Lower Mainland Transit Funding and Carole James

1) Transit Funding

I see over at Langley Politics.Com (http://www.langleypolitics.com) that several Lower Mainland Mayors still want to use the Carbon Tax revenue to fund transit in the Lower Mainland. I want to repeat what I said on that website and that is -- if the Carbon Tax is to be used to fund transit, it MUST be funded province wide and not restricted to a specific region of the Province. As for the transit funding issues in the Greater Vancouver area, residents' there and their elected officials must match wants/needs to revenue coming in. If tax hikes or increases to user fees aren't in the cards, then you must scale back the service to the money (revenue) coming in. It's just that simple. Also, aggressive lobbying efforts to get Victoria/Ottawa to fund Transit Operations should continue with under the guise of greening Lower Mainland communities and improving air quality in the Fraser Valley airshed, which can look horrible, from a tourist perspective, from time to time.

2) Carole James and the Provincial Issues

So, I got a copy of Carole James's speech to the Provincial NDP Council on June 27th and she says that she's angry that the government hid the truth from voters' in the 39th General Election, that cuts are coming. Of course, we BC Liberals' know that this is boohookey. The fact remains - yes, there is a deficit for this fiscal year (2009-2010) and next year (2010-2011) and a return to balanced budgets in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. And also, no question, budgets' will be tight this year and next, but I believe the provincial government can manage those budgets' through the times we've living in. But I believe Canadian society must get its' head wrapped around one thing: the health-care system of the past where government funded it to be all things to all people can no longer happen now, given the population numbers of today and the projected numbers down the road. Otherwise, as Gary Collins (former Minister of Finance) once said years' ago -- We'll be able to afford health-care, a little education and nothing else (Transportation, Social Services, etc) will all have to go. That's not the way I want my province and its' budget to be handled.