Dear Editor,
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is apparently mystified as to why the Provincial government would be investing in road and bridge infrastructure around the province while requiring the Metro Vancouver mayors to figure out how they are going to pay for their share of Metro Vancouver’s urban transportation infrastructure. Robertson’s mystification is yet another example of how clueless he really is; about transportation, about the provincial economy, and about Vancouver’s role as port city.
Robertson exhibited this same economic cluelessness at the recent “Big Cities Summit” in Toronto where he stated that it was time “to recognize that cities are the drivers of jobs and the economy.” Sorry Gregor, but cities do not drive our economy, natural resources do. Vancouver is a mere by-product of the wealth and abundance of our province’s natural resources; a port from which these resources are exported.
Someone really should explain to Gregor Robertson that the reason the Provincial government is investing in the province’s road and bridge infrastructure is so that our natural resources, such as minerals, metals, trees and energy, can be tapped to generate economic wealth and create jobs for people. Without a network of roads and bridges criss-crossing our vast, rugged province we would not be able to access these natural resources and we would not be able to get them to global markets.
Yes, Gregor, natural resources drive our economy and create jobs, not cities. And without the investments that have been made, and are being made, in our province’s network of roads and bridges, the port city of Vancouver would have no real reason to exist and Gregor Robertson would essentially be the Mayor of Nothing.
Donald Leung
Burnaby, B.C.