VANCOUVER, B.C.: To immortalize what will be a big year for TransLink, the No TransLink Tax campaign released a special edition 2015 calendar today, featuring the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s (CTF) iconic Porky the Waste Hater mascot on a tour of some of TransLink’s most famous examples of waste.

“2015 is a big year for TransLink and we wanted to commemorate their woeful achievements of waste with a special calendar, featuring 12 ways TransLink frittered away tax dollars,” said Jordan Bateman, spokesperson for the No TransLink Tax campaign and CTF B.C. Director. “To borrow from Robbie Burns: ‘Should old TransLink waste be forgot, and never brought to mind?’ Of course not – their record should be front and centre when we vote this spring.”

The calendar features a wasteful walk down TransLink’s memory lane:

• FEBRUARY: The pay freeze that turned into a raise for TransLink executives.
• APRIL: Spending $1.1 million to lease an empty building – called “outright waste” and a “poor financial decision” by the SkyTrain union head
• DECEMBER: Tearing down and rebuilding a sound wall that the Pitt Meadows mayor described as TransLink deciding to “roll the windows down and throw the money out.”
• JULY: Promising charitable donations for stakeholder agencies to answer a survey. Said Delta’s mayor: “It’s just another example of people in charge of multi-million dollar spending like a drunken sailor.”
• JANUARY: Six boards of directors sharing $750,000 a year in salary.

Not surprisingly, Compass cards also made the calendar, featured in June – likely the time the TransLink tax plebiscite results will be announced.

“Now expected to be three years late and already $25 million over budget, Porky just had to see these Compass fare gates,” said Bateman. “As taxpayers realize how much of their money has been wasted by TransLink over the years, the idea of giving them $7.5 billion more in taxes gets scarier and scarier. The best way to show no confidence in TransLink is to vote no this spring.”

Calendars are available to the public via a free a download at www.NoTransLinkTax.ca or through a direct link HERE. Media can get a glossy hard copy by contacting Jordan Bateman.