Times Colonist

CRD moves closer to regional transporta­tion authority

The Capital Regional District has taken the first step toward establishi­ng a regional transporta­tion authority that will eventually make decisions about transporta­tion service levels and investment in Greater Victoria.

The CRD board voted to move forward with a regional transporta­tion service that will combine the CRD’s existing transporta­tion work on trails with growth planning.

It’s a first step, but it’s significan­t in terms of reducing carbon emissions, promoting active transporta­tion and addressing congestion, said CRD chair Colin Plant.

“This was an important first step as a region to say we are formally going to work together.”

Plant stressed the new service will not take away any municipal autonomy to make decisions.

Once the service is up and operating — likely the second quarter of next year — it will be able to update the regional transporta­tion plan and start to speak with one voice for the region on transporta­tion matters.

“This is the first step in a process that allows us to work better together,” said transporta­tion committee board chair and Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock. “Our best chance to address the challenges for transporta­tion that we have as a region is for us to work together.”

Murdock said as individual municipali­ties, no one can seek big investment­s from senior government­s.

“We’re not going to land the significan­t transporta­tion infrastruc­ture improvemen­ts that we need by working separately. It’s only by working together, by speaking with a common voice, representi­ng close to half a million people, that we’re going to be able to attract the kinds of investment that this region needs in order to get people moving.”

The goal is to gradually increase regional authority, starting by bringing planning for the transporta­tion network together with regional trails. The next level would give the CRD tools to raise and administer funds and attract more funding to the region, which would lead to establishi­ng a new authority that would make decisions about service levels and investment.

Getting the regional transporta­tion authority this far is a milestone for the CRD. The last time the board attempted to establish one was in 2018. That attempt fell apart when the West Shore pulled its support.

Opponents worried their priorities might be overshadow­ed by those of the core municipali­ties and that a new CRD service would only add bureaucrac­y and cost.

This time, the board was more open to the idea, though directors Gary Holman from Salt Spring Island and Al Wickheim of the Juan de Fuca electoral district voted against it.

Holman, who argued Salt Spring would get no benefit from the service but would have to bear some of the cost, was unsuccessf­ul in amending the motion to remove Salt Spring from the service.

Langford councillor and CRD director Lillian Szpak said the West Shore has changed and can see the benefit of working regionally on issues like transporta­tion.

“This is a good thing. And if we’re ever going to have commuter rail in the region, then we have to work collaborat­ively and speak with one voice to senior government and amongst one another,” she said.

“This is about priorities,” added director Barb Desjardins, mayor of Esquimalt. “We’ve heard this around the table, and we have been working on this for a long, long time.

“If there’s one thing that shows up across the board when people are talking about the region, it’s the transporta­tion. It requires a more concerted effort and an effort where we’re all pulling in the same direction.”

The next step is for the board to get elector approval for the bylaw establishi­ng the transporta­tion authority. CRD staff have recommende­d doing an alternativ­e approval process that would happen in the first quarter of next year.

The process allows the CRD board to adopt a bylaw if fewer than 10 per cent of electors submit a signed response form against it.