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Translink held a public meeting last night at the Burnaby Firefighters’ Hall. It was intended to elicit input on a proposal to increase property tax by $18m a year to replace the parking tax.

Raising taxes on anybody cannot be expected to be popular, and Translink has been taking a beating ^[2] in recent months as it was rearranged by the Province to be even less representative ^[3]and open than it had been. A new Board has been appointed and intends to hold its meetings in private.

Clearly they expected a bigger turnout. That hall holds three times the number that attended. The Sun ^[4] reports that about 50 people attended and 11 spoke in a meeting that lasted about an hour. So whatever the outcome, we can hardly complain. An opportunity was missed by those who said they who wanted more input, and those who don’t like paying more tax than absolutely unavoidable. (Mind you if you read the cbc ^[5] coverage, they make it sound like a different meeting although the facts they report are the same.)

Or maybe we have become cynical. And thought that attending a meeting about an issue ^[6] that has only arisen because the Province listens to businesses (mostly) was a bit of a waste of time, with a foregone conclusion. Or perhaps “cynical” is too harsh a term and “realistic” is closer to the mark.

The sum in question, by the way, is less than 2% of Translink’s annual revenues