Batemyth Busters: 40 Centuries to Fund Mayors Transportation Plan with CTF Waste

Brad Cavanagh has done a great job of shredding a key premise of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s slick expensive looking new website notranslinktax.ca He did the math and found that all the “waste” that they found totalled $1.9 million or 1.3% of TransLinks annual budget.

To put this into perspective, it would take 3,947 years, almost 40 centuries to fund the Mayors $7.5 billion Transportation Plan with this $1.9 million assuming that a similar matching waste could be found rattling around in Provincial and Federal budgets. The Millennium Line extension to UBC would take
525 years and LRT in Surrey would take over 370 to complete with Federal and Provincial matching funds. Even the 2700km of bicycle routes would take almost 70 years. Cycling routes should be built for people 8-80 years old. We can’t wait until an 8 year old is 80 to finish the regional cycling network.

This is also a small amount relative to real B.C. boondoggles like the BC Place Stadium roof, the Fast Ferries and the Golden Ears Bridge. Taxpayers would be better served by watchdogs resisting the temptation of $30,000 poodles and instead focusing on upcoming projects like the $8 billion Site C dam and the $3 billion Massey Bridge.

It looks like it is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that not using their money very wisely. First, they used an American calendar (maybe to please their funders) to try and make fun of TransLink, then this. They would be well advised to spend more on accountants, fact checkers and proofreaders and less on slick websites.

For more information on the Referendum or to help out with the Yes campaign, please goto: http://www.bccc.bc.ca/yes