Who has to come up with the final share of funding for Metro Vancouver’s transit plan?
Posted July 3, 2015 4:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Transit funding can come from anywhere according to one political scientist who is challenging the province’s notion that Metro Vancouver mayors have to come up with the final share.
Yesterday, the province made it clear — almost making it sound like it’s written in stone — that 1/3 of the funding for the regional transportation plan will come from the feds, 1/3 from the province and then mayors must figure out their 1/3 share.
But UBC Political Scientist David Moscrop says the money can come from wherever, including the feds and the province if they want to.
“It’s certainly not a legal requirement, it’s not even necessarily a precedent. It’s that the political decision has been made to divide it three ways and so that could be changed some more if there was the political will to do so,” he explains. “They could decide tomorrow that they’re willing to fund it, the federal government could step in and say this is a major urban region in Canada and we’re going to fund it.”
It’s back to square one now with the plebiscite failing, and the province and the mayors both pointing fingers for the next move.
