TransLink heading for financial crisis, provincial report says

Hampered by too many competing interests and fuzzy lines of authority, Metro Vancouver's public transit authority, TransLink, has failed to take action to avert a looming financial crisis, a financial review has found.

“Critical cost containment and revenue stream issues have been left unaddressed," said the B.C. Comptroller-General's report released Friday.

The report concluded the mayors' council is still struggling to adapt to its new role within the organization a year-and-a-half after the province “repurposed" the agency to give it a more corporate structure.

“This lack of clarity compounded by the conflicting interests amongst parties has contributed to the limited progress towards resolution of the structural deficit that TransLink now faces," the report said.

The transportation review was commissioned by the provincial government in July to look at financial accountability for both TransLink and the semi-private BC Ferries.

At the time, Transportation Minister Shirley Bond was chiefly concerned with executive compensation of the two agencies, both creatures of her own government's making.

Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland, the province's Comptroller-General, found both agencies could do with more public accountability, and recommended the creation of a new oversight agency.

And if that doesn't work, she said, the province should consider taking direct control over TransLink's operations.

By contrast, Ms. Wenezenki-Yolland found BC Ferries is “well managed and reasonably effective" on the operational side. However, she flagged concerns about its executive pay levels, and revealed that the people charged with oversight also sit on the ferry board, creating a cozy circle of top officials deciding their own remuneration.

“The Board approved excessive compensation plans for both themselves and the [ferry service] executives without proper accountability," she concluded.

She noted that when BC Ferries executives looked for benchmarks for their own compensation, they compared themselves to corporations such as the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Ford Motor Company of Canada, Nike Canada Limited and McDonald's Restaurants of Canada.

It was the revelation that BC Ferries chief executive officer, David Hahn, earned more than $1-million last year that sparked the review in the first place. BC Ferries officials say they will not respond to the report until Monday.

Ms. Bond told reporters yesterday that she has no idea if the government has the authority to cut executive pay at the two semiautonomous agencies.

Six years ago, the B.C. Liberal government transformed BC Ferries from a Crown corporation to a semiprivate company with the notion that it would be better run as a business. And about 18 months ago, it revamped TransLink, again with an eye to giving it more of a business edge.

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