RUNNER L 1 9 8 9 Road Runner fROM THE MINISTER Road Runner is the employee newsletter for British Columbia he Transportation Planning Ministry of Transportation and Processisnearing comple­ Highways. It is produced and tionandlater thisFall, I will published quarterly by the Public T be taking the plan to Cabinet for Affairs Branch . Published articles approval. This has been one of appearing in Road Runner maybe most interesting and stimulating reprinted only with the permis­ projects I have had the pleasure sion of the Editor. of working on during my term as Editor: Betty Nicholson Minister. Editorial Assistant: Sharon Lund The interest expressed by Min­ istries of Transportation in other Direct enquiries to: provinces, and in the United Road Runner States. tellsmethatourplan could Ministryof Transportation well become aninvaluable tool to and Highways developtransportation strategies Public Affairs across North America. 5A-940 Blanshard Street When the Premier and I an­ Victoria. B.C. nounced the Transportation Plan ­ V8W 3E6 ning Process last November, we pass on my appreciation to all asked MLA's and Ministers of Ministry staff who spent many State to organize task forces in evenings and weekends on the each of the province's eight de­ plan. velopment regions. The commit­ tees were to gather information on suggested short - and long­ The Honourable Neil Vant term improvements in all modes Minister of transportation that could be TransportationandHighways made within their region. In This Issue The number of British Colum ­ bians who volunteered their time Messages from the to sit on regional committees has Minister and the been enormous. Add to that the Deputy Minister . 2 numberof businessoperators and Provincial Transportation interested private citizens who Plan .... .. .. 3 have spent untold hours prepar­ Inland Ferries. ... .. .. 6 ing their submissions, and we Profile: ended upwith agood representa­ fROMTHE Equal Yet Very tion of what people want. DEPUTY Different . .... .. 8 This past June, the commi ttees Richmond Freeway Feat submitted their list of projects, in MI NISTER Is AGo 10 orderof importance, to their Min­ Letters . .... .... 11 ister of State. He, in turn , re­ To ll Free Te lephone Service 12 viewed the document, and for­ s public servants we Re warding Suggestions ... 13 warded it to our Ministry for perform a set of very Campaigning for integration into anoverall plan­ A uniqueroleswithin soci­ Safe Winter Driving .... 14 a ..blueprint for action'. ety. By virtue of our position and In The Field ... .. 15 When this plan is in place, I responsibility we often have ac­ ApplicationsGet Streamlined 24 hopeyour job will bemadeeasier cess to information long before it in terms of structuring andarrang­ is available publicly and indeed, ingtheannual capital andrehabili­ much of the information we are tation sch edule. privy to may never be available in On behalf of the committees , I thepublicdomain. Many of ustoo have the responsibility to either make decisions or influence deci­ Provincial sions that affect the course of business and commerce or other public affairs within communities Transportation and regions of the province. For many of us, these aspects of our Plan jobsmake acareer as a publicser­ vant both interesting and satisfying. At the same time, the nature of "The scale our jobsimposes a heavyrespon­ sibility upon us to ensure the in­ of the project tegrity of our professional con­ duct. The proud tradition of the public service is built almost en­ is huge" tirelyuponits reputation as a pro­ fessional corpsof menand wom­ en who conduct their business affairs with discretion, courtesy and empathy, but perhaps above allelse, without prejudice or favor to any individual or group. My simple message in this is­ sue, to every staff member re­ gardless of positionor location, is Glen McDonald, Executive Director, to remind you of the guidelines Transportation Planning. concerning conflict of interest. If you are not familiar with them, I encourage you to get a copy from your supervisor. If you haveques­ tions or concerns please feel free he development of a Pro­ whole province to meet such has, in fact, provided us with an to seek advice, including direct to vincial Transportation Plan broad social and economic needs. opportunity to reexamine every­ my office if you wish. T has been anenormous pro­ We've tried to look at the big pic­ thing from a fundamental per­ ject with dramatic and far-reach­ ture, then step back and say, spective. We couldn't do it every ing implications for the future of 'where can we actually influence year! But it could be reexamined British Columbia. the course of events'." every five to eight years to see if Glen McDonald, Executive Di­ "Theexercise has allowed usto the direction needs to be altered rector of Transportation Planning, lookat alist of projects and policy in some way." is responsible overall for the for­ issues and determine what roles mulation of the plan , which has the province should play in key EARLY PLANNING been coming together over the transportation areas. We've also last two years. We interviewed looked at jurisdictional issues ­ AVERY PUBLIC him in early August for this issue airports, for example which are PROCESS of the Road Runner, and his com­ clearly a federal responsi bility. ments provide a clear picture of The development of the plan McDonald notes that the plan­ the evolution of this ambitious gives us stronger reasons to en­ ningprocess won't stop in the Fall undertaking. courage the federal government whenthe first submission ismade "We've attempted to try to to fit its plans with our perception to Cabinet. identify transportation needs of what B.C. needs. It also gives "It's an ongoing process," he across the province, " McDonald us an opportunity to influence say s. "We will continue to work to VinceCollins, says. "This is the first time this what other Ministries and Crown refine the plan, filling in with bet­ DeputyMinister Ministry - or probably any Minis­ Agencies will do. ter informationand moreaccurate Transportation and Highways try in Canada - has looked at the "The formulation of the plan cost estimates. Every budget 3 cycle we will go back and recon­ * Mission andObjectives ­ • Project Summary - 1992-1995 and 1996- firmwith the regionalcommittees with a formal mission state­ a list of projects considered 2000. and cabinet representatives that ment and a listing of key necessary to implement "The bottom line", Glen Mc­ we're still going in the right objectives, strategies and resolve Donald states, "is that billions of direction. issues . dollars are proposed to be spent "It will bea fairlyopen and pub­ * Provincial Overview - over the next 10 years, licprocess. The transportation ad­ with a summary of the key • Initiative Summary - "The scale of the project is visory committees appointed for population, economic and a list of initiatives (or policy huge! Over200 peoplehave been the eight economic development structural factors of the issues) which will be ana ­ dealing with it directly, including regions in the province are very province, as well as a de­ lyzed in broad categories the regional committees. The public groups. Th rough their scription of the present such as "resource road s", GVRD alone had several working meetings and submissions, they transportation system. "intra-regional air tran­ groups totalling 60 or 70 people have formulated a list of projects sport", "municipal cost shar­ from the Lower Mainland . Hun­ and initiatives for their region in * External Environment Fore ­ ing" and "ferry scheduling," dreds of individual s and groups the coming years. We will use cast - from the region s made submis­ them as advisory groups and providing a forecast of the • Recommendations and Al­ sions, as well as large organiza­ sounding boards in the future as environment expected inthe ternatives ­ tionssuch as the Coun cil of Forest the process evolves. Their role period to the year 2000. recommendations as to the Industries, B.C. Trucking Associ­ will continue, but there will obvi­ priority of the projects and ation, airlines and railways, Of ously not besuch a massive gath­ * Strategies- initiatives which should be course, a great many regional ering of information everyyear. for ensuring accomplish ­ undertaken during the plan Ministry staff have been hard at "Submissions from the regions ment of the mission in the period. work on it too. A lot of people were due at the end of June. By environment forecast. have put in a lot of tlrne! " the end of July, we had the eight • Financial Implications - reports, allof which had also been • Issues- of the recommended course released publicly. Our goal is to a discussion of major issues of action and various alter­ Working to produce the Final complete the plan by the end of which have become appar­ natives, Expenditureswill be Submission for Cabinet. October. It's important that we ent through the regional estimated for the 1990/91 Tara Moorhouse, Hans Larsenand don't justglue together eight dif­ planning process. budget year, the periods johnShaw. ferent reports with their different priorities. We'relooking at a pub­ licdocument thattriesto dealona higherplane, examining groups of issues and objectives. It's much more comprehensive than just a list of projects ." THEBOTTOM LINE: BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WILL BE SPENT A preliminary outlineof thefinal report includes a summary of ini­ tiatives and aseries of recom men ­ dations and financial implications, It proposes the following sections: * Introduction- describing the purpose of the plan and the process used in developing it. 4 PROJECTSAND to consider all theramifications of moves in onearea - roads, buses, PRIORITIES trains, planes , ferries - and how they impactin other areas. Com­ "Now we're wrapping up the munication between them all is techn ical review of theplans inor­ critical in order to avoid over­ der to give our Minister and his building and overspending.