Backup plan for Pattullo urged amid uncertainty over tolling
TransLink counts on levies to help fund replacement, but ‘state of flux’ a concern
Delta’s mayor says TransLink needs a backup plan in case tolls aren’t an option to help finance a replacement for the aging Pattullo Bridge.
During Thursday’s joint meeting of the TransLink Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation and board of directors, Lois Jackson asked staff to provide recommendations for both groups about what to do if the provincial government decides to cap or eliminate tolls without subsidizing any shortfall.
“I think it’s really important we keep on top of this because we’re going along with these assumptions all this time. Perhaps the assumptions are not correct,” Jackson said. “Everything is in a state of flux all around.”
She suggested that promises made during the election campaign could be open to interpretation.
TransLink is counting on tolls — or mobility pricing, if it is introduced — to pay for up to twothirds of the cost of replacing the 80-year-old bridge between Surrey and New Westminster. It was estimated in 2014 that the bridge would cost about $1 billion to build. That figure has not been updated.
TransLink is expected to finalize the scope and cost of the project in the coming weeks.
The toll on the bridge would be similar to that on the Port Mann and Golden Ears, to try to reduce the number of people changing their routes because of tolls. An estimated 15,000 vehicles per day divert to the Pattullo to avoid the Port Mann toll.
There is also the potential to use major road network funds as a short-term subsidy for the Pattullo, but TransLink wants to avoid subsidizing the bridge using money from transit or other programs.
“It should be a self-sustaining bridge with the support of senior government funding,” Geoff Cross, TransLink’s vice-president of planning and policy, said at Thursday’s meeting.
During the provincial election campaign, tolling was one of the first major discussion topics and the three major parties took different positions.
The Liberals promised to cap tolls at $500 per year, saving those who use the bridges daily more than $1,000. The Liberals also promised they would reimburse TransLink for any shortfall it would experience because of the toll cap.
The NDP’s position, which was popular with many voters south of the Fraser, was that it would eliminate tolls completely. The party did not provide details, but told the mayors’ council that it was “committed to ... addressing the shortfall in revenues” for the Pattullo.
Contrary to the other parties, the Greens did not promise to cap or get rid of tolls, instead saying they would implement a “rational” tolling system.
With a minority Liberal government and uncertainty about what will happen in Victoria over the next few months, what will happen with tolling is up in the air.
“There’s definitely a curveball in the mix and all three parties had very different takes on that,” New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Coté said Thursday.
Mike Buda, executive director of the mayors’ council, said that because of the public commitments by the Liberals and NDP to compensate TransLink for lost tolling revenues, there is no Plan B in place.
He said a backup plan would only be required if the government reneges on its compensation promise or is unable to present an acceptable formal agreement on how it will administer and deliver what he called “shadow tolling revenues.”
In either case, a new financing plan would be required and that would result in a major project delay.
“Plan A is the only workable plan at this late stage in the project approval process, which we have been working on for more than five years,” Buda said.
Still, Jackson wants to see a report from staff, which Buda had said would be taken as an action item.
“I’m thinking about how are we going to talk about this if we don’t know what the revenue stream is going to be around tolling? I think that question has to be solved first,” Jackson said.
There’s definitely a curveball in the mix and all three parties had very different takes on that.