B.C. government, Metro Vancouver mayors agree on $7B transit expansion
VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government has come to an agreement with Metro Vancouver mayors to move ahead on a $7 billion transit expansion for the region.
The provincial and federal governments have previously promised to cover 80 per cent of a 10-year transit plan, but the remaining gap was the responsibility of municipalities to fill.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who is chair of the Mayors’ Council for the region, said reaching a unanimous agreement between varying municipal interests involved everyone “sucking it up” to come up with the funding options.
“When you’ve got the kind of money we had on the table from the provincial government, the kind of money that the federal government is bringing to the table, it would be foolish for us not to be prepared to make the necessary compromises to get that money into the Lower Mainland,” he said.