Mayors support extending LRT to Maple Ridge
The mayors keep talking transit and trying to finding a place for the homeless.
At a meeting Thursday in Maple Ridge, mayors from northeast Greater Vancouver called on TransLink to start planning next year for an extension of the Evergreen light rail transit line to Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
They did so even while TransLink faces a funding shortfall which could jeopardize the whole project – which is supposed to connect Lougheed Town Centre to Coquitlam Centre by 2011.
The mayors covered that in a second resolution, however – urging the provincial government to take the lead and join with the federal government to get the $400 million needed by next April, "so that construction can start as scheduled in September 2007."
Maple Ridge Mayor Gordy Robson didn't know if the resolutions would make a difference in filling the shortfall.
"It's another step," he said.
Maple Ridge is also doing its own study to identify possible LRT corridors. The south side of Lougheed Highway is also being evaluated, to see if there's enough room for a bus lane which eventually could be converted to LRT use.
The new Pitt River Bridge, supposed to be built by 2009, is being designed to accommodate a future LRT line.
The northeast sector mayors in the Greater Vancouver include Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Anmore, Belcarra, Port Moody, New Westminster and Burnaby.
"The resolutions coming from this meeting indicate a strong degree of collaboration on behalf of all our constituents. The result cannot help but be positive when we speak with such a strong voice," Robson said in a release.
The mayors adopted a similar resolution last spring, calling for the B.C. government to chip in $230 million – so that the government funds half of the LRT project.
The mayors pointed to 2004 Ipso Reid survey which showed 90 per cent support by the local population for the LRT line.
The resolution on homelessness said cities are being impacted by lack of transition and supportive housing for people suffering from mental illness and drug addiction.
The mayors then asked for "meaningful funding and programs to provide rehab and treatment centres for addiction which is available on demand …"
They also called for transition housing for recovering addicts and for permanent supportive housing for the mentally ill.
The mayors want to meet Premier Gordon Campbell, "as soon as possible to discuss meaningful funding."
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