Metro Vancouver mayors expect to meet a June 30 deadline for a transit plan in the region. Whether or not that leads to a referendum next year on new money for public transportation is another question.

According to District of North Vancouver mayor Richard Walton, this depends on what taxes the province will allow to be included on the ballot.

“Until we know that, it’s really hard to know what date we’d argue for,” Walton told the Straight in a phone interview.

Last month, the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, chaired by Walton, wrote B.C. minister of transportation and infrastructure Todd Stone and emphasized a 2010 agreement that identified potential revenue sources. These include a fuel tax, a vehicle levy, a regional sales tax, the carbon tax, and road tolls.

“The ministry has indicated that all sources of funding are still on the table,” Walton said. “We’ve taken his [Stone’s] word, but having them on the table at this point doesn’t mean they can’t be taken off, you know, fairly arbitrarily.”

The province has backed off from calling a referendum in conjunction with the municipal election this fall, a situation that would have placed most incumbent local officials in a bind because of public aversion to additional taxes.

If mayors present a plan by the end of June, the referendum will be held no later than June 30, 2015, according to a condition set by the province. If mayors come up empty handed, the vote will be held simultaneously with the following municipal election.

“The issue is still very much what sources of funding are available for what level of additional services and then what is the strategy and the resources available to try and make sure the referendum is successful,” Walton said. “So there’s a lot of questions still out there that we can’t even begin to answer until we get information back from the province—until July or August.”