(Second of two)

You’re angry.

You’re going to vote no in the coming transit plebiscite. You feel TransLink and the mayors council should be taught a lesson in fiscal management.

Understandable, if, in my opinion, misguided. Before you vote, consider some history of how we arrived here, where the fault lies in this debate and why, possibly, you might reconsider your viewpoint.

The timeline begins 17 years ago.

1998: After several years of lobbying by municipal governments for more control of transit — the most prominent proponent being Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell — the regional and provincial governments agree to the creation of TransLink. What was once a Crown corporation will become a regional authority run by a local, elected board.

A few months after the agreement to transfer governance to a regional authority has been signed, but before the formal creation of TransLink, Premier Glen Clark arbitrarily announces construction will begin immediately on the Millenium Line using SkyTrain technology. The line will go through NDP territory. The decision flies in the face of local government plans for a cheaper light rapid transit line to Coquitlam, with construction to start in 2002, when the money to build it will be in place. At the time, a senior bureaucrat in the regional government predicts Clark’s insistence on a second SkyTrain line will add another $100 million in annual debt servicing. The estimate is a little high: the over-all premise is bang-on. TransLink moves toward a permanent state of debt.

1999: The creation of TransLink becomes official. With the power to raise taxes, the new TransLink board proposes a $75 vehicle levy to partially cover costs of the new line.

2000: The NDP provincial government approves the vehicle levy proposal.

2001: There is strong push-back from motorists to the levy, and with an election coming and the opposition Liberal party promising to kill the proposed tax, the NDP government reverses its decision and refuses to collect it. The Liberals, which sweep to power, are led by Gordon Campbell, former champion of local transit.

Without the levy, TransLink suspends its expansion plans. Fares and the gas tax rise to cover costs. The scramble for revenue sources begins.

2003: Vancouver is awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics. The provincial government proposes the Canada Line as a centrepiece to the Games.

2004: The TransLink board votes to reject the Canada Line, citing, among other reasons, the cost, the increase to its debt load and the provincial government’s promise the Evergreen line would be built first.

2005: After two votes rejecting the Canada Line, the TransLink board gives into intense pressure by Victoria and approves it. But the die is cast. For its stubborness in opposing Victoria’s wishes, TransLink as a locally-run authority is doomed.

2006-07: Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon replaces the board of elected mayors and councillors with an unelected board vetted by the provincial government.

2008: Falcon announces a new $14-billion transit plan for Metro Vancouver. The plan, among other things, calls for a Broadway rapid-transit line, rapid-bus lines, more local buses, a SkyTrain extension in Surrey, construction of perimeter roads to ease trucking congestion, the expansion of the freeway, the twinning of the Port Mann bridge and a new commitment to building the Evergreen Line, though, again, it had to be SkyTrain technology and not the regionally preferred and cheaper light rapid transit. The municipalities complain that they have tapped out property taxes and new sources of revenue have to be found for them to pay for it all.

In the following years, except for portions of the plan the provincial government had already committed to and funded, most of Falcon’s plan is shelved and dies a quiet death.

2010-13: TransLink debt deepens. About $100 million in expenses and services are cut from the budget. Gas tax and parking tax are hiked. New streams of revenue, such as sharing the carbon tax and road-pricing, and a renewed call for a car levy, are proposed. All are rejected by the province.

2014: Transport Minister Todd Stone gives the mayors council four months to develop with a 10-year transit plan, complete with funding sources. The province refuses to campaign for a Yes vote.

Notice a pattern here?

If you’re voting no to punish TransLink and the mayors’ council, I’d suggest your anger is misplaced.

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com