Dear Editor,

The province has already blocked TransLink's vehicle levy three times since 2001. Is this a case of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again"?

If TransLink asks for the levy often enough, is the province bound to eventually cave in and approve the levy?

References to it being a short-term solution make me want to laugh. Is this supposed to suggest that the vehicle levy will be temporary? When has any tax ever been temporary?

Once in place, the resources realized from this tax will quickly become not enough, and another method of taxation on the residents of Metro Vancouver will be sought after.

With the newly constructed bridges being tolled as a method of covering costs, why was there not a toll placed on the newly upgraded Sea to Sky Highway?

With regard to the tolling method, even that places the entire financial burden on the residents of B.C., as to my knowledge, there is no way to collect the tolls for vehicles not registered in British Columbia.

Whatever happened to the philosophy of user pay?

There is an ever-increasing number of people commuting daily from as far out the Valley as Chilliwack, with no burden being placed on them to pay the increasing TransLink levies that are placed on the residents of Metro Vancouver.

There are many people in Metro Vancouver who own one or more vehicles and who are not on the roads every day. As an owner of multiple vehicles can only operate one vehicle at any one time, these people would be shouldering a disproportionate share of the vehicle levy.

A rapid halt has to be put to the free ride on SkyTrain that has been available for the last 25 years. I have never seen another rapid transit system in any other city I've visited where there are not turnstiles in place to collect the appropriate fee from anyone using the system.

Shirley Kennedy, Aldergrove