July 25, 2008

Olympic Traffic Headache

In the July 24th Vancouver Sun, reporter Derrick Penner attributed expectations about traffic changes during the upcoming 2010 games to City of Vancouver assistant engineer Jerry Dobrovolny. In particular, Penner's story said that: "At certain hours, the Sea-to-Sky Highway will be a bus-only route, although the road will not be completely closed to local traffic." Various radio news broadcasts that picked up the story had Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon denying that there would be closures.

Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Maurine Karagianis raised the issue of road closures with Falcon during debate on legislation that will allow the government to do just that. Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Acts are tricky things that the government usually claims are nothing but housekeeping measures, when in reality they frequently contain some of the most contentious legislation. Bill 33 (2008) amended many statutes, including the Motor Vehicle Act, by adding some new sections. Thanks to those changes, the Motor Vehicle Act now permits some highways to be "designated use highways" and the new section 153.1 states: "If a highway or part of a highway is a designated use highway, a person must not drive, operate, stand or park a motor vehicle on that highway or part of a highway except as authorized by a regulation …" In other words, the Campbell government gave itself the power to prohibit all but Olympic traffic on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

On May 22, in Committee stage debate on Bill 33, Karagianis asked why the power to restrict use was being added to the Motor Vehicle Act. Falcon responded: "What we're doing here is to allow for designation of highway lanes or highways. It's particularly going to be important during the Olympics, when we will have to make decisions on how to move traffic effectively, especially official vehicles or athletes or what have you, along any of our highway corridors. It's been written in such a way that it will allow us to continue to have that flexibility even after the Olympics is done." During the debate Falcon denied he said anything about shutting down the Sea to Sky Highway to permit-only access, but he didn't say that he wouldn't use the new powers to do exactly that.

Falcon assured Karagianis and the rest of the legislature that: "…will be engaging in a very wide-ranging, consultative process to ensure that we plan this and put it together in such a way as to meet the needs of all the respective groups …" The Auditor General recently commented on the failure of the government to consult adequately with respect to the release of lands from tree farm licenses, and said that he would be doing a report by the end of the year on how government consults on other issues. Perhaps he should pay attention to Falcon's consultation process for the 2010 traffic plan before a regulation is adopted in secret by the Campbell cabinet and suddenly everyone learns that they can't use a highway without obtaining a permit. It looks like Vancouver's assistant engineer may have let the cat out of Falcon's bag, although Dobrovolny is reported to have since said that he misspoke. Time will tell whether he misspoke.