Delta residents could pay for the privilege of driving through the aging George Massey Tunnel that might not end up being replaced.
It’s a scenario that could play out as the regional Mayors’ Council last week announced it has created an independent commission tasked at finding how to implement a mobility pricing system that could include tolled crossings and road-usage fees.
The levies are to help pay for the region’s share of Phase One of TransLink’s 10-year vision, a multi-billion-dollar plan for infrastructure and transit improvements in Greater Vancouver.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said she worries Deltans will pay more under a mobility pricing system but won’t get much back in the way of better transit or infrastructure.
“Because we live farther away from the downtown core, does that mean we’re going to have to pay a lot more again because we don’t have a service? It’s one thing to have a service and not use it, but it’s another thing to have no service,” she said. “There’s lots of questions and they’ve got a year to come up with what it might look like.”
A lot of aspects need to be examined, something that committees, including a citizens’ committee, working under the new commission will hopefully do, added Jackson.
The mayor has advocated “a buck a bridge” as a fair method of road pricing.
Replacing the tunnel isn’t in the Mayors’ Council’s plan because it’s under provincial jurisdiction, nor is it included in any longer range plans now being considered beyond the 10-year vision. Rapid transit across a tunnel replacement is also not part of any TransLink plan.
The fate of the bridge project to replace the tunnel, meanwhile, remains unclear as the Greens and NDP are poised to defeat the Liberal government in a confidence motion this month and assume power.
Jackson said everything is up in the air when it comes to the bridge, so she’s asked municipal staff to prepare a report that will be forwarded to all the parties in the legislature, illustrating the reasons behind a bridge being chosen and the need to replace the tunnel.
