Stephen Rees's blog

Fazil Mihlar,
Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008

This is actually yet another reaction to the Premier’s transit announcement. Fazil Mihlar only sees it as yet another “cash grab”. And blames it on Translink, which I think is a bit rich as it was made very clear to me last night that this is a provincial initiative – the Ministry of Highways is being made to realise that it is, in fact, the Ministry of Transportation.

So “Yes” to buses and SkyTrains, but not if it means not having enough money to pay the mortgage, buy the kids a pair of shoes, save for their education, pay car insurance or replace a worn-out furnace.

So obviously even if there are lots more buses and skytrains, no-one will actually think twice about how much it costs to insure a car. It is clearly as essential to living in this region as shoeing the off spring. Of course, the fact that many Canadians have given up on the idea of having children, and many Vancouver residents – and others – are discovering that there are real alternatives to owning or leasing a vehicle has not occurred to the Sun editorial board’s graduate of the Fraser Institute.

Most people are sophisticated enough to realize that if we want better public services, we must be willing to pay for them. What we are not willing to pay for are boondoggles and lousy investment decisions. Ask most people if they think we should upgrade our schools to make them earthquake proof, or run more frequent bus services or cut waiting lists for surgeries and they will say “yes”. Of course they are not happy to pay for that, but then that is because they are also paying for the mistakes of the past (the fast ferries, the Millennium Line, residential schools, Mirabel airport) all of which still show up on government balance sheets, as well as the mistakes of the present (widening the Sea to Sky, the Gateway, the Convention Centre extension) . And actually it doesn’t matter which particular level of government has this debt – it’s servicing all comes out of the one pocket. Ours. And most of us were ignored and kept well away from the decision making that resulted in these mistakes – and I am only listing those that are top of my mind – not lacking for shortage of examples.

This is why I advocate tax shifting – but also much better decision making and more public input. Sadly, Fazil and his ilk are part of movement to ensure that there is less democracy, less accountability and a reduction in national sovereignty. Not that you can tell that from this piece, but look at his oeuvre and you can see a supporter of neoliberalism. And better transit does not fit into that mold at all.

This was also the argument that killed photo-radar. Not that it was a well run program, or could not have been made much more effective, but by reacting in knee jerk fashion to the “cash grab” argument, Gordon Campbell ensured that more British Columbian residents and visitors would die in high speed road crashes. Because the evidence is clear that well run photo radar programs reduce crash severities – and if they didn’t ICBC would not have promoted them.

It will be really sad if once again the same transit plans we wanted implemented twenty years ago are killed again by this anti-tax attitude.