Editor, The News:
I find it appalling that some Lower Mainland mayors would favor tolling existing bridges to fund TransLink.
Is it fair to charge people a fee because they have the misfortune to have to cross a waterway everyday to go to work and back?
This could affect several members of one household and become a real financial burden. It would be particularly difficult for residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as they are bound by two rivers.
We were only area in the Lower Mainland that had to put up with the inconvenience of a swing bridge for decades, To toll the new Pitt River bridge would be an insult to us all.
This is particularly so because the new bridge received $90 million from the federal government to build it. The other $108 million came from the provincial government. Nothing came from TransLink, which offers little in the way of service to us and probably never will.
If this seemingly mismanaged entity requires more money, it should get it by some other means rather than tolling our lifeline heading west.
Peter Harris
Maple Ridge