Extending the $3 billion Broadway subway, now under construction, was a key election promise in the transportation plank of David Eby’s election platform.
Premier David Eby tasked Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth with leading efforts to extend TransLink’s Broadway SkyTrain line to the University B.C. in a mandate letter that talked a lot about transit priorities but not so much about cash.
Recommended Videos
Extending the $3 billion Broadway subway, now under construction, was a key election promise in the transportation plank of Eby’s election platform and the premier’s mandate asks Farnworth to work with the federal government, UBC, the City of Vancouver and First Nations on planning the extension.
Farnworth also has Parliamentary Secretary George Anderson, MLA for Nanaimo-Lantzville, to handle co-ordination of efforts and relationship-building, as well as priorities related to transit oriented housing development.
Transit advocates, however, are worried that Farnworth’s mandate is short on the discussion of stable funding, when agencies such as TransLink and B.C. Transit are starving for more cash.
“There is no discussion of funding to increase service at TransLink or B.C. Transit, let alone filling the huge budget hole that we’re seeing at TransLink,” said Denis Agar, executive director of the advocacy group Movement.
Instead, at the same time that TransLink is warning about a looming $600 million per year deficit as early as 2026, Farnworth is being tasked with reviewing ministry programs, including in transit, to make sure services “remain relevant, are efficient (and) are responsive to the needs of commuters.”
The idea is that the review will help “protect key services that British Columbians rely on,” but Agar said that sounds like “classic deflection,” which indicates transit “isn’t a priority” for government.
Agar said such reviews or audits typically find “a handful of places to save” but “never in the order of magnitude that is needed to actually honour the people that are currently riding transit in this province.”
The broader scope of Farnworth’s mandate includes supporting improvements to road infrastructure, though balanced against opportunities to integrate better transit services and “work with B.C. Ferries” to reduce administrative costs “and ensure affordable, reliable and sustainable ferry service.”
It also talks about finding “ways to support taxi and ride hail operators, as well as working with Minister of Public Safety Garry Begg on using technology to improve transit safety.
Most of the letter, however, is devoted to other transit initiatives, including expansion of regional and intercity transit priorities, such as the Central Okanagan Regional Transit Plan and regular transit service on the Sea to Sky corridor, and identifying “affordable and efficient” expansions of SkyTrain, RapidBus and rail transit services.
As Eby’s government finalizes the budget it will table to support his cabinet’s mandates, however, the Transportation Ministry is going to need “stable long-term funding,” for transit, said planner Andy Yan.
“Not only from the province but it’s also from the federal government,” said Yan, an associate professor and director of the City program at Simon Fraser University. “It’s about how we’re going to get people where they’re going. It’s also about employment patterns and how economic development is spread out through the province and how (communities) can be serviced.”