In the coming referendum on TransLink tax hikes, it will be important to examine the performance of the system as it currently stands. Can TransLink be trusted to take more of your money and use it wisely? Is TransLink running a lean operation right now? Are the board of directors and executives managing the system properly?  

It will also be vital to look back at previous promises TransLink has made to taxpayers and riders.

With one current situation, it would appear that TransLink could be hard to trust with more of your money.

In 2008, TransLink signed a five-year deal with U.S.-based MV Transportation (MVT) to take over HandyDart, which is a custom transit service for people with cognitive or mobility issues. To its users, it is a vital lifeline to health care, groceries, and other necessities. To TransLink, it seems like it has been a nuisance.

TransLink’s board inked a contract with MVT that included annual increases to HandyDart service hours. In 2009, 613,000 hours were promised across the Lower Mainland. By 2013, that number was supposed to hit 758,000: a total of 160,000 more than 2008 – very close to the latest promise by the TransLink mayors.

But a funny thing happened on the way to 2013 – HandyDart service hours went down. TransLink let MVT off the hook in 2011, cutting service hours to 598,000, where they have been frozen ever since. MVT also got a contract extension through Dec. 31, 2015.

These questions highlight one of the significant flaws in TransLink governance: the fact the unelected board of directors refuses to meet in public, preventing taxpayers from observing their decisions and understanding their rationale. Was there a good reason for giving MVT a sweetheart deal, at the cost of promised service hours? We simply don’t know.

Unsurprisingly, the TransLink annual general meeting – where executives are forced to come face-to-face with the people paying the freight – was dominated by people concerned with HandyDart service.

Now, without any hint of irony or shame, TransLink mayors are recycling a promise of more HandyDart service hours for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

“This Vision would add 190,000 annual Custom Transit service hours, a service increase of approximately 30%,” the TransLink mayors promise HandyDart users in return for massive tax increases. “We feel that this type of service should be delivered in a 50/50 cost-sharing approach with the provincial government. This partnership approach will be pursued.”

Yet again, the TransLink mayors shuffle blame off to their ‘frienemies’ at the province, begging the question: if the province says no to cost-sharing, which they may do after already agreeing to pay for one-third of all transit construction costs, will HandyDart be out of luck?

Regardless, the TransLink mayors now want to dangle the carrot of increased HandyDart service – the very same carrot the TransLink board snatched away in 2011.

The HandyDart users are among those lauding the TransLink mayors’ tax plan. But with a service increase promise already broken once, and the mayors counting on the province to kick in money, one wonders if they are being led down the garden path yet again.