Premier Gordon Campbell
PO Box 9041, Stn Prov Govt,
Victoria, BC V8W 9E1

Dear Premier Campbell,

The New Westminster Environmental Partners are concerned about the lack of certainty and concrete progress on the Evergreen Line, the long over-due rapid transit extension to the Tri-Cities area. We recognize this as the most important and most beneficial transportation infrastructure project at an advanced stage in Metro Vancouver area, yet it remains insufficiently funded. In the mean time, other questionable transportation infrastructure projects (dominated by major urban freeway building) are proceeding fully funded.

It has been well demonstrated in cities around the world that the most efficient and effective way to relieve congestion in our cities, maintain corridors for important goods movement, and improve overall quality of life is to get people out of their cars. As we recently experienced first hand during the Vancouver Olympics, it is possible to get people out of their cars if the appropriate incentives are given to drivers, and if good alternative transportation choices are made available. That experience showed us that we have more than enough capacity on our roads to move many more people, if we were only to use our transportation corridors more efficiently. However, the positive Olympics travel experience is at risk of becoming a distant dream of what might have been possible in our region, if we had only spent our transportation dollars more wisely. Instead, it appears we are moving full speed ahead at developing the roads that the Olympics proved we don’t need, while delaying and postponing important investments in the very public transit systems that proved their worth.

Communities such as New Westminster are attempting to create healthier and more viable spaces to live and work, but these efforts are being crushed under the weight of traffic, as commuters struggle to cope with limited transportation options. The Evergreen Line is a part of a crucial rapid transit network that will incite people to leave their cars behind, reducing the stress on local roads in all cities of the region. High quality, accessible, and reliable public transit, coupled with smart land use planning, must be the leading tool that all governments use to deal with congestion and stress on our urban transportation systems. While much has been accomplished in recent years to improve the region's transit network, we have a long way to go.

We hope that the Province will work with the regional governments to create wiser transportation investments that work for all the communities they serve. At this point we ask that the Province complete the funding for the Evergreen Line so that the region can move on to the many other transit investments that are desperately needed throughout Metro Vancouver.

We see many challenges for our communities in the future around livability, peak oil, climate change, and increasing numbers of people competing for the earth's resources. It is quite clear to us that public transit transportation investments make sense for the future, and that major urban highway investments do not.

Sincerely,

Patrick Johnstone
President, New Westminster Environmental Partners
www.NWEP.ca

cc: Dawn Black MLA, New Westminster
Fin Donnelly, MP, New Westminster-Coquitlam, Port Moody
Peter Julian, MP New Westminster, Burnaby
Mayor Wright and New Westminster City Council
Mayors and Councils for Coquitlam and for Port Moody