Metro Vancouver’s board of directors has rejected a proposal to raise property taxes to fund TransLink’s expansion projects.

The board voted that a sustainable funding model be developed using other sources of funding such as a vehicle levy.

Lois Jackson, the chair of the Metro Vancouver board of directors, said the board agreed they did not want to use the property taxation ability for TransLink.

“We simply said no to local taxation - there’s just got to be a better way of finding funds,” she said.

“We need sustainable ongoing funding, and I’m not sure how that will eventually end up.”

Jackson suggested the provincial government should set up a reserve to fund transportation projects.

“At a local government level, we put things in a reserve to offset these kinds of costs, and I think the provincial government would be wise to set up a reserve and put the carbon tax and the fuel tax and maybe part of the property transfer tax into a reserve to fund TransLink”, she said.

The B.C. NDP called for the provincial government to provide funding to get construction of the delayed Evergreen Line started right away, and for the province to use $60 million in carbon tax revenues planned for a corporate tax cut in the new year to fund transit and climate change initiatives in the province.

“Another day, another deadlock, and the motorists and the commuters are asked to wait even longer now,” said Harry Bains, the NDP critic for transportation and MLA for Surrey-Newton.

He said the province should sit down with Metro Vancouver’s mayors to develop a new deal for transit.

“It is a complex situation and it requires a very comprehensive and a very serious dialogue with the mayors and the government,” he said.