• Former TransLink manager: “Routine incidents of wanton mismanagement.”
• TransLink spend tens of millions on HR and communications contracts

VANCOUVER, B.C.: Several bloggers – including one who worked as a manager in TransLink – are making compelling cases for the public to vote NO to the TransLink tax, the No TransLink Tax campaign noted today.

Here is a sampling of the discussion happening in the blogosphere:

George Slade, a former manager at SkyTrain, recounts his negative experience with TransLink’s corporate culture at his blog, insidetranslink.ca: “Simply put, the TransLink Corporation is so dysfunctional that it is unable to see the issues even when it is pointed out and diagnosed by its own high priced advisors ... all I can tell my readers is that whatever malfeasance that has been publicized in the media, it pales compared to the routine incidents of wanton mismanagement I saw demonstrated in my two years working as an insider with SkyTrain.”

Norm Farrell of Northern Insight has dug into executive pay and TransLink consulting contracts: “Despite own HR department, TransLink spent more than $11 million on HR consultants in 2012 & 2013. Despite its own communications department, TransLink spent more than $21 million on communication consultants, 2009-2013. TransLink spent more than $3.2 million on pollsters, 2009-2013.”

Laila Yuile points out on her blog that regressive taxes like this one hurts people already scraping to get by: “Visionary isn’t a non-binding plebiscite pushing a punitive tax. Visionary is saying ‘We’ve already taken more than many people can afford - let’s find another way’.”

Mike Archer of Langley Today makes the case that TransLink wastes too much money: “There is absolutely no reason for anyone to believe that, if we increase the sales tax on ourselves, the people who mismanage TransLink will ever be able to deliver the transit improvements they promise. TransLink is simply one of the best examples in Canada of a pseudo public bureaucracy gone wild.”

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