Keep Translink Public
Did you know Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon has eliminated what little democratic accountability TransLink had?
In 2007 the BC Liberals passed Bill 43, which eliminated the old board of elected politicians that used to make regional transit decisions for Metro Vancouver citizens. It replaced this board with an appointed private sector board, which took over January 1, 2008. This powerful nine-member board is not elected and is not accountable through a democratic process. All board decisions are now made behind closed doors and voting records of board members are kept secret.
Did you know that corporate interest groups now handpick TransLink board members?
An unelected, corporate-controlled "Screening Panel" now selects TransLink board members. This Screening Panel consists of five members and includes an appointee of the Province, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Greater Vancouver Gateway Council, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the regional mayors. Three of the appointees are closely affiliated with the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Without any public disclosure or transparency of the process used, this Screening Panel vets hundreds of applications to come up with a list of five candidates for a three-year term every year. Candidates are overwhelmingly from the business community and represent a narrow political ideology; opponents of privatization and P3's are not included.
Although there is a new Mayors' Council that may choose three of this list of five, they have no independent choice of selection. They also have limited information of the candidates when making their choice.
Did you know elected representatives have no independent control over this board?
Like the old board of elected municipal politicians, this unelected board has vast powers, including the ability to raise property taxes, buy and sell property, change property taxation classifications, and run its own police force.
However, elected officials have no direct control over this board. The only power the Mayors' Council has is to choose between a limited set of annual transit options and approve tax increases, despite having no independent influence over how tax dollars are spent.
More significantly, they have no power to overrule a board decision or replace incompetent board members. Only an internal decision of the board itself can do this. The only power of the Mayors' Council over board membership is to refuse to reappoint a board member to a second term, a power severely limited by the lack of information of a board member's performance, which is kept secret and insulated from public scrutiny.
Why should you care?
Local democracy is a cornerstone of good governance and is one of our society's core values. It places decision making over local issues in the hands of the people who are most affected and familiar with the decisions that are being made, resulting in more accountable and responsive government.
Protecting local government is also important to challenge the centralization of power, which has been a tendency of anti-democratic regimes throughout history. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted in On Democracy, "Municipal institutions constitute the strength of free nations...A nation may establish a free government, but without municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty."
Bill 43 has made it much more difficult for citizens to influence or control local transit decisions while giving vast new powers to the corporate sector.
It has:
- Made public board meetings private;
- Eliminated transparency and public scrutiny of decision making process;
- Eliminated routine public access to board reports, studies and agendas;
- Moved the process used to select TransLink directors behind closed doors;
- Insulated the board from any democratic accountability through the electoral process;
- Led to taxation without representation;
- Increased the role of corporate interest groups in determining the direction and priorities of TransLink.