Tripled tax triggers parkade protest
A new TransLink tax that triples the fee applied to the cost of using a parkade will drive both businesses and customers from downtown Vancouver, says a coalition of businesses opposing it.
The tax came into effect Jan. 1.
The Drive Out the Tax campaign was launched Thursday with leafletting of drivers parking at lots in the downtown core.
The pamphlets argue that the tax unfairly targets paid parking lots such as those run by Impark. Lots at universities and hospitals will also be hit, they noted.
Opponents of the tax want the transportation agency to scrap the fee and come up with another way to pay for the money it says it needs for road and transit improvements.
The tax increase has already led to higher parkade fees downtown, with the daily rate at one of the cheaper lots jumping from $15 to $17 a day.
The daily maximum at a lot across the street was still $21 yesterday, unchanged from last year.
“[Hiking the fee] penalizes the drivers where there is no choice because there is no viable transit option from where they live and the only choice is to drive,” said Charles Gauthier, executive director of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, which is spearheading the protest.
Gauthier argued that the 200-percent hike in the fee, which TransLink says it needs to pay for transit and road maintenance and improvements throughout Metro Vancouver, comes at a bad time because of the recession that has hit business particularly hard.
Gauthier and other critics of the new tax predicted that higher downtown fees will force businesses to relocate to the suburbs and drivers to simply head for suburban malls, where they park for free, rather than to cut back on driving or switch to using transit for shopping trips.
He also noted that the increase comes on the heels of a fall report by B.C.’s comptroller-general, which found TransLink had tripled its debt since 2005, that its expenses are growing at 3.5 times its ridership and that its administrative costs have grown 101 per cent since 2002.
“There are no cost-reduction targets in place” at TransLink and costs are growing at 2.7 per cent, almost double inflation, said Gauthier.
“We want TransLink to be fiscally prudent before they raise taxes,” said Paul LaBranche of the B.C. Building Owners and Managers Association.
TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said the tax was outlined in the three main funding options that were the subject of extensive public consultations last year.
“The vast majority of the people we spoke with said to go with the 21-per-cent tax,” Hardie said.
Hardie also argued that administrative costs and other expenses have risen since 2002 because TransLink has made $5 billion worth of improvements since then, and that this year’s budget has shrunk by $8 million, with three vice-presidents being fired.
As well, Hardie said, downtown Vancouver has benefited most from road and transit improvements.
“The downtown is probably the prime beneficiary of TransLink’s investments,” he said.
Margaret Mahan of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation, which supports the tax hike, said Vancouver is a vibrant and desirable shopping district because transit makes possible increased pedestrian traffic and fewer cars — and that business has to expect to pay for that benefit.
“[Businesses] want that desirable environment but they personally or corporately don’t want to pay for it,” Mahan said.
“We need to support sustainable transportation, which includes transit, and that system has to be paid for.”
slazaruk@theprovince.com
January 8, 2010. The Province