The ‘yes’ campaign for the proposed transportation and transit-improvement tax has been conducting a series of telephone town hall meetings to try and provide answers to potential voters.
These meetings are not being conducted on a low budget. Thousands of people are being phoned via robocall just before each meeting starts, and asked to listen in. Moderator Bill Good, a former radio host, is part of each meeting, and it’s unlikely his services come at a modest fee.
An elaborate system has been set up, to enable these town halls to be broadcast on YouTube as they are happening. On Monday, a maximum of seven people were watching as the meeting proceeded, according to my computer.
Screeners select callers whom they allow to get through to the panel. While they are able to ask questions, they don’t always get answers, and Good frequently interjects before the panelists can respond.
I’ve had the chance to listen in to two of them. The first one, last Thursday, involved Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, who seems to be the main spokesman for the ‘yes’ campaign outside Vancouver, and Surrey Coun. Tom Gill. Mayor Linda Hepner was out of the country on a business trip.
The telephone town halls are supposed to be an easy way to connect with a large number of people, and that is certainly true. I took the call as I was helping to prepare supper for my family.
We sat down to eat and kept the phone on speaker. One of our family members, who frequently uses transit, was quite impressed by how much she learned.
It was supposed to be Surrey-oriented, and indeed it was. While the calls are screened, it doesn’t prevent criticism of TransLink, the proposed sales tax or other transportation-related issues from being aired.
One issue which came up frequently was bridge tolls. While tolling is not mentioned on the ballot, the Mayors’ Council has said it would like to examine the issue of road pricing further, and potentially have some sort of user-pay system in place before 10 years is up.
Surrey and other South Fraser residents are getting hammered by bridge tolls – if they use the Port Mann or Golden Ears bridges frequently. Many avoid them as much as possible.
The few Surrey residents who have access to the 555 bus across the Port Mann have a free alternative, but the province, TransLink and Surrey council have failed them. There were promises of buses across the Port Mann as an alternative to paying tolls, but only the 555 route from Langley, with one Surrey stop, has been established.
The bridge-toll issue is significant in the mayors’ transportation plan on which we will be voting. The plan calls for a tolled Pattullo Bridge to replace the existing 78-year-old bridge.
Provincial cabinet ministers, like former transportation minister Kevin Falcon, promised that it would be a free alternative to the Port Mann, in combination with the South Fraser Perimeter Road, and many people use it for that purpose.
A tolled Pattullo means there will be three tolled Fraser River crossings. Premier Christy Clark has promised a new bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel. It, too, will be tolled. When it opens, there will be just one free bridge between the mouth of the Fraser River and the Mission Bridge – the Alex Fraser, which is already extremely busy.
Gill said Surrey council opposes piecemeal tolling of bridges and wants all bridges tolled at modest levels.
His exact words: “Surrey council disagrees with any tolls on any bridge.”
Yet he and the entire council support the mayors’ plan and the tolled Pattullo. That sounds a tad hypocritical to me.
Good promised that callers who don’t get through can leave messages, which will be returned. I left a message for Gill about the apparent contradictory message on tolling. I have yet to hear back from him.
Frank Bucholtz writes Thursdays for the Peace Arch News. He is the editor of the Langley Times.