Title
Letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Ministers (Director Taylor)
Recommendation
[At the February 24, 2021 Transportation Committee meeting, the motion was amended and then postponed until after the transportation priorities have been established:]
That the Board write to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and Bowinn Ma, Minister of State for Infrastructure:
a) Applauding their government’s commitment to fund free transit for children up to and including age 12 as an example of how we can build a better future through fighting climate change;
b) Expressing the CRD’s eagerness to work with them to improve transit and other low-carbon transportation including rail on the South Island to meet the aspirations of the South Island Transportation Strategy;
c) Noting that following through on the aspiration of the South Island Transportation Strategy to “to fundamentally shift how people move around South Vancouver Island” will be necessary to meet the CRD’s goal of a 61% reduction in GHG emissions from 2007 levels by 2038, and that the CRD does not consider failure to meet this goal to be an option given the seriousness of the climate emergency; and
d) Communicating the CRD’s willingness to collaborate with Minister Fleming and Minister Ma in the identification, planning and development of key transportation projects in this region.