CUPE is stepping up the pressure on the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority (TransLink) to come clean on the true costs and the real risks of the new Richmond-Airport-Vancouver (RAV) rapid transit link.
With the federal and provincial governments and the airport and transit authorities each committing $300 million, funding for the project still falls short of the $1.5 billion budgeted and the $2 to 2.2 billion its more likely to cost.
But the even more scary part is the cast of corporate characters that are lining up to bid on the project. They include multinationals and Canadian companies that have defaulted on loans, failed to deliver results and faced charges of bribery and over-billing.
CUPE has developed a dossier on the corporations (visit cupe.ca) and is continuing its efforts to have the government back away from a P3 as it did earlier this summer with a stretch of BC highway, the Coquihalla. Crediting strong community campaigns opposing the highway selloff, CUPE BC is calling on the province to listen to equally loud community voices calling for hospitals, hydro, transit and other services to remain in public hands. One poll showed 92 per cent opposition to a private highway.
With the federal and provincial governments and the airport and transit authorities each committing $300 million, funding for the project still falls short of the $1.5 billion budgeted and the $2 to 2.2 billion its more likely to cost.
But the even more scary part is the cast of corporate characters that are lining up to bid on the project. They include multinationals and Canadian companies that have defaulted on loans, failed to deliver results and faced charges of bribery and over-billing.
CUPE has developed a dossier on the corporations (visit cupe.ca) and is continuing its efforts to have the government back away from a P3 as it did earlier this summer with a stretch of BC highway, the Coquihalla. Crediting strong community campaigns opposing the highway selloff, CUPE BC is calling on the province to listen to equally loud community voices calling for hospitals, hydro, transit and other services to remain in public hands. One poll showed 92 per cent opposition to a private highway.