I’m going to miss Martin Crilly, the outgoing TransLink commissioner – the independent watchdog on TransLink finances. He was fair, tough and constantly pushing TransLink to find more efficiencies and savings.

Yesterday, Crilly left taxpayers with one final report, this time on TransLink’s so-called Base Plan, which cries poor and claims a $30 million operating deficit.

From his speech to the mayors’ council:

But, on the revenue side we do think, for a number of technical reasons, that the farebox revenue forecast (about 1/3 of the revenue base) is slightly low. More significantly on the expenditure side, TransLink’s estimates are rather high.

Why? Before answering that, I report some good news. TransLink is in fact responding to the Efficiency Review we issued earlier this year with tangible cost-saving steps. There are many positive cost control initiatives underway. We see significant progress particularly in the operating companies. They are already saving money. Looking ahead, there has been a significant tempering of year-over-year cost increases relative to the last year’s Moving Forward Plan.

However, many of those savings, realized and underway, are just not fully reflected in the Base Plan numbers. It may be a simple omission, or be an abundance of caution by TransLink, or be due to timing i.e. steps planned and executed after the Base Plan was drafted.

Whatever the reason, we find the Plan’s expenditure estimate too heavy.

That combination of slightly low revenues and rather high expenditures means that TransLink’s annual surplus (i.e. the net of revenues minus expenditures) should be $25 to $35 million more per year than the Plan shows.

In his report, Crilly spells out what that means to taxpayers: $25-$35 less in TransLink property tax a year or 1.25 to 1.75 cents per litre less in gas tax. Don’t hold your breath on seeing any of those savings come your way.

Who knew the solution to TransLink’s operating funding problems could be found in their own backyard? Oh, we did.

Of course, TransLink executives, working hard to earn their bonus pay, pooh-poohed the commissioner’s findings. Flawed, risky, etc. Hopefully the mayors will pay more attention to the commissioner than the executives.