Is the West Coast Express's future in jeopardy? Mission's mayor doesn't think so.

Mission Mayor Paul Horn said he doesn’t think funding for the West Coast Express is actually in danger, despite the warnings from TransLink and Metro Vancouver’s mayors.

Earlier this year, the Metro Vancouver mayors that run Translink commissioned a study into the organizations fiscal future and what a lack of funding might mean for services. That report suggested TransLink was facing a $600 million budget shortfall that could lead to hard choices. The study suggested that cuts could lead the West Coast Express to either be scaled back or yanked from the tracks entirely.

The train’s eastern terminus is in Mission and any cuts could disrupt the lives of residents there who depend on the service to get to and from Vancouver, and other stops along the line. 

But Horn said he thinks most of the dire prognoses are driven by politics. While his neighours to the west are pleading for more provincial money for TransLink, Horn says funding for BC Transit and the services it provides is just as needed.

Campaign for cash

In that July study, TransLink’s staff declared that massive cuts would be needed if BC didn’t create a new transit funding model. Translink blamed a decline in fuel tax revenue, below-inflation fare increases, and increasing costs.

TransLink’s report was followed by a press release and media campaign by the organization and the mayors that sit at the top of its governance structure. 

Translink delivers service to communities in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, which includes communities from Vancouver to Langley and Maple Ridge. Communities east of those cities, including Mission, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack are not served by TransLink. Their transit operations are overseen by BC Transit instead and jointly funded by the province and the municipalities. The one major exception is the West Coast Express, which leaves Mission uniquely served by both BC Transit and TransLink, which quietly compete for Victoria’s transit funding dollars. (Mission is also served by Translink’s 701 bus that connects Maple Ridge and Mission.)

Despite the dire warnings coming from Vancouver and the supposed threat to the West Coast Express, Mission Mayor Paul Horn said he isn’t worried about the train’s future. Horn, who sits on the board of BC Transit and has previously called for more local transit funding from the province, suggested TransLink’s plea for money is tied to the provincial election campaign this fall.

“I’m not particularly concerned at this time,” he told The Current. “I just looked at the calendar and realized that we're a few months before an election when that information was produced.”

(Horn noted that Mission, because it’s not part of TransLink, doesn’t rely on its funding, for West Coast Express service and picks up the tab for the train to get to the city. But the existence of the service does depend on support from TransLink and would be affected if its funding was cut.)

Horn suggested the report used was intended to highlight the potential cost of various routes and how a lack of funding might impact them.

“If you pay attention to methodology that was used, they looked at their budget to see where they could make cuts, and then they went and they said, ‘Here's how much more money we need,’” Horn said. “I think that that is an important political approach, but it's one of many, and BC Transit and other crown agencies are in similar situations.”

The TransLink report suggests that without more funding from the province, service cuts are inevitable. But history suggests that may not be true. 

Although the TransLink report blames declining fare and fuel tax revenue for its $600 million shortfall, declining revenue from those sources could be balanced out by increasing revenue streams. And one of those is under the direct control of the Metro Vancouver mayors themselves.

While the regional fuel tax accounts for 18% of Translink revenues in 2023, property taxes kick in even more, accounting for nearly one-quarter of all the money used to pay for buses and trains in the region. Metro Vancouver municipalities could fill TransLink’s funding gap on their own, if they so choose. Indeed, they have previously used taxes to maintain or expand services.

But New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone wrote on his blog that while that “property tax is being asked to fund an increasing number of services, and the Mayors recognize there are limits to how much we can push that.”

(Johnstone notes that about 7% of property taxes in his community go to fund TransLlink.)

The money has to come from somewhere, and $600 million spread across Metro Vancouver’s 2.6 million residents amounts to more than $200 per person. For the Metro mayors, it’s time for the province to ante up more money. If it does so, it will effectively mean that taxpayers across the entire province will be picking up some of the cost to maintain transit in Vancouver. (Alternately, the province can just add the cost to its growing deficit; Metro Vancouver, on the other hand, can’t run an operating deficit.)

Johnstone, in his blog, acknowledges the mayors’ advocacy is political and intended to make transit funding an issue in the upcoming election. After the report was issued, the leaders of the parties were asked about, and responded to, the call for more funding. (Conservative leader John Rustad called for a TransLiink audit while BC NDP leader David Eby said the cuts would only happen if the Conservatives were elected.)

But the concern across the rest of the province will be that the focus on TransLink will take attention—and possible funding—away from transit in their communities. Communities like Chilliwack have complained that their transit needs have been neglected, even as they are asked to create denser, transit-dependent neighbourhoods.

At the moment, the discussion over TransLink’s future largely revolves around which politicians will get the criticism for hiking taxes or increasing the provincial deficit—or get the credit for saving much-used services.

In Mission, meanwhile, Horn said he isn’t worried that train service will actually be cut.

“We haven't engaged in any conversation that gives us concern about the West Coast Express’ future,” he said.

Horn said that Mission needs more funding for all transportation and transit services. He said he has been focused on funding for routes that connect Highway 7 to Highway 1. 

 “We don’t need more TransLink-[specific] funding, we need more transit funding, more investment in transportation.”