THERE is still no light at the end of the Massey Tunnel for the 80,000 commuters stuck in gridlock each day, said Delta South MLA Ian Paton on Tuesday.
After questioning Transportation Minister Claire Trevena repeatedly in the Legislature on Monday, Paton said it was clear the NDP have no Terms of Reference for their phantom review of a replacement option for the aging and seismically-unsafe George Massey Tunnel.
“The minister announced a technical review nearly eight weeks ago – yet British Columbians haven’t seen or heard a thing since. My constituents and other commuters throughout the Lower Mainland have a right to know when something will be done to get rid of the congestion,” said Paton.
Construction was supposed to be underway right now on the George Massey Replacement Bridge, but the NDP cancelled the project and ordered the review instead. That’s despite hundreds of meetings and rounds of consultation that produced more than 14,000 pages of information on the issue, he noted.
“What’s more, last week in estimates debate Finance Minister Carole James said the budget for the replacement project has been completely removed,” said Paton. “She also said the millions spent so far, including $66 million by the Province and $25 million by B.C. Hydro, is a write-off.”
Paton is asking the Transportation Minister to commit to an actual timeline to do something about B.C.’s worst traffic bottleneck, and to share those details with the public.