Plan B? Anti-transit, pro-congestion opponents of Mayors’ Council plan would cut key municipal services

Pro-gridlock voices like the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation are shifting gears now, proposing a so-called Plan B to fund transportation and transit investments by cuts in municipal services — like police, fire and garbage pick-up — to pay for congestion relief.

That’s the only conclusion one can draw from today’s strange Vancouver Sun column by Barbara Yaffe, who says the CTF is prepared “to identify the necessary transportation dollars from within local government budgets” to address the needed improved transit.

Where would those dollars come from? Municipal budgets are overwhelmingly allocated to police, fire, garbage pickup, sewage treatment and countless other vital municipal tasks.

And, of course, municipal taxpayers already contribute to transit funding through property taxes, an arrangement that will continue.

That’s why the proposed .5 percent sales tax increase  needs approval in the upcoming referendum. There is no Plan B, certainly not one based on cuts to essential municipal services.