B.C. carriers cool to planned transit fee

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WHISTLER, B.C. – The British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA) has set its sights squarely against plans for a proposed $75-per-vehicle fee in the province’s Lower Mainland, since truckers aren’t expected to enjoy any of the benefits.

TransLink, which was recently given control of transportation spending in the region, has noted its plans to charge the average fee by Oct. 1, 2001, and hopes to invest most of it in public transit.

“What does transit have to do with trucks?” asked Shub Bawa of Marpole Transport in Delta, and outgoing chairman of the BCTA.

The fight is undeniably similar to the association’s ongoing battle against the four-cent-per-litre transit tax placed on diesel fuel in the region.

“Road users are going to be taxed something like 400 per cent of the operating and maintenance costs of the highway system,” says Paul Landry, president of the BCTA. For that matter, they offer 80 per cent of TransLink’s funding while 80 per cent of that money goes to public transit. n

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