Will money troubles push some mayors over the edge and split the regional district?
A small item in the Vancouver Sun this week regarding a meeting of south of the Fraser River mayors caught my attention. The municipal politicians gathered to discuss a number of topics including transportation, jobs and infrastructure projects.
While I don’t have a problem with the Mayor of Surrey talking shop with the Mayor of Langley, I suspect this could lead to a much broader discussion about the future of Metro Vancouver itself. You see, the mayors governing cities south of the Fraser are feeling hard done by their neighbours to the north. Whether it’s a lack of public transit or a lack of respect for this fast growing part of the region, it would appear some local politicians are getting restless.
Maybe it's only a matter of time before a few of these mayors put forward a proposal to establish a new South of Fraser Regional District. In other words, they could threaten to separate from Metro Vancouver unless some of their demands are met. If nothing else, this threat of separation can be used as a powerful bargaining chip.
Those demands might include better transit, a larger say in the future planning of the region, and more schools to help relieve the overcrowding situation in places like Surrey and Langley. Depending on how cities like Burnaby and Vancouver react, we could face a showdown of monumental municipal proportions.
But what would life be like for the new South of Fraser Regional District (SFRD) after it has separated from Metro Vancouver and decided to go it alone? Let’s fast forward to March 31, 2018, one year prior to the kickoff of a new SFRD.
Transit
Now that they are no longer being serviced by TransLink, SFRD realizes they will have to establish their own transit bureaucracy. Due to the low densities found in almost every one of their cities, transportation planners tell them they simply don’t have the ridership to build costly things like rapid transit.
In addition, projects like a light rail network must also be put on hold until local densities more closely resemble that of Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver and New Westminster. Unless they are willing to take on massive debt, SFRD residents are stuck with a patchwork of buses that now run less frequently and in fewer areas than under the previous TransLink regime.
Meanwhile, now that Vancouver transit riders are no longer subsidizing bus commuters in Surrey and Langley, TransLink announces plans to expand bus service and lower fares by 6% next year in the new North Fraser Regional District (NFRD).
Infrastructure
One of the realities of our region is that all of our fresh water comes from reservoirs located on the North Shore. The new SFRD announces plans to borrow billions to set up a new water filtration plant on the banks of the Fraser River in North Surrey. SFRD residents can say goodbye to clear glacier fed tap water and hello to H2O that local sturgeon and herring poop in every day.
On a side note, protracted negotiations are underway as to how much of the debt servicing charges the new SFRD will have to take on regarding the Seymour filtration system Metro Vancouver built a few years ago. North of Fraser residents don’t want to be left holding the bag for an $800 million dollar filtration system that was forecast to provide fresh water to the whole region. Needless to say, talks aren’t going well and SFRD says they won’t pay a dime.
Tolls
The SFRD continues to argue that cost-prohibitive $7 (per one-way fare) tolls on the Port Mann Bridge are too much of a cost for local citizens to bear. They threaten to install new toll booths on the south side of the Alex Fraser and Pattullo bridges to make their point. The North of Fraser Regional District (formerly Metro Vancouver) says this is totally unfair and appeals to the province to step in and put a halt to this madness.
Business Licences
In retaliation for not lowering the tolls on the Golden Ears, Pattullo (soon to be opened) and Port Mann Bridge, SFRD announces they will implement a new Cross Border Business Tax (CBBT). The new levy will apply to all NFRD based enterprises that want to do business in an SFRD community. It is estimated the levy will create $13M in new revenue for the municipalities affected. The Vancouver Economic Development Commission estimates the new CBBT could cost Vancouver businesses an estimated $5M in new fees that they will eventually have to pass along to local consumers.
A new One Company – One License initiative will also be launched at the same time as the CBBT. This allows businesses operating in any of the SFRD cities to only apply once for a business license. It’s hoped this initiative will help steal jobs from NFRD and repatriate them into the southern suburbs. Local economists are quoted in 24 Hours Vancouver stating “the whole scheme is nuts.” But the Mayor of Surrey says it will attract over 10,000 new jobs out of the Vancouver, Burnaby & New Westminster corridor and into his region over the next decade alone.
Agricultural Land Reserve
The SFRD appeals to the provincial government to significantly reduce the amount of farm land protected by the Agricultural Land Reserve. One councillor tells the Surrey Now newspaper “for far too long Vancouver has had all the jobs, and we’ve been forced to be the breadbasket of the region. The ALR is draconian legislation that doesn’t allow us to fully utilize the land for jobs in our own communities.” The BC government says it’s willing to talk, but only if the SFRD can come up with a concrete plan on how they can harvest the equivalent amount of veggies and eggs in people’s backyards.
Regional Policing
The SFRD announces it will create a new municipal police force and will abandon the RCMP. They will be known as the SFRDPD (try putting that acronym on a baseball cap). As part of this new consolidated police force, the mayors of the SFRD announce they are no longer prepared to help the City of Vancouver police regional events. In the future, if the Mayor of Vancouver wants support for Stanley Cup Playoffs or Symphony of Fire, he will have to provide advance notice and negotiate a fee for service contract.
Hockey Team
A new SFRD Economic Development Commission will be established. At its first news conference, it announces the first plan of attack will be to attract a new NHL franchise into the region. The City of Surrey offers up 10 acres of free land near its new downtown core and throws in 1000 free open-air parking spots to help sweeten the deal. While the initiative has broad based support, the Mayors of Abbotsford and Langley openly complain the team should not be named after the host city of Surrey. Rather, they propose the team be called the South Fraser Urban Coyotes!
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman reacts by saying "we don't name teams after a region. The SFRD will have to decide which city the team will be named after. Otherwise this proposal is a non-starter." The Mayor of Surrey then states "the Surrey Saints has a nice ring to it".
Now let’s back up the clock to April 2012. What I’ve just described to you is all fictitious, but not completely outside the realm of possibility. As each year passes, the Mayors of Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Delta, and White Rock are getting a tad tired of playing second fiddle to their northern neighbours.
However, before local politicians rush out and threaten to bolt from the region, they should think long and hard about what some of the consequences might be. My quick look into the crystal ball isn’t that promising.
What do you think — is breaking up the Metro Vancouver regional district a good idea or bad? Leave your comment below.
- Post by Daniel
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Good reality check. Mmm sturgeon poo water – delicious!
Before reading this, I asked Dianne Watts about last week’s news release that sparked the coverage. The South of Fraser mayors group has been in place for some time. Essentially Watts indicated this was a re-announce to please some newly elected mayors who are new to the table. As for the idea of a breakaway SoF regional district, Watts said forget about it. Abbotsford is the only city really pushing the idea, with no other takers.
And North Fraser RD? Give your head a shake – they’d still call themselves Metro.
Also, SFRDPD is still shorter than SCBCTAPS.
And, how could you talk about a hockey team without mentioning the Abbotsford Heat boondoggle?
For those wondering what became of the alliance of Surrey, Abby, Langley T & Coquitlam under the banner of the High Growth Communities Livability Accord (announced Oct 2007), fear not. Watts said they are still active. And no, Coquitlam has not been kicked out of that club.
In 2018 the George Massey Tunnel wil be 60 years old. Planned as a three-lane tunnel each way by the designer, it was naturally cut back by the politicians of that time to a two-lane link. As it remains to this day, with no plan to change this major link going south of the Fraser.
As the Tsawwassen area of Delta, South Surrey, White Rock and the southern section of Langley continue to grow, the Tunnel remains a one-lane link southbound in the mornings and a one-lane again the afternoon northbound. One lane that has to absorb two lanes of traffic coming up from Tsawwassen, South Delta and Ladner. Another couple of lanes traveling south along River Road. Two lanes coming north along along the 99 freeway, which includes the main link to the USA. And, in a short time there will also be traffic from the Gateway route under construction that will intersect the 99, just south of the little Tunnel.
Six lanes of traffic squeezing into one, with the coming added bonus of the Gateway Freeway traffic. A 30 minute stop-start crawl in the lineup to Tunnel is normal right now. So what about 2018? I guess we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
You forgot to mention how the cities south of the Fraser will eliminate all gas taxes since their citizens go to the US to buy gas and avoid the tax anyways.
I don’t know if Surrey et al will break away from Metro Vancouver but I think Dianne Watts is doing a fine job of advocating on behalf of Surrey and other Valley municipalities, particularly on transit and economic development. The media hasn’t given regional issues that much airtime (or scrutiny, for that matter) – preferring to focus on backyard chickens and bike lanes in Vancouver (CityCaucus has been leading that charge, in fact….) It’s clever media strategy for Watts to be leveraging relative ignorance on Valley issues to get fresh hits on things (streetcar proposal, regional collaboration) that have been announced before. And judging from your blog post, Daniel, the strategy is working. Good for her.
Sounds great! TransLink could do much more were they not forced to provide coverage over such a large, low-density region, particularly in SoF municipalities that are only slowly creating clusters of mixed use, employment, and residential density. The idea of a second hockey team would also be interesting – great rivalry!
As for the water, I’d be curious to know which glaciers drain into Cap or Seymour. As far as I know, Calgary’s the only large city in Canada with glacial water supply (maybe Edmonton too, but via a longish river with at least some trout poop). Presumably SFRD could use Pitt, Alouette, Stave, Chehalis, or Harrison lakes – which raises the question as to where Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, et al fit into this…
Full points for humour. But I am pretty sure we would all be more collaborative than this.
Funny. And, a good thought experiment highlighting the difficulty of “right sizing” a region and the inherent complex cross-subsidies that evolve as communities get larger.
GO YODEL DOGS GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DB, I don’t think Cap/Seymour are glacially fed. But the Coquitlam reservoir definitely is, from Coquitlam Glacier, which is melting fast though. The Coq serves the eastern third of Metro, including Surrey/Delta/NE sector. But while those areas are enjoying true glacier water, Metro is also allowing sockeye back into the reservoir, so there may be more salmon poo over time.
I must admit, some posts attract funnier comments than others. I had a real chuckle reading these ones! Very creative readers we have.
It is amusing how uninformed some Vancouverites are of Valley concerns and while Daniel was clearly writing this with his tongue firmly lodged in his cheek he still appears to be writing from some mistaken belief that the Vally is dependent on the North of the Fraser and not vice-versa.
Once out of Mtro Vancouver the valley communities could reorganize to form a regional district that includes natural neighbours including Surrey, Delta, Langley and the Fraser Valley Regional District. As you may know Abbotsford and Chilliwack have been looking to integrate into the west for years but don’t want to get trapped with Translink.
Regarding Translink, the south of the Fraser massively subsidizes the North of the Fraser for transit services. Bus service could be established by returning to BC Transit, which still exists (although a Vancouverite may not recognize this). Ideally the system would combine with Abbotsford and then we could have an integrated Valley Transportation system including at grade light rail through existing rail corridors. Since BC Transit still exists the managment overhead would be far less than what is wasted with Translink.
Infrastructure would not significantly change. The water system was buiilt with combined funds and while Metro Vancouver has Vancouver in its name it actually services more than just the Metro core and already ssupplies water at a price. So the south Fraser could purchase water and/or contribute towards the maintenance of the system. This is common practice in other jurisdictions. If the deal couldn’t be made then upgrading the water supply from the east via Chilliwack and Cultus lake region would be cheaper than the drilling through the mountians approach currently being used….so another miss.
As everyone who is even vaguely aware knows, Tolling is governed by the Province so no changes in tolls would be observed…strike three?
As for the Police once again there seems to be a bit of confusion here. Delta already has its own police and Surrey and Langley are part of the Provincial contract with the RCMP. They voluntarily contribute money for joint policing most of which is used for big ticket items llike IHIT.
As for the rest of the arguments they were clearly a an attempt to be;little the idea to convince folks that the idea is not a serious one….but to think that might be a mistake….
@ Blair who wrote”Regarding Translink, the south of the Fraser massively subsidizes the North of the Fraser for transit services.”
I suppose you have figures and data to advance this argument?
Even if it were true (and I have my doubts), could it not be said that communities on the North side of the Fraser are subsidizing road and highway construction on the South side of the Fraser?
(I am referring, obviously, to those roadways funded by the Province and/or Translink –think Hwy 1 or SFPR– as well as those municipally-owned roadways which are partially- or wholly-financed with capital contributions by the Province and/or Translink.)
Andrew,
I have previously posted the numbers and put simply in Langley proper we pump in over $10 million (in property taxes alone for Transit services) and another $10 for road maintenance. If you add gas taxes paid from Langley service stations the number balloons. In exchange we receive only 7 full bus routes and 5 shuttle bus routes…yes you read that right 12 routes in total of which only 7 are full-sized buses. Most of these routes barely run during the night and on weekends.
The roadways argument is an even more dismal failure for the supporters of Translink. As most supporters don’t know Translink only supports the major road network and in the last decade the volume of major roads maintained in my Township (Langley) has actually decreased (with the elimination of Glover Road and the Albion Ferry from the network). Even accounting for the two major roads maintained by Translink (200th Street and the Fraser Highway) the spending in Langley doesn’t come close to covering what we contribute. Put simply the numbers are out there and easily obtainable that Langley, Surrey and Delta massively subsidize roadways, bus and skytrain service north of the Fraser.
As for Gateway and Hwy 1 that is not a Translink project but a joint provincial/federal government project (since Highway 1 is a Federal-Provincial issue but once again you know that) with Translink providing minimal funds for some transit upgrades. As for the Port Mann we will be paying for that by tolls so no thanks to Translink on that.
In conclusion, the numbers are out there and easily obtainable but those supporting TransLink seldom consult them instead choosing to argue from authority while hoping that opponents haven’t done their homework, well guess again, we have and are getting angrier by the day (now that the major TransLink addition to services has just been sunk)..
Andrew,
Following an email exchange with my local government I can confirm that Langley Township residents remitted $12.2 million for the Transit component of our property bills in 2011. Add the 20,000 residents of Langley City and the number balloons to over $15 million. Hard to believe I underestimated how much we are wasting for our 12 bus routes.
Heck, while a south of fraser region would be better for White Rock, we could do even better by not being part of the region, period!
What are they going to do, cut off our water? (we make our own already)! Stop the buses at the Surrey border? (White Rock exchange is actually in South Surrey!)
I am fairly confident the existing gas taxes and property taxes collected South of Fraser would be more than enough to at least provide a network of express buses (like the ones translink keeps planning and then axing) to provide some viable REGIONAL travel. A route down King George to south surrey/White Rock, a Route down Fraser to South Langely, a route to North Langley via Guilford, and a route down Hwy 10 to connect it all together.
I am fairly certain four stinking bus routes that would actually make regional travel by bus on top of the existing bus routes is MORE than doable with the existing tax base.