BC: CTF Calls On Minister To Reject Latest TransLink Tax Grab

• TransLink spends $1.3 billion in taxes and fares annually, but wants another $750 million in taxation tools

VANCOUVER, B.C.: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called on B.C. Transportation Minister Mary Polak to outright reject the latest TransLink tax grab engineered by Lower Mainland mayors.

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“The mayors of this region should be ashamed of themselves for aiding and abetting TransLink’s ongoing plundering of taxpayers,” said Jordan Bateman, CTF B.C. Director. “This unaccountable, wasteful, unelected organization should be forced to live within their means, rather than continue to reach deeper and deeper into our wallets. Taxpayers simply cannot afford to spend more money on TransLink, especially with the shaky nature of the economy.” Among the tax grabs recommended by TransLink and the Mayors’ Council:

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• A 0.5% regional sales tax. “British Columbians just fought off the HST because they didn’t want to pay more in taxes, but that doesn’t seem to matter to TransLink and their mayors,” said Bateman. “What does buying a product have to do with transit? There is no linkage to TransLink whatsoever – much like the TransLink tax on our B.C. Hydro bills.”
• A vehicle levy and road pricing. “Drivers already bear a disproportionate amount of transit funding – the 17 cents per litre TransLink gas tax, AirCare and 21 per cent TransLink parking tax. Enough fleecing drivers,” said Bateman. “Lower Mainlanders fought that vehicle levy off a decade ago, and will do so again.”
• A regional carbon tax. “TransLink clearly hasn’t learned its gas tax lesson. The last two cent per litre hike at the pumps didn’t generate the kind of revenue they were hoping, because people fled to Abbotsford and the U.S. to buy gas. In the past four years, Abbotsford’s population is up 5.5 per cent – and gas sales are up 33 per cent,” said Bateman.

In recent months, the CTF, along with several media outlets, whistleblowers, and even some Lower Mainland mayors, have outlined several examples of wasteful spending at TransLink, which already collects almost $1.4 billion in revenue annually. “TransLink has a spending problem – not a revenue problem,” said Bateman. “TransLink is a waste machine, with examples like $40,000 TV screens, poodle art, skyrocketing salaries, executive bonuses, nepotism, security breaches, U-pass theft, safety concerns, communication mistakes, fare evasion, pay polling, superfluous studies and redundant transit police. Recent high-level audits by the transit commissioner and provincial government have shown that TransLink spends more than 10 per cent of their income inefficiently – and that’s without drilling down into specific programs. Every time an auditor has gone into TransLink, they’ve found more waste and inefficiency.” Jordan Bateman, B.C. Director

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