▼ Rivermen take two from Eagles 12
Tuesday December 16 2014
The
Leader
▲ Season of giving in full swing 13
LIGHT UP YOUR
NIGHTS!
▶ THE LEADER’S ANNUAL LIST OF HOMES DECKED OUT FOR CHRISTMAS IS HERE 15
The Kinna family home is at 16956 60A Ave., with lights on nightly from 5-10 p.m. until Jan. 2. This is the family’s fifth Christmas raising money for Surrey Memorial Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. EVAN SEAL
MAYORS PROPOSE 0.5% SALES TAX HIKE Our rewards
▶ AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD WOULD PAY ESTIMATED $125 PER YEAR IF APPROVED JEFF NAGEL
Metro Vancouver mayors voted 18-3 Thursday – with Burnaby, Maple Ridge and West Vancouver mayors opposed – to go to referendum on a 0.5-per-cent increase in the Provincial Sales Tax within the region to fund a $7.5-billion package of transit upgrades. The regional sales tax would raise an esti-
mated $250 million in new revenue per year. Raising the PST from 7.0 to 7.5 per cent in Metro is estimated to cost the average household an extra $125 per year, while the poorest 20 per cent of residents would pay about $50 more, beginning in early 2016. The proposed referendum question will list key projects that would be built with the dedicated tax. It asks: “Do you support a half percentage point (0.5%) increase to the Provincial Sales Tax in Metro Vancouver, dedicated to the Mayors’ Transportation and Transit Plan, with independent audits and public reporting?” (Yes or No). The mayors’ full $7.5-billion 10-year
are more uplifting. More rewarding.
package of upgrades – unveiled last June – includes a Broadway subway, light rail in Surrey, 11 new B-Line express bus routes, frequent SeaBuses and a 25-per-cent general lift in bus service, as well as more money for HandyDart and West Coast Express. “The alternative to this plan is pure and simple gridlock, pollution and congestion beyond anything we are currently experiencing,” new Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said. Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart called the plan “an enormous jump forward” that the region cannot afford to reject. continued on page 4
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