The Capital Regional District has taken a step toward gaining more authority over some transportation policies over the coming years.
Governance over how people move around the region is currently broken up between the CRD, individual municipalities, BC Transit and the transportation ministry, with each of those bodies having authority over one or two modes of transportation.
The CRD board unanimously voted on Dec. 13 to start a process that will aim to have a new CRD transportation service in place by the end of 2024.
Such a service would start by aligning existing transportation aspects that would largely enable what staff called having regional trails become the “active transportation spine” of the region.
A second phase would then expand the CRD’s authority over policy areas where there’s consensus that regional governance makes the most sense. This phase would also look into whether any CRD tools could help individual municipalities increase active transportation.
If those interim changes can show every CRD community supports a regional approach to transportation decision-making, it could prove that the CRD can handle more authority.
“The region needs to prove to the province that it can agree to changes and has set itself up to deliver those changes,” staff told a CRD committee in November.
The region speaking with one voice when it comes to transportation would clear the way for the province to approve the CRD creating its own transportation authority, staff said. Such a move would give the CRD more say around things like transit governance, but would first require legislation changes at higher levels of government.
Creating a new service would meet the CRD board’s aim to progress transportation governance changes within this term, while delivering a new authority is eyed for 2026. Both a new service and authority require unanimous support from all CRD municipalities and electoral areas.
All of those communities, along with First Nations and other partner agencies, took part in a survey informing the idea of governance changes.
There was widespread alignment from the stakeholders on wanting regional governance over new mobility services, behaviour change, transit and connectivity. Consensus dropped off around who should handle traffic flow and congestion, and around how to fund the governance changes. When it comes to active transportation, most municipalities want local control.
However, directors last month said the survey’s wording was confusing and ambiguous. One Victoria councillor gave the example of his council saying they supported regional active transportation governance but the survey results listed the city as wanting local control in that area.
Staff admitted the survey wasn’t perfect but it was more of a starting point to gauge interest around changing the governance structures.
READ: CRD rolls out expedited, $53M regional trail widening timeline