powered by:
valneva canada inc.
late and mega costly: b.c. ndp makes a move on 2020 promise to widen hwy. 1
vaughn palmer: how much will the latest ndp mega-promise cost? hard to tell, but being over budget is almost a point of honour for the party
aug 19 2024
4 minute read
highway 1 looking eastbound near 248 street in langley, where the median has been cleared for widening work.
ministry of transportation
/
government of b.c.
victoria — premier david eby promised last week to widen highway 1 from langley all the way to abbotsford, a promise the ndp also made in the 2020 election but for the most part didn’t keep.
“today is a very good day for the people of abbotsford, for everybody who is dependent on highway 1,” eby declared in a pre-campaign event in langley. he then announced a $2.65 billion top-up to the ndp government’s multi-phase plan to widen the highway from 264th street in langley out to where it intersects with highway 11 in abbotsford.
the 2020 election platform had promised to “widen a critical transportation link for people from abbotsford to surrey with a completion date of 2026.”
the platform, cobbled together for then-premier john horgan’s snap election call, mistakenly identified the “critical transportation link” as the fraser highway.
a quick cut and paste job revised the platform to correctly cite highway 1, the trans-canada, as the target of the promised widening.
the promise may have helped the new democrats score a breakthrough in the fraser valley, winning two seats in langley, one in abbotsford and two more in chilliwack.
postelection, horgan specified the commitment to widening the highway to whatcom road in abbotsford by 2026. construction was to start in 2022.
advertisement
advertisement
it didn’t.
then last year the ndp government, now led by eby, announced $2.34 billion to fund construction from 264th street in langley to mt. lehman rd in abbotsford. construction begins this year.
last week’s announcement extended the widening out to highway 11, still five kilometres short of getting to the whatcom rd crossing.
gone, too was the promise of completion by 2026.
the revised schedule calls for the widened trans canada to reach mt. lehman by 2029. the work won’t get to the highway 11 crossing before 2031, a five-year lag on the 2020 election promise.
the horgan government never published an estimate of the cost of its version of the project.
but one can get a sense of the escalation of costs from an earlier instalment. the province is currently widening the highway between 216th street and 264th, a distance of 10 kilometres. that stretch is budgeted at $345 million, about $35 million a kilometre.
the phases announced by eby this year and last, cover a further 21 kilometres at a combined cost of $4.990 billion, almost $240 million a kilometre.
pressed about rising costs, eby drew on the ndp’s standard battery of excuses: global inflation, supply chains, materials and labour.
advertisement
advertisement
“it costs what it costs,” said eby, leaving no room for the possibility that any of those costs might be managed downward by a government that was more sparing of the expenditure of tax dollars.
he also blamed the b.c. liberals for not widening the highway when they were in government, saying “it would have been much cheaper then.”
true. the b.c. liberals didn’t widen highway 1 to abbotsford during their 16 years in government. then again, neither have the new democrats done so in their seven years and counting.
the 1990s ndp government actually tried to contain costs on major highway projects. when the second vancouver island highway was headed for an overrun, the new democrats stayed within budget by scaling down aspects, replacing scheduled overpasses with traffic lights.
with this ndp government, it is almost a point of pride to go overbudget.
“we can’t afford not to do this work,” eby told reporters last week. “we will not back off because this has to be done.”
still, the premier was caught off guard when a reporter asked if the latest round of funding, the $2.65 billion, was actually in the budget.
“yes, this money is in the budget,” he claimed.
yet the detailed capital plan in the budget presented to the legislature in february specifies only $100 million for “site preparation” on highway 1 between mt. lehman and highway 11. no mention of the remaining $2.64 billion claimed by eby.
advertisement
advertisement
perhaps those funds are provided in the secret, known-only-to-government, 10-year capital plan. its existence came to light earlier this year when health minister adrian dix announced a second tower for surrey memorial hospital at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion.
the money was in the 10-year plan, reporters were told. when i asked for a copy of the plan, the finance ministry refused to make it public.
nor is this likely to be the end of budget shocks on the highway 1 project. for as eby disclosed last week, the latest phase has not yet gone to tender.
when the tenders came in on the surrey langley sky train extension, the new democrats revised the cost to $5.996 billion, a 50 per cent overrun.
pause to reflect on the audacity of a government that has just swallowed a 50 per cent budget overrun and now claims to be able to estimate project costs to within three decimal points — $5.996 billion.
imagine, too, the field of opportunity for bidders with a sky’s-the-limit government that can’t say “no,” no matter how great the overrun.
bookmark our website and support our journalism: don’t miss the news you need to know — add vancouversun.com and theprovince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
advertisement
advertisement
you can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: for just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to the vancouver sun, the province, national post and 13 other canadian news sites. support us by subscribing today: the vancouver sun | the province.
share story
