Victoria: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today urged Translink to consider all of the province's taxpayers and reject the provincial government's repeated promises. BC director Sara MacIntyre stated "the RAV project was killed last month by Translink because the high potential for cost overruns and too many risks. The proposal hasn't changed, the risks remain, all that is different is that the provincial government has offered up the wallets of the entire province, not just the Lower Mainland."

MacIntyre continued, "It's not clear if this project is some sort of Liberal legacy but it seems no matter how many obstacles pop up for the RAV project, the government keeps promising to look after it. Last week, the government promised to assume RAV's construction risks, on the weekend the premier promised money for the abandoned northeast line and now this week they offered to cover ridership risk."

On Monday, Translink members met once again to discuss the RAV line and the new government promises. MacIntyre hopes, "that the members remember why they killed the deal in the first place. Translink should be commended for respecting the interests of Lower Mainland taxpayers when they rejected the deal. The CTF urges those same members to remember the interest of taxpayers in the rest of the province and say no to the government's risky promises."

Currently, the provincial government has committed $300 million to the project as have Translink and the Vancouver International Airport Authority. The federal government has also committed to $450 million to the project. Just this past weekend, the premier promised another $170 million towards the northeast sector line. "The provincial government has basically decided that they want this project no matter what. The potential for cost overruns is exponential. This could be the Liberal version of the Fast Ferries project," warned MacIntyre.