A new chunk of federal funding for transit projects is receiving measured welcome from local politicians, as it might not be enough to push some promised North Shore projects over the line.
Early Monday afternoon, several elected officials gathered with TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn at the SeaBus Terminal in North Vancouver to announce new funding of $633 million to be delivered over the next decade.
The cash comes through the “baseline funding stream” of the Canada Public Transit Fund, and will pay for the growth and replacement of Metro Vancouver’s transit systems, said Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of energy and natural resources, and MP for North Vancouver.
He spoke at Monday’s press event on behalf of Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, minister of housing, infrastructure and communities.
The CPTF funding will be delivered over 10 years from 2026 to 2036, Wilkinson said.
“For most residents of the North Shore, transit is clearly a top-of-mind issue with the heavy traffic that flows over the Lions Gate and Second Narrows bridges every day. We need to provide folks with alternatives,” he said.
“This funding will help TransLink deliver on long-term projects that are vital to the North Shore and more broadly Metro Vancouver, such as the bus rapid transit (BRT) upgrades, which will take advantage of existing road infrastructure to provide fast, frequent and high-capacity service,” Wilkinson said.
TransLink dealing with big deficits
As early as 2022, Quinn said that BRT from Metrotown in Burnaby to Park Royal in West Vancouver was at the top of the list of TransLink’s 10-year-priorities, and residents could expect the project to move ahead within three-to-five years.
But that short-term timeline appears to be less certain.
Last year, TransLink said it was facing a $600-million-per-year structural deficit. And despite a promise from the BC NDP government in October of $500 million to pay for the BRT line, the transit authority’s financial woes cast doubt on when the project could be built.
At Monday’s presser, Quinn explained that building out BRT to the North Shore will happen in phases, beginning with an extension of the R2 RapidBus to Metrotown.
“We want to make that happen as soon as possible. We need to make some capital improvements but, to be quite honest, we need the operating dollars to do it,” he said, adding that construction could begin within five years of securing sufficient financing.
In December, Quinn revealed that TransLink has a $72-million operational deficit in its 2025 budget. To help address these shortfalls, TransLink has applied for additional federal funding through the Metro region agreement stream, which can provide cash for major transit projects and services.
City of North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan – who also sits on the TransLink Mayors’ Council – thanked Ottawa for the new funding, but stressed that more dollars must be secured by the end of March in order for projects including North Shore BRT to move ahead.
“The investment plan, which I’ve said many times, is unfunded,” she said. “The frustration for most at Mayors’ Council is that we can’t deliver this plan without the provincial and federal government at the table.”
The time for talk is over, Buchanan said.
“By the end of March, we need the province to come to the table. They made that commitment in their platform regarding funding the three BRT lines,” she said. “We need them to carry through on that commitment, and let’s get to work.”
[email protected]
twitter.com/nick_laba
@nicklaba.bsky.social‬
