BC Liberals losing their minds over bridge tolls

First. BC Political pundit calls out BC Liberal flailing on bridge tolls.

Keith is right. BC Liberals and other opponents are spitting mad that the NDP outflanked them on a bread and butter issues that faces daily commuters that travel the Port Mann (and Golden Ears) toll bridges.

Attack #1: removing tolls makes the bridges an unsupported debt and therefore adding to the overall taxpayer supported debt.
Answer: False. TiC, the Crown Corporation in charge of running the bridges and collecting its toll revenue was losing a lot of money. By definition, that's a non-supported debt. Don't agree? That's what the Auditor General said too.

Attack #2: What about other transportation means? Now shouldn't the NDP make other transit-type options available?


Answer: you'll have to excuse the amateurish attempt to conflate issues, but you see where they're going. So let me deconstruct their illogic for a moment.
Imagine having several bus routes open to you. All of them will take you to the same destination, some are a bit longer as they take longer routes. But the short route is expensive while the alternatives are free. Yes, some may take the shorter, expensive route, but chances are the free one will be overcrowded with those who can't afford fees where there were previously none. Did I mention that the free routes used old, rickety busses that were well past their best before date? Because that matters here.
That is the scenario here. By imposing a stiff rate of travel, commuters face on average $1500 per year on tolls that didn't previously exist. This has shifted large volumes of traffic to the alternative routes of the 80 year old Pattullo bridge and the already busy Alex Fraser bridge. Pattullo bridge can't take that much more abuse. 

My earlier posts try to unpack the reasons for ignoring Pattullo in favour of Port Mann. In my view, the BC Liberals wanted their showpiece vanity item with their preferred business model in place. In reality, its an over budget boondoggle with a flawed plan. 

"Oh but why should the rest of the province pay for bridges in the lower mainland?" 
Because as a whole province, that's how we take care of each other. Taxpayers in the lower mainland are likely contributing to programs and infrastructure elsewhere in BC, and I don't remember any toll being applied to either of Kelowna's new and proposed new bridge. That sort of regionalism/wedge issue is unbecoming of a party looking to regain power. 

Shame on the BC Liberals.







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