Mayor Corrigan craps on Falcon (metaphorically speaking)
Thursday, March 9, 2006 at 09:09AM
The province is trying to wrest control of the Lower Mainland's transportation network, says Burnaby Mayor and TransLink director Derek Corrigan.
Corrigan says the governance review announced yesterday by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon is just a thinly veiled power grab.
“Falcon is worried the GVRD is going to become more activist in protecting the Livable Region Strategic Plan and controlling regional transportation,” an angry Corrigan said in an interview yesterday. “This is an attempt to gain control. It's ridiculous.”
But Falcon denies the move was meant to ensure the province had control over TransLink, which has been directed by appointed municipal politicians since 1999.
"I think it's more of a way of ensuring that the very substantial amount of tax dollars that pour into TransLink ... are being spent in a way that lends confidence to the public," Falcon said in an interview.
Falcon, who has criticized the region's Livable Region Strategic Plan that favours transit over roadways, says the public has lost confidence in TransLink's governance after the board went back and forth for months over the divisive RAV-line project.
“[The public] has seen some of the decision making processes that have gone on in the past that raised a lot of questions as to whether this was the appropriate mechanism for overseeing TransLink,” said Falcon, who has also been critical of many municipalities' opposition to the controversial Gateway Program that will twin the Port Mann Bridge.
Asked what governance structure he favoured, Falcon said, "I don't have any real hard thoughts about what the outcome should be. But I am always guarded to the belief that the real solution is to create another elected level of government."
Richmond Mayor and TransLink board chair Malcolm Brodie said if TransLink's governance structure is altered, it should still include representation from local municipalities.
"I find it difficult to understand how you can have a TransLink director who is not on the local government when you are levying property taxes," said Brodie, who said he welcomed the governance review.
Meanwhile, Corrigan had some harsh words about members of the independent panel that will conduct the review.
Corrigan said Chair Marlene Grinnell, the longtime Langley mayor, "dithered for two years" and "produced absolutely nothing" when she sat on a TransLink committee that looked at the organization's governance structure a few years back. Ouch - although he did preface it with saying Grinnell was a "nice person."
Nor did Corrigan appreciate the inclusion of Dan Doyle, the former deputy transportation minister who now chairs the board of Rapid Transit 2000, the regrettably-named company the province has charged with building SkyTrain's Millenium Line.
"I don't know what Dan Doyle is doing there," Corrigan said. "I don't see him doing anything but advancing the province's agenda."
Corrigan professed to knowing little about the third and last panelist, Wayne Duzita, which a Ministry of Transportation news release describes as having "35 years of experience in business and all aspects of the transportation of commercial goods."
Duzita is also blessed with great skills in posing with oversized novelty donation cheques. And again.
Brodie, for his part, was more charitable: "I think they are very experienced, seasoned professionals with a wide range of expertise."
Tags: gateway program, vancouver, kevin falcon, derek corrigan, translink, transportation
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