Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom says he’ll take some time to consider the mayors’ requests before respondingvbut he says at least a couple of their requests are non-starters.
He said “there was a request for a portion of the provincial carbon tax for example, all of that money is committed and I’ve had that discussion with the mayors council prior to this letter so that wouldn’t be on, also they’ve requested in one of the motions access to an additional fuel tax.”
And while Lekstrom says he’ll take time to review the mayors’ requests for extra funding sources they could simply hike property taxes by about $ 23 per year to meet their current shortfall.
“I think that’s more palatable to the general population than a number of small increases, whether it be additional fuel tax or car levies or other such things, but that’s a discussion the mayors council is going to have to have with the public that they represent.”
Lekstrom says he is surprised the mayors seem to be backing away from a full performance audit of Translink.
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