[Marshal]

I am no fan of New Westminster's city government, but this old knock on the city doesn't actually make complete sense. Like it or not, New West (like central Vancouver and the City of North Van) is geographically different from most other municipalities.

But, the point is this: the infrastructure New West rejects doesn't fly anywhere else either. Just considering roads: there has been no major roadway expansions or new routes rammed through standing neighbourhoods anywhere in the region; not in Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, or anywhere else. In all of those places there is room to route things (like the SFPR, Hwy1, the Alex Fraser Bridge, . . . ) through industrial or unused land. In those places corridors are already established and their expansion happens within them.

New West's rejections are usually tied to incomplete projects that don't carry all the traffic from and to where it needs to go. This usually means a money issue. Who can blame a city trying to makeover its downtown from rejecting the NSPR unless it were separated so it didn't contradict what the city wants to be. Tunnel it, along with the rail lines, they would accept that eventually. But for the money. The new Patulla Bridge: the 4, then six lane option is a bit of a joke. It will be six lanes sooner than later. But would any other municipality accept a six lane bridge that connects to no high capacity route in their town? Not likely. A good example is the lack of connector from the Lions Gate to the Upper Levels. Those city governments have acted parallel to New West every time anyone proposes a link there. For the new Patulla, the Storemont connector is obvious. If it was in a tunnel, New West residents, and then their politicians , would accept that. Budgets will reject it.

Truth is, New West has acted within its duties to its own citizens. We can't fault that. The fault should be aimed at the Province for not make regional infrastructure planning a reality.