Is Falcon’s highway bill a copy of his neo-TransLink bill?

Call it the stealth of a Falcon, but there is a clinical synchronicity with two of B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon’s most contentious pieces of legislation.

Both are potentially divisive chess moves that cut to the heart of our democracy, health, and well-being. Both received very little media coverage very early on.

Bill 43—then the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Amendment Act—was introduced for first reading October 23, 2007, but sat on the order paper for a number of weeks before the entire NDP caucus summoned enough courage to attack it vociferously in late November.

In the Straight, NDP transportation critic Maurine Karagianis called Bill 43 “the most insidious piece of legislation” since the B.C. Liberals won a second majority in 2005.

It was too late to stop the passage of the contentious bill, for which B.C. Liberal government house leader Mike De Jong had to use a guillotine motion to end debate and pass the legislation.

However, last November, Falcon also told the Straight, with justification, that Bill 43 was “on the order paper for seven months”. That is technically correct if you include the fact Falcon had introduced the legislation as Bill 36 last April, but withdrew it from the order paper and inserted Bill 43 six months later.

Falcon has made the same move with Bill 14, the Transportation Investment (Port Mann Twinning) Amendment Act. Like the TransLink bill, it is highly controversial and has implications for our transit mobility and environment. With Bill 43, low-income transit riders lose the most. With Bill 14, it is anyone who thinks highway expansion is wrong-headed in an age of global climate change and peak oil. Falcon introduced his Gateway Program in 2004, but now through Bill 14 he has proposed that a Crown corporation be created to overlook the construction along the Highway 1 corridor.

This has been on the order paper now since March 13. The NDP have left it there like an orphan, while groups like the Wilderness Committee express concern about its implications.

“Going ahead with this legislation would be irresponsible and hypocritical,” said Wilderness Committee healthy communities campaigner Ben West in an April 1 media release. “How can our provincial government pledge to tackle climate change while simultaneously promoting the Gateway project, which will drastically increase greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change? In the long run, the Gateway project will reduce the livability of our communities and wont reduce travel times for people living south of the Fraser River. The real solution is fully funded public transit options immediately,” West added.

However, passage of Bill 43 and (in likelihood) Bill 14 will ensure that is impossible. The legislative session ends May 29. Will the NDP again leave it until it is too late?