Editor:
Re: Surrey’s $1.8-billion transit bid derided, Dec. 3.
Seems Surrey wants to bypass TransLink and get its rail problems solved directly.
Surrey has the nerve to expect the feds to pay for light-rapid transit through the federal Build Canada program.
This is an excellent idea and will force Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives to put up or shut up. If they wish to boast they are helping Canada, then here is their chance with one of Canada’s largest municipalities.
But up pops Burnaby’s NDP Mayor Derek Corrigan, claiming Surrey Mayor Diane Watts is just “posturing.”
What a pathetic response to an imaginative initiative.
He wants to know where the money is coming from. Well, if he had been paying attention, he would have noticed how our provincial government has off-loaded its responsibility for transportation to a useless organization – TransLink – and a bunch of self-serving local politicians. Meanwhile, we are being asked to pay for more tolls on bridges, roads, borders etc.
Let’s remind people that the BC Liberals have sold off the people’s natural resources for bargain-basement prices – unlike Norway – and reduced taxes by 50 per cent on B.C.’s richest one per cent: high-income individuals and profitable corporations.
Don’t ask if B.C. can afford all this, when we have given away billions to a handful of very rich people who don’t need any handouts.
Civilized societies expect governments to provide good transportation and to manage effectively.
Seems Watts hasn’t forgotten this obligation.
Herb Spencer, Surrey