TransLink given nearly $500M in emergency funding by B.C. government

British Columbia is injecting nearly $500 million into the Metro Vancouver transit system to save it from whatofficials sayis a feared "death spiral'' sparked in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier David Eby says the $479 million in provincial funding for TransLink will keep fares affordable, avoid service cuts and enable future transit expansion plans to continue.

The money comes from the province's multi-billion dollar surplus they are giving to various groups before the end of the fiscal year.

"If we fail to act to support transit in the region in this way, we would see higher fares, reduced services and it would put important infrastructure projects at risk," said Eby at a press conference at Waterfront Station on Wednesday.

TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn says losses in ridership revenue because of the pandemic,higher service costs due to inflation, and supply chain issues have put unprecedented strains on the company's finances.

Brad West, mayor of Port Coquitlam and chair of the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation, says without the province's help, the system was facing service cuts and fare increases, the hallmarks of a "death spiral" facing transit in many other cities.

The council, which has representatives from 21 municipalities in the region, had asked the provincial and federal government to step in with a total of $500 million to avoid service cuts.

West says it's "incredibly unfortunate that the federal government didn't step up on this occasion'' but that mayors will continue to push for federal support including a call to accelerate Ottawa's planned permanent transit funding.

New funding model needed

TransLink ridership fell by more than 50 per cent in 2020, causing significant financial stress for the organization and necessitating a $644-million bailout from the federal and provincial governments toavoid major cuts.

But transit ridership isn't all the way back to 2019 levels, and is only now back to around 90 per cent of what it was before.

"What we definitely don't want to do right now is have TransLink cut back services, causing people not to come back to transit because the service simply isn't there for them, causing fewer people to choose transit, causing further cutbacks because of reduced revenue," said Eby.

At the same time, the main source of non-fare revenue to TransLink has traditionally been a portion of the gas tax, which is projected to decline over time due to increasing use of electric vehicles.

It has led to the TransLink Mayors' Council to repeatedly ask the provincial government for a new funding model something Eby only partly committed to on Wednesdsay, while mostly pointing toOttawa.

"The issue of sustainable transit funding in major metro areas is an issue across Canada," he said.

"We'll be working with certainly our municipal partners with TransLink, [but] weneed to see the federal government at the table around transit funding."