Directors at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) are taking a second look this week at whether to authorize a memorandum of understanding with BC Transit on the expanded bus service approved in this year’s budget.
The MOU first came to the infrastructure services committee on May 18, along with renewal of the annual operating agreement between the SCRD and BC Transit.
West Howe Sound director Ian Winn said he still can’t support the plan.
“I will continue to be opposed to this rapid expansion timeframe,” Winn said. “I still believe that the expansion of transit is necessary in our community, what I’m not in favour of is the pace that we’ll be doing it at, and the impact on taxation. As I’ve noted before, ridership is going down and service hours are going up and things seem to be out of whack.”
Winn, SCRD chair and Halfmoon Bay director Garry Nohr, and Doug Wright of Sechelt voted against signing the MOU, creating a tie vote. Winn then came back with a suggestion to get a new report from staff and look at an option for a slower rollout of expanded service.
Committee chair Mark Lebbell, the director for Roberts Creek, told his fellow directors that the groundwork laid earlier through an integrated transportation study, the transit future plan, and other efforts set the SCRD down a certain path and he doesn’t favour slowing down or changing direction.
“We’re on a coast that’s really struggling with affordability and this is part of the picture,” said Lebbell. “This is a very big shift that we’re considering here… This is a piece of connective tissue on our coast, it’s our backbone. We have employers who can’t get employees, for a variety of reasons. We have families who can’t live on the Coast, we have a demographic situation. We have tourism opportunities. All of those are going to take a hit if we take this course of action in terms of delaying the rollout [of transit expansion].”
When the transit expansion was approved during the budget deliberations, Nohr gave a notice of motion saying he wanted to recommend a review of the apportionment of transit service – in other words, a look at the possibility of changing how much of the transit budget is paid by the taxpayers in each area. Nohr explained to Coast Reporter after the May 18 committee meeting that he voted against signing the MOU, in part, so it could be considered at the same time as the notice of motion, which was due to come up at a committee meeting May 25.
Other directors backed the idea of having the MOU, the service agreement and a report on Nohr’s notice of motion presented together.
The recommendation attached to the notice of motion calls for a report on possible changes to the current funding model before the end of the year.
Lebbell said he’s open to the idea of reviewing the cost apportionment. Jeremy Valeriote of Gibsons agreed.
“I think that’s a good process that should be going on in parallel,” he said. “I think those things should be looked at, but not with us holding all of this progress and all of this risk at ransom.”
The May 25 staff report on the MOU recommends approval “in order to allow BC Transit to proceed with the implementation of the service changes within the timeline noted and avoid incurring annual lease fees of up to $194,000 for the six new buses already committed.”
The SCRD’s portion of the cost of the transit expansion plan approved at budget time is estimated at $155,000 this year and $466,000 per year from the SCRD going forward. It amounts to about one per cent of the overall tax increase for 2017.
