A couple of interesting stories popped up in the press last week that illustrate just how much TransLink mayors are lying to taxpayers about provincial government funding levels and the time sensitivity of cutting a deal to get our share of Justin Trudeau’s borrowed billions.

TransLink mayors continue to whine that they are getting a raw deal from provincial taxpayers. You’ll recall that when Trudeau upped the federal funding threshold to 50% from the traditional 33%, it dropped TransLink’s contribution from 33% to 16.5%. That’s because the BC Government recommitted to their one-third. Well, that hasn’t happened in NDP-run Alberta. From the Globe and Mail:

Mayor Don Iveson’s dream to knit Alberta’s sprawling capital city together with light rail lines could be in jeopardy as the provincial government has announced it will fund only 25 per cent of infrastructure projects under a new federal program.

Alberta’s decision comes after the federal Liberals announced that Ottawa would spend $120-billion on infrastructure over the next decade and would cover the cost of up to 50 per cent of each project. While the funding formula for the bulk of the money has yet to be set, Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason says the cash-strapped province can’t afford to spend the billions cities want…

As for Alberta’s funding, Mr. Mason said that his department is still covering half of the amount Ottawa won’t be paying. While that was 33 per cent in the past, that contribution has now dropped to 25 per cent under the more generous federal formula. The minister said mayors were wrong to assume Alberta would provide more.

“I want to make one thing really clear: We have not changed the amount that we will contribute. We never said we’d contribute one-third, that was an assumption, an unwarranted assumption,” Mr. Mason said. “I’m surprised they find it anything but generous.”

So it could be worse, TransLink mayors. The BC Liberal Government could have taken part of the Trudeau money and put it toward their own contribution, like Alberta did. And left the region on the hook for 25% of transit costs, not 16.5%. I bet no TransLink mayor mentions that little nugget when whining about the provincial government and demanding massive tax hikes on us little people.

Meanwhile, earlier this summer at the announcement of the first phase of transit spending, the TransLink mayors kept stressing that we need to rush in tax hikes to make sure we get our fair share of the federal money. We could miss out, they claimed.

Turns out we have plenty of time.

Ontario just signed their phase one agreement last week and are in no position to do the larger phase two any time soon. And other provinces are still negotiating phase one.

So take your time, TransLink mayors, and fund future phases the better way – by reprioritizing a small portion of your giant, annual spending increases.