Toll removal promises prove importance of South Fraser region on election day



Artist's drawing
The Port Mann and Golden Ears bridge tolls are a major itrritant to people in many Lower Mainland communities. Both the NDP and BC Liberals are trying to curry favour with them by promising partial or complete removal of the tolls.


Last Sunday ushered in the provincial election campaign for Surrey and many other South Fraser residents - two days ahead of the official start.
Both major political parties promised good news for drivers south of the Fraser who regularly pay tolls.
The BC Liberals kicked off the promising spree, saying Sunday that if the party is re-elected, bridge tolls will be capped at $500 per vehicle per year, for drivers with TReO stickers on their windshields. Significantly, this would apply to both the Port Mann Bridge (owned by the province) and the Golden Ears Bridge (owned by TransLink). The amount of tolls that would have been paid by drivers after they reach the $500 mark will be covered by the province.
The BC Liberals’ pledge will also cover new Deas Island and Pattullo bridges, if and when they are built. Work has just started on the Deas Island bridge, and there is no funding at present to replace the aging Pattullo, also owned by TransLink. It does not apply to commercial vehicles.
The NDP followed up this promise later on Sunday when leader John Horgan addressed a rally in Surrey, which is shaping up to be the most important battleground in the entire province. He pledged to take all tolls off bridges.
The NDP has yet to say if it will follow through with construction of the Deas Island bridge, which is opposed by virtually every mayor in the region except Lois Jackson of Delta. Presumably, if an NDP government is elected, it could cancel the project, and pay any outstanding costs.
These promises will save drivers a lot of money, and will ensure that more car drivers will use the bridge  offering the best route. The BC Liberal pledge won’t change the habits of commercial truck drivers, who go to the Pattullo and Alex Fraser bridges to save tolls.
Neither party’s pledge should stop mayors from pursuing road pricing. Most drivers will support a system where those who drive the most pay the most.
Meanwhile, the Green Party, which has virtually no chance of winning any seats on the Lower Mainland, would keep the tolls in place. Party leader Andrew Weaver told CKNW that “Bridge tolls have been put in place to ensure that the cost for the new bridges are actually paid by those who use it, to eliminate or to cap a tax is unfair to British Columbians outside of the region of people who use it.”

Weaver said the move amounts to cynical electioneering, rather than reasoned policy.
“The six to ten closest swing polls are within seven kilometres of Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges.”

To an observer, it is remarkable that after years of concerns about the unfair tolling policy which has punished people in Surrey, Langley, Delta, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Mission, Abbotsford and Chilliwack, both parties came so far in just one day. It is proof positive that the 20 seats in those communities will determine which party forms the next government.
In the current B.C. House, there are 15 BC Liberal MLAs from those communities, three NDP MLAs and one independent, Vicki Huntington. She is not running again.
Nine seats are up for grabs in Surrey for the first time, and two more in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. The two Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows seats were won by the BC Liberals by relatively small margins in 2013. BC Liberal Peter Fassbender won Surrey-Fleetwood by just 200 votes.
In my view, the seats which will likely prove the toughest fights will be Surrey-Fleetwood, Surrey-Guildford, Surrey South, (where incumbent Stephanie Cadieux is facing numerous challengers, including  independent Gary Hee, whose main campaign plank is getting rid of bridge tolls), Delta North and the two Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows seats. If the NDP were to win all six of those seats, the party would almost certainly form government, assuming its support holds up in other areas where it traditionally does well.
The attention paid by both parties to bridge tolls at this late stage indicates just how important votes in this region are. It is all the more reason for residents of Surrey, Delta and White Rock to press both parties hard on all the other issues which are important to voters in this region.
These issues include health care, party financing, housing, school construction, pipelines, the deaths of children in government care and transit funding, among many others.

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