Surrey North Delta Leader, January 20, 2015

Tuesday January 20 2015

The

Leader

▲ Celebrating being cancer free and the love that helped beat the disease 9

SURREY, DELTA REJECT ‘NO’ PLAN FOR TRANSIT TAX ▶ CANADIAN TAXPAYERS’ FEDERATION SAYS CITIES SHOULD SCRIMP AND SHIFT MONEY FROM MUNICIPAL BUDGETS TO AVOID NEW 0.05% LEVY JEFF NAGEL

The leader of the “no” campaign in the Metro Vancouver transit referendum has unveiled his own proposed solution to avoid a new 0.5-per-cent sales tax – but it’s not going over well on this side of the Fraser. Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation (CTF) B.C. director Jordan Bateman is instead calling on Metro mayors to earmark 0.5 per cent a year of future municipal revenue to transportation projects. “Revenue growth among TransLink, Metro Vancouver and the 21 municipalities will clip along at 4.8 per cent a year over the next decade,” Bateman said. “That’s far more than inflation or any other level of government.” He argued redirecting 0.5 per cent of municipal budget growth to transit, plus the same from the budgets of TransLink and the regional district, would still leave cities ample spending room, while providing the extra $250 million for transit that would come from the proposed Congestion Improvement Tax. “We wouldn’t have to pay a new sales tax, and they’d still have a 4.3-per-cent windfall of new money to spend every year.” continued on page 4

ROBERTSON, HEPNER LEAD MAYORS’ COUNCIL

▶ VANCOUVER, SURREY TAKE CHARGE OF TRANSLINK MAYORS’ GROUP GOING INTO TRANSIT REFERENDUM JEFF NAGEL

▶ UP AND OVER Hunter Hughes (8) of the Southridge Storm battles Aminder Basra of the Tamanawis Wildcats for a rebound during the championship game of the Surrey RCMP Classic at Enver Creek Secondary on Saturday night. Hughes was the tournament MVP, but the Wildcats won the final 73-65. For full story, see page 11. BOAZ JOSEPH

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson unseated North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton to take the chair of the TransLink mayors’ council in a vote Friday as regional politicians head into a challenging transit tax referendum campaign. A second election saw Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner picked over Delta Mayor Lois Jackson for the

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mayors’ council’s vice-chair position. Both Robertson and Hepner, as well as Walton, pledged to fight hard for a “yes” outcome in the plebiscite to create a 0.5-per-cent regional sales tax, dubbed the Congestion Improvement Tax, to fund transit and transportation expansion. continued on page 2

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