[bru-info] Bus Riders Condemn TransLink's Sham 'Public Consultation'

[bru-info at lists.resist.ca]

Bus Riders Condemn TransLink's Sham 'Public Consultation' 

On Tuesday, November 9, 2004, TransLink will be holding a 'public consultation' on the fare increase. The small 'by invitation only' meeting is intended to fulfill TransLink's lesgislated requirement to have public consultation before raising fares. Members of the Bus Riders Union will be attending the 'public consultation' to ensure that the overwhelming opposition to the fare increase among bus riders goes on the record. However, the Bus Riders Union is also acting to expose and oppose a process that is neither public, nor a meaningful consultation, with a picket and press conference outside the meeting. 

"This consultation is tokenistic and does not allow for any kind of meaningful participation of bus riders in voicing our concerns about the proposed fare increase," explains Kirat Kaur, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union. "There is no room in this process for those who will be hurt most by this fare increase - the transit-dependent bus riders of this region, who are majority women and disproportionately people of colour and Aboriginal people." 

"TransLink's idea of a 'public consultation' is to meet with a few individuals, community groups and other 'stakeholders' for less than two hours, in a meeting that is by invitation only and where the actual decision makers are not even going to be present," says Aiyanas Ormond, a BRU organizer. "This process isn't public, and it's not a consultation. TransLink already made the decision to raise fares in their 2004 budget and they've been planning on this revenue for over a year now. This so-called public consultation is just another strategy to push forward a policy that attacks the right to mobility for low-income people and contributes to the further impoverishment and disenfranchisement of our communities." 

"Instead of pouring billions of dollars into mega-projects like the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Skytrain Line, TransLink should be using that money to keep fares affordable and provide more adequate bus service," continues Kaur. "These are the things that bus riders really need. The proposed fare increase is an attack on bus riders' right to mobility. We are organizing to defend our human rights. No mega-project or Olympics timeline, or project to shave 15 minutes off the morning commute, is a justification for stripping people of our right to mobility. We are quite prepared to hold a fare strike if TransLink does not do the right thing and vote down the fare increase in the board room. This is an issue of principle; it's an issue of social justice." 

The Bus Riders Union is a grassroots organization fighting for more buses and lower fares. Started in 2001, it now has over 550 members and thousands of supporters. At this upcoming TransLink 'public consultation' on Tuesday, November 9, starting at 5:30pm at the Holiday Inn at Metrotown (4405 Central Boulevard, Burnaby), the Bus Riders Union will be holding a short picket and press conference outside to protest TransLink's lack of democracy and unaccountability to bus riders. Please join us!

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