You may remember me blogging about the Carbon Tax Rebate for all BC Residents. Well, I received my Carbon Tax Dividend Cheque in the mail last week… and I haven’t put it in my bank account or donated it anywhere yet. I still don’t know what cause I want to put it towards yet. I’ve been going over the ideas at the Green Your Campbell Cash website, and have found a couple interesting ones.

Something that has been on my mind a lot right now, and I’m sure other people’s minds too, is the cost of gas and the price of insurance. I don’t want to drive my car a lot, but to be honest, it’s the most convenient way to get around. Heck – if I want to go anywhere further than New Westminister, I have to have a car! As some of you know, I used to work at a camp in Aldergrove (between Langley & Abbotsford). Well, my boyfriend still works there (he’s from England so he doesn’t have a car when he’s here in the summer) and I still commute out to Aldergrove nearly every week. This is ridiculous! If he or I could take public transport to Aldergrove (and not have it take near 3 hours as it’s a 50 minute drive) we would!

Last year a proposal to expand Highway 1 and twin the Port Mann bridge went through as the Gateway Project. However, with the BC Government’s Climate Action Plan to lower harmful emissions, it’s a bit hypocritical (as Tom Barret of The Tyee pointed out). In fact, the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) are very anti-Gateway.

Rail for the Valley and South Fraser OnTrax are both looking pretty good right now; they both propose the re-opening of the InterUrban Rail Service which used to run from Vancouver to Chilliwack. These rail lines still exist and the BC Provincial government still owns the right-of-way and passenger rights through BC Hydro. Right now, the SkyTrain ends at Surrey King George, and Translink proposed extending the route to Langley Centre for $700 million.

When living in England (Manchester & London), we took the train a lot and I was always impressed with the service! A train from Manchester to London took 2 hours and 15 minutes, ran every half hour during peak times, and cost approximately $40 round-trip. In comparison, it would take over 3 hours to drive from Manchester to London. A transit service in the Fraser Valley would be great. The Livable Region proposes that to an extent (but it is also more anti-Gateway Project).

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