

“I think it’s very positive out there. I’m very positive that they’re going to move very quickly on that end because they do have to stir up the economy, and the best way to do it is create those kind of good-paying jobs to get going and get our economy going again,” McCallum said.

Another part of the capital program that could be on the chopping block is what the agency calls “state of good repair,” which involves making sure the system is maintained. As someone who grew up in New York and witnessed the fallout from deferring maintenance of transportation infrastructure, Desmond has strong feelings about delaying.

“If we start deferring those maintenance projects, all we’re doing is pushing to a later generation of TransLink leaders and maintainers a larger problem that will cause even more effects, and in the meantime you might start seeing implications to the system,” Desmond said. “So we, in my view … should not be thinking about that because that would be cutting off our nose to spite us.”

jensaltman@postmedia.com

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