TransLink Referendum: Thankfully, No Side Gaining Momentum

TransLink Referendum: Thankfully, No Side Gaining Momentum

With just three weeks until vote, No side strengthens due to disenchantment with British Columbia Governments as well as the Tax payer owned, Crown Corporation Translink.

We now have Just Over One Third Of Residents Who Say They Would Vote Yes, which is down by more than 15 points since December.

Some of British Columbia’s supposed, VIPs are now claiming that the Yes Side Should Be A Little More Emotional, “Who wants to be stuck in traffic? Who wants more gridlock? Who wants more pollution?"

The referendum seeks to gain approval for a 0,5 per cent sales tax increase for Metro Vancouver that would provide an estimated $250 million in annual revenue.

The region's mayors want it to fund a $8 billion 10-year Salary Increase Plan.

Stop tying Pattullo replacement to transit referendum: ‘No’ campaign. Mayors promising a Pattullo Bridge replacement to shore up support for the transit referendum are misleading voters, according to the “No TransLink Tax” campaign.

Replacing the aging Pattullo is one of several carrots Metro Vancouver mayors are offering residents in exchange for the stick of yet another 0.5 per cent provincial sales tax increase, but opponents argue the bridge will be replaced whether the referendum passes or not.

“No” campaign spokesman Jordan Bateman pointed out that B.C. has already committed to funding a third of the new Pattullo, which will also generate revenue through tolling???.[Authorised by who; he failed to mention that]—There Has Been NO Public/Taxpayer Referendum On That Issue—Why, I Wonder, The Smoke Screen.

How are you going to vote? One suggestion—how about shipping ALL Bureaucrats, politicians and government officials off to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Ukraine or some such suitable place?

Realistically, if only someone would just announce that British Columbia and Canada’s as a whole current governance is sorely  getting an major overhaul. The mayors laugh about it, the provincial governments laugh about it, Stephen Harper and the Federal government laugh about it. “It’s not their call”.

 The call has to come from the true source of the governing legislation: The Canadian Citizen/Taxpayer.

We could then look at the money – an estimated $3 billion – that has been allocated to a new Massey Bridge with no public accountability and no connection to regional planning priorities. We could look at accountability from the Ministry of Transportation for the financial unwinding at the Port Mann Bridge. Built in spite of steadily declining traffic over the Port Mann Bridge for the past decade, the widest bridge in the world is now facing a $3.6 billion debt financed by invisible provincial taxes. Bridge managers desperate to increase toll revenues are urging people to do exactly the opposite of what every municipal, regional and provincial transportation plan calls for: drive more, create more air pollution and presumably take less transit.

We could look at accountability at the Vancouver Airport Authority, home to unknown hundreds of thousands of dollars of public art financed by an invisible airport-improvement tax, recently increased, levied by a board that has no direct accountability to the electorate, overseen by a CEO who makes more than the TransLink CEO.

Where’s the outcry from the poodle-statue-haters –pardon me, TAX PAYERS about spending on all that wonderful public art at the airport?

How are YOU going to vote and WHAT WILL YOU VOTE  FOR? Is that even on this referendum????

One thing further, the YES side claims a NO vote would anger "INVESTORS" and undoubtedly deter further “INVESTMENT”—the only legal "investors" in any of the PUBLICALLY owned transportation system and infrastructure are the TAXPAYERS—there can be no others—investment cannot be deterred—OTHER THAN BY MORE GOVERNMENT BULL SHIT.