Dollars go to Vancouver

The party in power has changed, but the provincial government still treats the Lower Mainland like the favourite, while the Island is sent to bed hungry. Last week, the NDP government announced it would take over the $1.37-billion cost of replacing the Pattullo Bridge over the Fraser River between Surrey and New Westminster. How much did the current government or its B.C. Liberal predecessor pitch in for Victoria’s new Johnson Street Bridge? Not a dime.

Even with its notorious cost overruns, the new Johnson Street Bridge will cost less than one-tenth of what the province is shelling out for the bridge on the Lower Mainland. No one expected B.C. to pay the entire cost of our bridge, but would it have hurt the government of either party to make a contribution?

The Pattullo Bridge, which handled about 20 per cent of the traffic over the Fraser in 2013, is in need of replacement. The four-lane span was expected to last only 50 years when it opened in 1937.

TransLink, which manages transit in Greater Vancouver, devised plans to replace it with a new toll bridge by 2023. The funding seemed settled, until Premier John Horgan announced last June that the tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge would be removed, which cut out a source of revenue for infrastructure projects and added bridge debt to the province’s books.

Now Horgan has taken on more debt for a Lower Mainland bridge, but, as with his predecessor, apparently sees no need to help out with a bridge that is seven blocks from the premier’s office.