Keeping TransLink afloat: the potential economic win-win

Regardless of whether you ever use transit, the provincial government is once again bailing out TransLink.

Premier David Eby, alongside other stakeholders, announced Wednesday the B.C. government would be spending $479 million to help keep the transit authority operating at normal service levels while keeping transit free for kids 12 and younger.

“Hundreds of thousands of people rely on TransLink’s service every day to get to work, travel to school, and access all parts of the region,” said Eby. “Failing to act now would lead to higher fares, fewer buses on the road, and reduced service across the board. We won’t let that happen.”

The government also confirmed it would continue looking at ways to help the system move forward.

“The province will continue discussions with the federal government on a potential funding partnership. However, given TransLink’s significant and immediate needs, the province is taking action with this funding stabilization to address TransLink’s short-term operating funding needs, preventing layoffs, and maintaining transit services that will create jobs and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, which benefits residents and visitors to Metro Vancouver,” Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said.

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Professor Lawrence Frank with UBC’s School of Population understands not everyone, especially drivers who may rarely or never take transit, may not like this move but he feels it’s necessary.

“You can’t have a sustainable region. … You have to keep the system in operation, or some transit system and some transit agency to run it,” he told CityNews.

He adds keeping the system moving along will actually benefit two other sectors, both which are struggling. One is the environment, the other is the depleted health care system.

“Transit’s role is more important as a long-term pillar in the process of creating a more environmentally friendly and healthier future where we don’t generate so much carbon from travel. [And] where we also are perhaps even more active where we get some physical activity in our daily lives, some moderate levels of physical activity from walking to and from transit and around, rather than being sedentary in a car that generates CO2,” he added.

Frank thinks being active can help reduce the number of chronic illnesses like diabetes, depression, and heart disease which can potentially reduce any further impact on the healthcare system.

“There is an economic benefit that transit contributes to. Taken collectively, there is the prospect that we have no choice. We have to invest in a way to get around that doesn’t require two tonnes of metal to get a loaf of bread.”

This bailout is the latest for TransLink. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began three years ago this month, the transit authority has received more than $850 million in government aid, in part, due to a severe drop in ridership.

The funding comes after a desperate plea from the Mayors’ Council last month which painted a bleak picture of TransLink if it wasn’t given any new funding.

–With files from Liza Yuzda