Detail script for 13 / FUNDING FOR ALIGNMENT STUDY
Link to editable version of excel document/chart
Probable new alignment route – Hwy 99
The municipalities of White Rock and Surrey have previously committed to funding for our subject ‘feasibility study’. Additionally, there have been public forums, administrative action, political reports. All of this support appears at present to be present, and in a highly positive way. More lately, the SFN has added their determined support with actionable items, and they will become part of the ‘expanded mayors group’; possibly they will opt to provide some funding for the feasibility study.
The BC Provincial Government while under the Liberal Party of BC until mid-2017, were supportive of moving forward on the subject ‘feasibility study’. This government was also responsible for generating a report requesting action by the Federal Government on this file. Whether they actually set aside funding for the study, in a separate budget category, is unknown at this time. The need for our Peninsula citizens to continue as advocates, in conjunction with other stakeholders, to encourage the present BC Coalition Government to fully engage and to provide the needed financial support for the alignment study, is obvious. See table at left for a possible ‘funding allocation’ between stakeholders.
Port Metro Vancouver was relatively silent regarding this rail relocation initiative as well as the potential economic benefits, up to the fall of 2019. Up to that point, we as advocates had kept them appraised with written correspondence. Political figures municipal and provincial have also sent them copies of their own reports sent to BC and Federal government agencies. We have met with their capital management folks in November 2019, and we had agreed to meet again in February of 2020, but with Covid-19 this will now occur soon after meeting our ‘expanded mayors’ group in mid-September.
Federal Government action has been positive but reserved. First, Gordie Hogg our recent local MLA, has been highly supportive of our RR initiative and has engaged extensively with Federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau, resulting in interim safety improvements in White Rock area. Second, funding part of the costs of the alignment [feasibility] study is not immediately forthcoming; possibly they wish to remain freely open to receiving the future application to their CTA [see cards #10 and #12]. An excellent summary of these positions is represented front and centre in Hogg’s Spring 2019 newsletter; see Newsletter link here. Our new federal MLA Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay has stepped up to the plate in a strongly positive fashion, and is part of our ongoing work with the ‘expanded mayors group’.
Private donor funding is a possibility to assist in completing total funding for the feasibility study and may be pursued at a later date; see card #17 for details and implementation, as well as the table to the left. We applaud the ‘Friends of the Pier Fundraising Committee’ for taking their own initiative to raise $2M from private donations to cover shortfalls in future capital costs to rebuild the White Rock Pier; see WR Pier link here.