Governments, by necessity, must multi-task: but the current NDP provincial government has bungled some of it terribly.
They took the province from an $6 Billion surplus in 2022 when Premier David Eby took office to a projected $13.3 Billion deficit this year; ran up BC’s debt to $116.5 Billion this year, projected to grow to $189 Billion over the next few years; caused the costly downgrade of BC’s international credit rating; destroyed Vancouver’s Granville Street core by importing hundreds of homeless, mentally ill and druggies to live there; threatened the whole future of property ownership across the province by adopting DRIPA; and, worsened the province’s already debilitated health care system, with increased Emergency room closures, longer surgery waiting lists and even delaying funding for five long-term care projects AND the planned Burnaby Hospital expansion.
Those are no laughing matters.
Yet, in the midst of all of that, the BC government has taken up comedy!
Monday, Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth announced the NDP government was cancelling the agreement it had since 2024 with the Cross Fraser Partnership for replacement of the 65-year old Massey Tunnel.
Cancelled … now? Surely, a joke!!! Plans to replace the existing tunnel with a 10-lane bridge were first announced in 2013 !!!
The NDP government cancelled the previous Liberal government’s contract in 2017, after $100 million had already been spent on that project.
No one was laughing then.
In 2021, the NDP approved the tunnel idea instead and hired the consortium, which it has now fired … and will instead call new tenders (not kidding!) for several separate segments of the tunnel project.
““Moving to a revised procurement model creates more opportunities for Canadian and local contractors to participate while ensuring this nation-building project is delivered in the most fiscally responsible way possible,” Farnworth explained.
Critics believe breaking the huge project up into many individual pieces will add to the total cost.
But according to the government, the tunnel will still be finished on time, by 2030, for the original budgeted cost of $4.1 Billion.
They’re joking!!
Estimates are the real cost of the tunnel, with new tenders, will be around $9 Billion … or maybe more.
(The Liberals’ bridge project, which would have been completed by now, was estimated at $2.3 Billion to $3.5 Billion.)
No one is laughing now!
Yet, even the Premier … not known for humour … tried his hand this week at stand-up comedy.
““The number one goal here is protecting taxpayer dollars by bundling this project up into smaller parcels,” Eby told reporters. (Doesn’t “bundling” mean joining together, not separating up?)
“We’re able to have more local companies bid, which brings increased competition, which brings a better price for taxpayers… We are full speed ahead and we’re going to ensure the best price for taxpayers in British Columbia,” the Premier added as his punchline.
Huh? Breaking a huge project down into many contracts will cost less?
Never heard that joke before!
They’ll get a price now than they estimated in 2024?
Laughing yet?
All this now because they care for the taxpayers?
If they really did care for the taxpayers and our dollars … that bridge would have been built and and its 10 lanes would already be carrying cars, buses, trucks, bicycles and even pedestrians .. at BILLIONS less cost … not to mention avoid the environmental/ecological disruption/damage to the river bottom that an 8-lane wide concrete tube will cause.
Are they joking?
It’s an act Eby and his NDP ministers had better not take on the road around BC … because they’ll find no one is laughing.
Harv Oberfeld
🇨🇦🇨🇦Go Canada, Go! Buy Canadian! 🇨🇦🇨🇦
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The only main thing that’s on my mind now is if the NDP get in again then the land titles issues is going to really give owners and business and investors a really stressful future. This stuff ain’t going away and even the politically correct insane pandering and hand out game will continue on to worse climes all because we would have given them the mandate. How brilliant would that be. And sure Findlay isn’t the best pick, but we sure better give pause and think hard about where we are headed if this NDP or whatever one calls it allowed to govern again. Hopefully the Conservatives have enough brain cells and intelligence to iron themselves out.
(Response: I expect that if the NDP gets reelected, their solution to the DRIPA property rights issue will be to implement a “native land” property tax on all private property. It will start out very small, hoping that no one will object too much. But over time … just like always happens with parking fees and other taxes …it will go up and up and up. That DRIPA law must go … under the NDP before the election, or another party/government afterwards. Ho)
And the pathetic excuse of a Premier and his wingnut NDP government would need to go. Clean the dirty house right out.
The new motto for the NDP should be Serving Ourselves before the We Serve the Public.
The NDP government is nothing less than totally incompetent on how to run a stable fair society, and with that, they are also a completely selfish and disgusting wild pack of ideologues for the the few over the many. They’re masters of deceiving and lying to the public, then when they get in they serve themselves and the few that in thier ideological spectrum, and then because of that, the general public majority in turn gets stabbed in the back again. It’s a cycle with these jerks. All political partys pull the fast ones for sure, but these people are the best and they are going to continue with that cycle making things worse for the majority of us if they keep getting voted back in. They’re not stupid, they pull off their scheming mastery of lies for getting the vote then they go at it again implementing their policies for the special interest pandering. It’s like they know well how to slowly tear our system down in steps that’s meant to be for all of us, and as long as the people allow themselves to be duped and fall for their lies and deciet and connivings for our vote then cycle will continue.
(Response: When I look at the NDP now, it certainly is not the party that I voted for several times. I have also voted liberal, Conservative and even Green … depends on the issues, the leaders, the campaign. I don’t see the current government as evil, just incompetent and far too ideologically blinded. I firmly belt the Massey tunnel fiasco … calling for new tenders now … thirteen years after the replacement project was first announced … will add BILLIONS to the final cost if it ever is completed. Ho)
Comedy is Trump’s Iran deal. Do you still think he got it right?
(Response: Kind of off topic, but since you asked: Trump is a vulgar, lying, egotistical miscreant who clearly had no full strategic plan for changing the regime or liberating the Iranian people from their murderous mullahs … but I’m very glad he (the US and Israel) did massive damage to Iran’s nuclear program. Those buggers were building a bomb for sure … and the whole world (even those who find Trump disgusting) can sleep better because of his decision to severely debilitate their nuclear bomb efforts. Ho)
Unfortunately, this inability to get things done is not unique in British Columbia. It is a a Canada wide problem. There is an LRT project that took 15 years to complete from ground was broken. In Edmonton, there is another LRT project opened 4 years late.
At the Federal level, a major projects office was created to streamline Federal government approvals and only one project has been approved (and that project’s application had started several years earlier).
These delays are harming Canada’s economic well being.
(Response: Your comment also reminded me about Montreal’s Olympic stadium debacle. I am not sure why but government projects seem so often bogged down by bureaucracy, incompetence, and sometimes even corruption. But the strangest thing is heads rarely roll! When plans for a new Massey tunnel replacement was announced, who knew that signing on to that one project could become a lifetime career! Ho)
Be careful of the spin because the cost of the Bridge, reported by CKNW and local media was $8 billion in 2017, not the $3.5 billion in quoted by politcans.
I have been around the transit scene for almost 40 years and I do the do diligence with professionals to get the story right on transit, SkyTrain and locally the Massey bridge/tunnel fiasco.
Here is the deal. Until around 2014, the next crossing of the Fraser was going to be around 80th Ave in Delta, then a tunnel to Richmond, a new highway next to the CN Tracks and a second bridge/tunnel leading to south Burnaby. This was to take pressure off the Alex Fraser, the tunnel and the Queensborourgh bridges.
Then the Port Authority wanted to bring up Cape Max oilers and colliers to load Braken Oil and Montana Coal at Surrey docks so the BN&SF would not have to pay wheelage charges to BC Rail servicing the Superport. The tunnel acted as a dike to prevent these huge ships coming up the Fraser.
With literally back of the envelope planning the Clark Government forced through building a bridge to replace the perfectly good Massey Tunnel.
There was almost zero planning for highways, etc and no crossing of the north Arm of the Fraser.
As mentioned previously, the bridge was going to cost $8 billion and the NDP put a stop to this.
Still with no credible planning for traffic, no crossing of the north arm and with a increased traffic with a new bridge and tunnel all what will happen is that gridlock will move about 3 km north.
This because there are only 4 lanes of traffic (Oak and Knight Bridges) accessing Vancouver and that hasn’t changed since 1975. The Art Lang Bridge and the Queensborough (at gridlock all day long) bridges are not directly serviced by Hwy.99 and only constitute another 4 lanes.
It is a mess, I agree, but it has been a mess since Christy Clark made it a mess as the previous crossing plans would have certainly reduced congestion in the tunnel, thus no need to replace it.
A tunneling engineer I had a conversation with said the easiest and most affordable solution is to drop another 4 lane tube next to the present tunnel, then tile it as was the original plans called for and in a few years no one would notice.
What I think has happened is that that pesky 21.7 km extensions to the Expo and millennium Lines is going to exceed $17 billion (full program), the MK 5 cars have caused expensive issues and the NDP are short of cash.
As the tunnel serves Maple MAGA Country (I should know because I live in Tsawwassen), shelving the tunnel will cause less politcal damage than shelving the SkyTrain project.
(Response: There are actually six usable lanes of traffic on Oak, Granville (north of Park), Cambie and Knight … main routes from the south into the city centre, if they removed all parking from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And clearly the 65 year old Massey Tunnel … no transit lanes, no bicycle lanes … is well beyond its shelf life. It doesn’t matter to most Britsih Columbians whether they put in a new bridge or tunnel …but surely a project first announced in 2013 should be operating by now! Ho)
It’s the lanes on the bridges that create the choke point for cars. Today, The back up during the AM rush hour on the 99, starts at #5 road interchange and a new bridge will make it worse. The same goes for the Knight St.Bridge and the Queensborough it is at gridlock all day long.
Until another crossing of the North Arm of the Fraser is done, traffic chaos will reign supreme.
I say, abandon the whole bloody thing and go back to the original two bridge/tunnel that was originally planned for.
(Response: Shhh! NDP politicians, bureaucrats and strategists read this blog. If they read your comment and agree … it could be another decade before any replacement of the tunnel gets off the ground… literally!You would be happy, but I doubt most of the motorists in Delta, Taawwassen, Steveston, Ladner, Richmond and Vancouver who now spend hours in traffic lineups would be! Ho)
More political footballs than FIFA has soccer balls!
The tunnel/bridge fiasco is just par for the course for the BC NDP, no inquiry into the massive mistakes surrounding N Van sewage plant, bailouts for over leveraged developers, no real solution to Sumas flooding, medical system issues, DRIPA and the BC Museum!
Experimenting with legalizing hard drugs only in BC. The recent statistics on overdose deaths proves that that concept was in fact a death sentence for many marginalized addicts. Not any ownership of that reality, which is yet another case of “the law of unintended consequences” biting the NDP in the non-existent cahones.
Political losers like Geoff Meggs still wielding influence when he could not even win his own parties nomination? Building out site C instead of utilizing water already dammed, a concept only now being put forward by Dix’s ministry?
So many issues, not enough tissues!
(Response: As if almost going back to square one and calling new tenders isn’t bad enough, they should at least be honest with British Columbians. I’m no engineer or construction maven, but it seems ludicrous to me to even suggest the new total cost will be the same ..$4.1 Billion … and the project will still be completed by 2030. Either they know some things the rest of have missed or they’re incompetent or deliberately lying and believe taxpayers are stupid. Ho)
The opening act was fast ferries then site c 8 B to 16B
If taking up comedy maybe ..the gong show?
Try shaving down to 8 lanes?
(Response: it’s not fair to tar Eby and his administration with the fast ferries. There are plenty enough catastrophes during his own term to keep us crying and certainly not laughing. Ho)
The problem with the NDP is that they inherit other government planning and they screw up badly not cancelling it.
The Fast Ferries were a Social Credit creation, intended for a 40 minute Iona island to Gabriola island ferry service. The local took up arms with the concept of a bridge from Gabriola to Vancouver island and the Socreds folded like a cheap deck chair, leaving the FastCats, which were ill suited for the main Island runs, on order. The NDP doubled down with the FastCats, istead of cancelling it.
The Massey tunnel bridge is just the same, a BC Liberal boondoggle and the NDP screwed up and should have reverted back to the 1990’s plan of a bridge/tunnel from around 80th Ave in Delta, to Richmond and another bridge/tunnel to South Burnaby.
Sadly, the NDP seem utterly incapable looking 20 minutes into the future.
I am a Conservative and have not led Findlay from a “previous life” but if a third party should come up they better get off their butt and get going now. Before the election is called. The deficit blows me away. Really blows me away from our current bunch of money spenders.
(Response: At least if we saw major improvements in our services, our public safety, our healthcare, etc. we could understand where the billion dollars a month deficit (on top of their revenue-covered spending)is going. Especially when you keep in mind that Horgan left behind a $6 Billion surplus and was quite quite popular so had to be doing something right … clearly quite different from Eby! Ho)
The Deas Tunnel should have been replaced 30, 20, 10, (NOW?) years ago.
Yet here we are. Squabbling again and again and again.
Watching contractors push dirt back and forth and get paid hundreds of millions.
the “new” Steveston overpass above Highway 99 and took 4 YEARS to build.
And Eby wants a whole new group of unkown people to get this done by 2030?
Give me a break.
It’s the endless waffling, navel gazing , pandering to everyone, volte face indecision that has ALL voters ready to kill at the polls….and these donkeys still dont get it.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is about to resign.
Unpopular, unable to decide anything, ….gone.
Their 5th PM in 6 years.
And people wonder why the extremists gain at the polls.
Its not a vote FOR extreme politicians.
It a vote AGAINST the incompetent incumbent.
Western Democracies have done it to themselves as Russia and China laugh at us.
(Response: At least Starmer could read the polls and seems ready to put the future of his party ahead of his own ego! Without stalling! Eby should do the same … now! A new leader, a changed direction, more majority-focussed policies, and a government willing to admit DRIPA was a mistake and must be repealed could actually give the party time enough to stage a comeback and a chance against the Conservatives.Just as the federal Liberals did! Ho)
Again, there is nothing wrong with the Massey tunnel, but the politcal penchant in BC is to replace good infrastructure with expensive, electable infrastructure. Cable stayed bridges, because of their design are more for election purposes than anything else and this is what the the tunnel bridge debate is really about.
The only bridge that desperately needed replacing is the Patullo and it is now history.
Until there is a new crossing of the North Arm of the Fraser River, all a new bridge or tunnel will do is move gridlock about 3 km North.
100% correct.
I never can understand why a 3 rd crossing in South Burnaby hasnt been built.
Say at Boundary rd.
Over the North arm of the Fraser into Richmond at (#8 road) and run the widened highway (#8 rd) south to the South arm of the Fraser and tunnel or bridge that portion of the river…keep heading south and you eventually hit Hwy 99 south.
A third crossing…done.
But oh no.
1st Nations would demand their “cut” .
Richmond and Surrey majors would pull the NIMBY card.
And Provincial and federal politicians would make it an election issue…… for decades….
Its why nothing gets done or triples in price….
Welcome to BC…bring cash.
The NDP EBY lead incompetence is staggering. Only thing saving them is the equally clueless BC Conservative party and their new leadership pick.
Third center right party to emerge out of this polarized rot?
(Response: I agree that the Conservatives choosing Kerry-Lynne Findlay as their leader makes things more difficult for many centrist voters.However, another free enterprise alternative would just split the vote and be good news for the NDP. Meanwhile, the calamities under Eby keep piling up. Calling new tenders and breaking up the project into several parts will add further delays and I expect higher costs… again. It’s no joke! Ho)