Public’s support for bridge tolls is dubious
Survey says: Of 1,028 people who filled out forms at public meetings, just 135 agreed with the government’s preferred tolling model
The B.C. Liberals are claiming the latest round of public consultations has confirmed “strong public support” for their plan to replace the George Massey tunnel with a toll bridge.
But the summary report on those consultations, released Wednesday, tells a different story.
People of course support the more environmentally friendly aspects of the Massey replacement project, like making the crossing safer for cyclists or building carrying capacity for future transit.
Those who commute through the often-congested tunnel on a daily basis likewise support the prospect of getting to and from work more quickly.
But there was precious little support for the more controversial aspects of the project.
Only 24 per cent of those responding via a publicly distributed feedback form made a point of saying they were “generally supportive” of the overall scope of the tunnel replacement plan. A further 31 per cent expressed conditional support for some aspects of the project as outlined on the feedback form.
But that was far from constituting an unqualified endorsement for the plan to remove the existing tunnel, replace it with a high-level 10-lane bridge, and reconstruct adjacent connecting roads and intersections at a combined cost of $3.5 billion. Even more misleading was the government characterization of the survey’s findings on tolling.
Respondents were told only that the “province intends to fund the project through user tolls and is working with the federal government to determine potential funding partnerships.”
No mention of how the Liberal model of choice is the existing stand-alone tolls of $3.15 each way on the Port Mann. Nor of the government’s estimate that tolls might need to be maintained for up to 60 years to retire all of the construction, operating and debt charges on the Massey replacement. Nor that the federal government has yet to express any interest in helping pay the freight.
Having thus left everyone in the dark about some of the more controversial aspects of the tolling plan, the government then asked respondents to “Please provide your comments about tolling as a funding source.”
About 15 per cent offered no comment. Another 22 per cent flatly opposed tolling, while 14 per cent suggested alternative means of funding the project like taxes or existing provincial revenue sources.
Just under half of those responding — 44 per cent — were prepared to support tolling if the levy were applied fairly to similar bridge crossings and at a lower rate than the $3 bruited about for the Massey replacement.
A mere 13 per cent expressed unqualified support for tolling as proposed by the B.C. Liberals.
Nevertheless, the government press release claimed the findings indicated “general support for tolling as a funding mechanism” and the executive summary of the report itself further maintained that “most participants who commented on tolls supported tolling as a funding mechanism.”
Further undermining those favourable interpretations from the government was the limited nature of the consultation itself.
The Liberals distributed the feedback forms at public meetings and online via a six-week long consultation starting Dec. 16. Only 1,028 people filled out the forms and returned them. Of those, just 135 were in agreement with the government’s preferred tolling model.
“Consultation confirms support for Massey replacement” was the headline on the government press release Wednesday. “We managed to find 135 people who agree with us” would have been the more accurate summary.
But this wasn’t the first time the B.C. Liberals have claimed support for their tolling policy based on the questionable findings of a far from scientific survey.
Ten years ago they distributed a similar set of feedback forms to test whether respondents would agree with a potential toll of “$2.50 each way … to reduce congestion and limit growth in traffic on the Port Mann Bridge.”
Note the bit about reducing congestion and limiting growth in traffic. No acknowledgment that the main reason for the toll was to pay for construction, operating and debt charges, nor that the $2.50 levy would be subject to periodic annual increases for inflation.
Some 2,300 forms were returned in the Port Mann consultation, with 1,301 respondents, or 56 per cent, expressing some degree of support for the toll and 1,022, or 44 per cent, opposed. The difference between thumbs up and thumbs down being just 279 responses in a sampling of opinion that depended on people taking it on themselves to fill out a form and send it in.
Still the Liberals cited that breakdown as evidence of public support for tolling the Port Mann, with consequences that are playing out for commuters to this day, just in case you were wondering how far they might go with their dubious interpretation of the latest survey. For the Liberals give every impression of moving full speed ahead on the Massey replacement project, with or without federal support.
Next steps, according to Transportation Minister Todd Stone, will see the project submitted for environmental assessment later this spring or early summer. Plus the Liberals intend to confirm their strategy for funding the thing. The tendering process is also to begin over the summer, and the government is still determined to start construction before the election.
Given the challenges in building such a huge bridge atop silt near the mouth of a major river, one can only hope the engineering side of the project will be better grounded than Liberal claims of support for their tolling scheme.