Liberals woo frazzled commuters
Wilkinson vows to build 10-lane Massey bridge to ease gridlock
The B.C. Liberals hope to lure frustrated Metro Vancouver commuters away from the NDP by resurrecting a plan to build a 10lane bridge to ease gridlock at the Massey tunnel.
Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson seized upon the Lower Mainland's most notorious traffic jam Monday to promise “immediate” construction of a bridge to link Delta and Richmond over the Fraser River, potentially shaving serious time off morning commutes to battleground ridings. Wilkinson blasted the current NDP government's inaction on the issue, saying it produced only studies and excuses in the more than three years since it first cancelled construction of the bridge.
“Our goal obviously will be to restart the project and get it going as soon as possible, because if you sit there for an hour and a half in the traffic, waiting to get through that tunnel, you know this is a terrible thing for the people on both sides of the river,” said Wilkinson. “It's a terrible thing for commerce in British Columbia, and it needs to be fixed as soon as possible.”
The B.C. NDP tried to fire back with suggestions the Liberals would only delay the current NDP plan, before admitting the party doesn't actually have a specific plan and is awaiting the results of a business case study expected by the end of the year.
“I appreciate people want to know what that project will be, but we've been working diligently,” said Ravi Kahlon, the NDP incumbent candidate for Delta North.
The NDP government is still studying the merits of whether to plan a new bridge over the Fraser River or a second tunnel underneath. The current 60-year-old tunnel is not seismically safe.
Wilkinson said a Liberal government would pick up on the 10-lane bridge project at the point the NDP cancelled it in 2017. That proposal already had approval by the provincial environmental assessment office and the Agricultural Land Commission, as well as five years' worth of public consultations with 13 First Nations and more than 700 stakeholder meetings.
“The project has already been approved, $95 million has already been spent, there's already six kilometres of sand there to compact the surface to prepare it for the bridge construction,” said Wilkinson. “This project can get underway promptly after an election, and it will take a couple of years to actually build the bridge.
“It was supposed to be in service in 2022, but instead we've had the NDP stall and obscure and come up with lame excuses as to why there should not be a bridge to replace the Massey tunnel. It's not good enough. We need to build the Massey tunnel bridge replacement as soon as possible to get rid of the worst traffic bottleneck in Western Canada.”
The bridge won't be tolled, said Wilkinson, which marks a reversal from the Liberal plan before 2017.
The Liberals' 10-lane bridge proposal was first announced in 2012. It was opposed by some Metro mayors, who said it was too big and would cause other traffic backlogs elsewhere in the region.
Delta Mayor George Harvie said Monday he didn't want to take a position on the Liberal bridge idea until after the election is over, and then only in concert with other Metro Vancouver mayors.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie called the resurrection of the project “a terrible idea.”
“There are huge urban impacts, there are significant agricultural impacts, the scale is almost beyond belief, there are environmental implications to it,” he said. “I think it is very unwise, and while I would like to have the solution in hand right now, that's not the solution to the replacement of the Massey tunnel.”
If the NDP ultimately chose an eight-lane bridge, that would be almost as bad, said Brodie.
The NDP has been stuck on the Massey issue between two vocal camps: mayors who prefer a new eight-lane tunnel under the Fraser River, and local First Nations and environmental groups that warn a second tunnel would harm the salmon and ecology of the Fraser.
The Tsawwassen First Nation has said it would prefer the Liberals' 10-lane bridge project.
Monday's bridge announcement was part of $8 billion over three years the Liberals have promised for infrastructure if elected. The rest is to be split between health care, education, post-secondary education and housing.
Wilkinson also said a Liberal government would cancel the NDP's Community Benefit Agreements, which require workers on major provincial infrastructure projects to be members of certain unions.
The Liberals have argued it's a kickback program for NDP donors, which just so happen to be the major unions benefiting from the project. The NDP argues it will help more local men and women secure high-paying jobs.