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How to fill TransLink’s funding deficit and who will pay for it
In part three of our series on TransLink’s funding deficit, there’s still uncertainty, but here’s a few ways TransLink could get the money to avoid major service cuts
Nate Lewis & Hanna Hett
April 02, 2025
Good morning,
Nate with you today. From my apartment window, I have a tranquil second-storey view of the yards and balconies of my neighbours across the alley. I love seeing these spaces come alive this time of year, with people lounging outside and puttering around, tending to their gardens or reorganizing their patios.
But the biggest treat of all is the two cherry trees across the way that have blossomed in the past few days. My mood is lifted every time I look out the window, feeling like I’m floating in a pink cloud of petals. I know from experience that this burst of flamboyant colour and texture will make way for the stable green of summer leaves — but for now, I’m revelling in the blossoms.
For me, those cherry trees are a great reminder to enjoy the present, and to leave some space to take in the beauty that’s all around. I find it’s a really necessary part of rejuvenating the spirit, a counterbalance to suffering, rage, and despair that can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Right now is the best time to enjoy the flowers, whatever they may be in your life.
Take a moment.
And then, let’s get into today’s newsletter.
— Nate Lewis, Vancity Lookout
PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free.
WEATHER
Wednesday: 9 🌡️ 2 | 🌧️
Thursday: 11 🌡️ 4 | 🌤️
Friday: 14 🌡️ 6 | 🌤️
NUMBERS OF THE DAY
🏘️ 37: The number of waterfront homes in Ambleside bought by the District of West Vancouver over 50 years, with the goal of creating a continuous seawall walking path along the water. The last remaining home on the stretch was just sold to them for $7.3 million. [CTV News]
📉 121k: The number of drivers with B.C. plates crossing into Washington state last month. Those crossing totals fell by nearly half compared to March 2024. [Vancouver Sun]
⛴️ 4: The number of new vessels that BC Ferries is purchasing, one fewer than planned. The fifth boat would have served as a relief vessel for the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route but it was deemed non-essential. The four new ships will replace the current 1960s and '70s-era boats.
🧥 22k: The price tag value of Arc’teryx gear that a trio of would-be shoplifters grabbed from the company’s store on 4th Avenue in Kits. All three were arrested. [North Shore News]
TRANSIT SERIES
How to fill TransLink’s funding deficit and who will pay for it
Changes to the regional gas tax and road tolls are two ways TransLink could fund their operations, like this articulating bus on Macdonald and Broadway, in the future / Hanna Hett photo.
This is part three of our series on TransLink’s funding deficit. Parts one and two are available for those who want to catch up or circle back on our coverage.
Story by Hanna Hett
Negotiations for who will fund TransLink’s looming $600 million operating deficit are coming down to the wire, with a legislative deadline for TransLink to adopt its investment plan by April 30.
The Mayors’ Council (one of TransLink’s governing bodies, made up of mayors from across Metro Vancouver) and the province have been discussing who will cover the funding gap to stave off what would be dramatic cuts to transit service across the region.
Who will pay is still up in the air, as all levels of government are grappling with tight budgets and bigger deficits.
“It's definitely a back and forth,” said Denis Agar, executive director of Movement, a grassroots regional organization advocating for transit users. “They're both concerned about their own bottom lines. But I think both earnestly do want transit to be good, and so it's just a matter of getting them both to feel comfortable with spending the money.”
These negotiations are governed by a non-disclosure agreement, so it’s unknown what funding sources the parties are discussing, according to a Movement press release. But the Mayors’ Council has publicly called on both the provincial and federal governments to step in and cover the deficit.
“There’s always finger-pointing. Everybody wants some money from somebody else,” said Werner Antweiler, an economist and professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
How transit is traditionally funded
Traditionally, provincial and federal governments stick to funding capital projects — like SkyTrain extensions — notday-to-day operating expenses, Antweiler said.
Since COVID, however, TransLink has relied on relief funding from Victoria and Ottawa to keep its operations afloat. Of the transit provider’s $2.6 billion total revenue in 2024, about $425 million came from government transfers, compared to over $715 million the year before. The last of that funding is set to expire at the end of 2025.
Ottawa recently committed $1.5 billion over ten years to TransLink, in addition to another $663 million in funding it announced in January. That money is meant to pay for new transit projects, and repair existing systems in Metro Vancouver. But the federal government doesn’t typically provide funding for operating costs, the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada told Vancity Lookout in an email.
“Provinces, municipalities, and local providers are best placed to understand and address their communities’ needs and priorities,” they wrote.
Ahead of last fall's provincial election, the Mayors’ Council pushed B.C. political leaders to commit to funding TransLink. They sent an open letter to party leaders and candidates, asking the leaders, if elected, to “save transit” — including the creation of a $3.4 billion annual fund for transit, with $500 million budgeted for operating revenues.
While each party made various transit-related promises — from SkyTrain stations to free fares — the deficit wasn’t directly addressed.
In the NDP’s 2025 budget released earlier this month, the province did not commit specific funding to Translink operations, much to the concern of local advocacy groups.
However, this doesn’t mean that funding won’t be announced, according to a statement from Mike Farnworth, B.C.’s Minister of Transportation and Transit. Financial support for TransLink isn’t a separate line item in the budget, he explained.
“Our government recognizes the financial challenges TransLink is facing as costs and demand for more service increase. We remain committed to investing in transit.”
Farnworth added that solving TransLink’s structural deficit will “take collaboration” from the Mayors’ Council, the federal government and the province.
Port Coquitlam’s Mayor and Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West, speaking at a transit summit in Ottawa / CPAC
Since the federal government isn’t stepping in with additional operational funding, and the province has yet to do so, the Mayors’ Council has been sounding the alarm. They want consistent government funding for local transit options.
In October of last year, Brad West, Port Coquitlam’s mayor and Mayors’ Council Chair, spoke at a press conference in Ottawa, calling on the federal government to help create a new funding model that meets both capital and operating needs. He said transit is an essential service that’s necessary for functioning communities — just like drinking water and housing.
Traditional ways of funding public transit – through taxes and transit fares – “are not sufficient to meet our needs today, and certainly not into the future,” he said.
West blamed “population growth, fuelled in large part by federal immigration policies,” for the struggles of Canadian transit agencies.
“While the government may be dialling back some of its immigration targets, they cannot walk away from the impacts of their decisions,” West said.
Vancity Lookout reached out to Mayor West for an interview, but he was not made available.
New revenue sources for TransLink
Besides providing direct funding, the province could help TransLink find other funding sources to fill the deficit.
Werner Antweiler said that while provincial funding is an option (especially because public transit benefits the whole populace through things like reduced greenhouse gas emissions) “it's kind of hard to justify people in, say, Kelowna paying for public transit in Vancouver. The people in Kelowna should be paying for public transit in Kelowna”.
TransLink has a number of ways to generate revenue, including transit fares and taxes on property, fuel, and parking. In 2024, they earned about $781 million in fares and over $1 billion in taxes.
But there are other revenue sources the province could allow TransLink to draw on.
For example, as TransLink’s revenues from the fuel tax declines with the adoption of electric vehicles, the province could legislate a vehicle kilometre tax (VKT) to replace it – a tax applied for road usage regardless of what type of vehicle someone drives. The cost could be determined by an odometer reading each year when people renew their vehicle insurance.
“The people that use EVs [electric vehicles] — that includes myself — now we are basically getting a little bit of a free ride, because we’re no longer paying towards supporting public transit. That is wrong, that needs to be fixed,” said Antweiler.
“We need to come back to a system where all road users contribute to public transit,” he said.
Todd Litman, the founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, wrote a report which evaluates 18 potential local funding options for transit — including a vehicle kilometre tax, fare increases, increased parking fees, and road tolls.
Whatever the mechanism, Litman and Antweiler both agree that more than one revenue stream is needed.
“I’m a mixer,” Litman said of funding solutions.
Road tolls (charging motorists for road use) make sense from an economic efficiency viewpoint, as it generates revenue while also incentivizing drivers to use public transit.
At the beginning of 2025, New York City became the first city in North America to introduce road tolls, charging motorists $9 USD (about $13 CAD) during peak hours. Within the first month, the city’s transit service preliminary data showed there was less traffic in the tolled area and those who did drive saved time.
While NYC’s tolls are being challenged by the Trump administration — and have been politically contentious at the state and federal level — one survey found that 59 per cent of New York voters wanted to keep them. Just as importantly, New York City officials projected annual revenues of about $1 billion USD from the tolls — with $15 billion of the cumulative revenue required to be spent on transit.
Tolls are a hard sell politically, since drivers don’t want to pay for roads that they perceive they’re using for free (of course, roads are not free, as they’re paid for through our taxes). Indeed, Vancouver had been studying the implementation of road tolls under Mayor Kennedy Stewart, but Ken Sim made opposing road tolls part of his highly successful 2022 mayoral campaign, and axed the study shortly after he won.
“I'll admit that Vancouver's chance of being the second city in North America to implement decongestant pricing is probably not realistic,” said Litman.
Parking is also an under-utilized revenue opportunity for transit. In B.C.’s budget, they’ve enabled the Mayors’ Council to increase its parking rights tax from 24 per cent up to 29 per cent. This is a tax on any commercial parking rights sold within TransLink’s service region. In 2023, TransLink made just over $83 million in parking revenues.
Other options include expanding parking pricing on streets, and parking levies.
“We have given parked cars free space,” said Antweiler, space which could instead be used for urban amenities like parklets, patios, and bike lanes.
But previous efforts to charge drivers for parking have seen significant pushback in Vancouver.
“Pushback is the Achilles heel of any such measure,” said Antweiler, which is why he thinks a broad approach to revenue is needed. “People never like a new tax.”
For example, Vancouver’s recent paid parking pilot at Spanish Banks Beach – meant to reduce congestion, traffic safety risks and pollution – has received backlash. In 2021, the city scrapped a controversial Climate Emergency Parking Program, where it would have charged for overnight parking permits. In 2023, council lowered parking rates in Chinatown.
Governance structure
Since 2007, TransLink has been overseen by the region’s leaders (a council of about 20 mayors, a director, and the Chief of Tsawwassen First Nation) and an 11-member board of directors, appointed by the Mayors’ Council and the province. Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West and Malcolm Brodie, the Council Vice Chair and Mayor of Richmond, also sit on the board of directors.
When TransLink was established in 1999, the transit operator had a 15-member board of directors, 12 of whom were locally-elected officials appointed by the regional government (now Metro Vancouver). Legislation required that three of those representatives be from the City of Vancouver or UBC Endowment Lands, giving the city far more representation on the board than in the current structure.
Nathan Davidowcz, a long-time transit advocate, says TransLink should be run by Metro Vancouver.
Davidowcz criticized the service provider for having both a board of directors and the Mayors’ Council, which he says is inefficient. “There is no way anything could be accomplished,” with that many more people involved, he said.
“Most of them are not experienced voices. They never funded or operated transit for their municipalities, so they know nothing,” Davidowcz alleged of the Mayors’ council members.
Davidowcz said the only mayors who advocate for transit are mayors Mike Hurley in Burnaby, Patrick Johnstone in New Westminster, and Nathan Pachal in Langley, plus some advocacy from mayors on the North Shore.
“The rest are not interested in transit, and they don't understand how important it is for Metro Vancouver,” Davidowcz claimed.
Shift spending toward public transit
Currently, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit spends about $500 per person each year on roadways, and local governments probably spend a similar amount on streets and traffic services, according to Litman.
Meanwhile, the province annually spends about $215 per person on public transit.
That means the amount of money spent provincially on public transit is much less than roads, bridges, tunnels, and parking facilities.
“I think there's a very strong — let's call it transportation efficiency and fairness — case for shifting funds from highways to public transit,” Litman said.
Going forward, Litman thinks that it should be a combination of provincial and local funding to fund TransLink.
“But if the province is building and maintaining freeways, highways, it rationally should shift some of that money to frequent and affordable bus service every time [it] would provide traffic congestion reduction and traffic safety.”
Political challenge
As elections and governments pivot away from climate priorities, Litman says there needs to be better communication of transit’s array benefits. One political hurdle is that reducing vehicle travel has mostly been framed as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Litman said.
Cost of living is a major concern for many people, with sky-high rents (in 2021, nearly 43 per cent of Vancouverites spent either half their income or more on shelter costs) and post-COVID lockdown inflation straining people’s finances. Now add to that the see-saw of the U.S.-Canada trade war, which has caused fears of recession, and people’s priorities are understandably fractured if they're forced to either prioritize environmental health or short-term economic survival.
“As we've seen in the last year or so, the appetite for reducing emissions has gone way down,” said Litman.
But benefits like reducing traffic congestion and vehicle accidents through transit, and the lower individual cost of using transit compared to owning a vehicle, are other examples of how economic and environmental goals can be served at the same time – especially in more densely populated urban areas.
Angad Dhillon, a first year student at UBC, relies on transit to get around Vancouver and visit his family in Abbotsford on weekends. Hanna Hett photo
For people like Angad Dhillon, a first-year University of British Columbia student living in residence, the current transit system in Vancouver is critical for his lifestyle. Originally from Abbotsford, he has seen the difference between living in a car-centric city and one with a good transit system.
“It’s night and day,” he said of the differences between Abbotsford and Vancouver. “Growing up in basically a suburb, I really realized how much freedom is kind of missing in that type of lifestyle.”
Now, Dhillon structures his life around transit. He uses it for errands, to commute to Langley (the closest city to Abbotsford he can get to via bus and SkyTrain) to visit his family, and to explore parts of the city beyond campus.
He thinks the government needs to somehow find a way to cover the costs.
TransLink and the Mayors’ Council “remain in conversation with the Province” to find a solution to the deficit, TransLink said in a statement to Vancity Lookout in March.
Advocacy groups like Movement expected TransLink to announce a draft funding plan by the end of March, to allow them enough time for consultation before it officially adopts its investment plan. It has yet to be announced as of April 1.
Denis Agar suspects that the Mayors’ Council will rely on traditional funding sources (parking rights tax and property taxes) to fill whatever gap of the deficit the province doesn’t provide for.
For transit services to be sustainable in the long term, a rethink of how TransLink is financed — and who benefits from transit — might be necessary.
But for now, the structural deficit just needs to be filled.
“We need to fix this gap in funding,” said Antweiler. “And then we need to move forward.”
THE AGENDA
🗳️ Voters endured long lines again at City Hall on Tuesday in the second and final round of advanced voting for this week’s city council by-election. General election day will be Saturday, April 5, from 8 am to 8 pm. You can vote at any voting location, including most community centres or City Hall. [CityNews, COV]
☑️ If you want to vote but haven’t yet decided who for, we put together profiles of every party-affiliated candidate: Lucy Maloney (OneCity), Colleen Hardwick and Theodore Abbott (TEAM), Sean Orr (COPE), Annette Rielly (Green), Ralph Kaisers and Jaime Stein (ABC). You can also visit the city’s website for information on everyone who’s running, including six other Independent candidates. [Vancity Lookout, COV]
👩🏻🚒 A union representing Vancouver firefighters has endorsed ABC’s Ralph Kaisers and Jaime Stein in Saturday’s by-election. Kaisers previously told Vancity Lookout that he has a “good relationship” with Vancouver firefighters from his time as leader of the police union. [IIAF Local 18, Vancity Lookout]
🏊🏽♂️ Park board commissioners voted 5-0, with two abstaining, to move ahead with plans for the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre, which includes a pool half the size of the facility’s current one. Commissioners added several amendments, including asking staff to prioritize the creation of a 50 metre pool within the next 10 years. The plan now needs to go to city council, who will vote on whether to approve a further $22 million in funding for the project. You can catch up on our coverage of the project here. [Park board, Vancity Lookout]
😎 Grab your cutest top and your favourite sunglasses because patio season is officially back, with approved restaurants and bars rolling out their summer patios on April 1. It even looks like the weather forecast is cooperating meaning we may be in for a festive-feeling weekend. [CityNews]
Outside Vancouver
🪓 “Foolish,” and “pathetic,” was how one university economist described the BC NDP’s speedy move to eliminate the provincial consumer carbon tax on Tuesday. Ross Hickey said the policy made sense financially and for the environment, noting the tax had remained quite popular in B.C. from when it was established in 2008 until 2019 when it became a flashpoint in federal politics. During the 2024 election, Premier David Eby promised to axe the tax if the federal government allowed it, which they did on April 1. That led gas prices to drop about 17 cents on average yesterday. [CBC, BC Gov, The Narwhal]
DREAM HOME
This modern two-bedroom East Van townhouse near Pandora Park features a simple two-storey layout that would be perfect for a couple or small family. With several schools, parks, and lots of local businesses within walking distance, this one may move quickly.
House of The Week is a home selected by the Lookout team and is not a paid advertisement. All ads are labeled as such. If you’re a realtor who wishes to feature your home in our newsletter, please contact our sales team.
APRIL FOOLS HIGHLIGHTS
Coal Harbour is getting a unique new park, as plans are in the works to open up the Vancouver Convention Centre’s green roof for public access. [Urbanized]
Ken Sim is encouraging Vancouverites to vote for Sean Orr for city councillor in Saturday’s by-election [Instagram]
The popular Vancouver subreddit has renamed itself r/Bargecouver, and will now be focused on buoyant infrastructure [Reddit]
Not a joke (apparently): a WWI trophy was discovered at the PNE during construction of the new amphitheatre [CTV]
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VANCOUVER GUESSER
Google Maps
Last week’s nautical Guesser drew votes all over the board, with Jericho, Kits, and Sunset all getting a good chunk of votes. However, the 31 of you who guessed the sailboat was beached at Kits were correct! Bravo to everyone, that was a tricky one.
For this week’s Guesser, can all you East Van heads tell me what road this is?
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