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More than 50 transit operators and their allies attended a town hall meeting at the Unifor offices in New Westminster on January 9. Hosted by Unifor Local 111, the meeting was convened to debate and strategize on the future of public transit in Metro Vancouver.
Unifor 111 members at Coast Mountain Bus in BC’s lower mainland were spurred into action by Premier Christy Clark’s declaration that future transit funding for the Metro Vancouver’s regional transit authority—Translink—will be determined by a referendum in fall 2014. Given the complexity of transit planning in the region, many activists fear that a referendum is doomed to fail without proper planning and outreach.
Local 111 invited Simon Fraser University urban renewal and transportation planning professor Gordon Price to deliver a keynote address about this history of Vancouver’s transit infrastructure and the challenges posed by the referendum. Price said that, while Metro Vancouver’s transit system is the envy of many cities, even the last decade’s expansion did not keep pace with population growth. He said that a negative referendum result in 2014 will have ramifications for decades to come, but transit advocates face an uphill battle to win the referendum because of Translink’s severe unpopularity.
Price said that the BC government’s current approach lacks vision and pits regions and neighbourhoods against each other for political gain. Instead, he advocated for a regional plan that both recognizes the ongoing role of cars as transportation while building a comprehensive transit system that serves the long-term social, environmental, and economic goals of Metro Vancouver.
Afterward, several Unifor Local 111 members rose to speak about the threats to transit operators’ safety and job security. Others discussed ideas for activating members and the public in support of transit funding.
The town hall was attended by Unifor’s Western Region Director Scott Doherty, BC Council Chair Andrea MacBride, BC Area Director Gavin McGarrigle, BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair, BC NDP President Craig Keating, several BC NDP Members of Legislative Assembly, and Vancouver City Councillor Geoff Meggs.
