Canada Line - Project Funding

Project Funding

The Canada Line was built as a public-private partnership. Funding was provided by both government agencies and a private partner, the proponent. As of March 2009, the entire project was expected to cost $2.054 billion. The premier of BC has furthermore stated that the project is on budget and ahead of schedule. When approved in December 2004 the cost was given as $1.76 billion.

The public contributions to the budget comes from the following sources:

• Government of Canada: $450 million
• Government of British Columbia: $435 million
• Vancouver Airport Authority: $300 million
• TransLink: $334 million
• City of Vancouver: $29 million

These sums are all in 2006 dollars, except for the Government of Canada's contribution which will be paid out when constructed, and is estimated to be equivalent of $419 million 2003 dollars.

The private partner was expected to contribute $200 million, as well as being responsible for any construction cost overruns. As of November 7, 2009, InTransitBC has invested $750 million. InTransitBC is a joint venture company owned by SNC-Lavalin, the Investment Management Corporation of BC (bcIMC) and the Caisse de Depot et Placements de Quebec.

The British Columbia government initially committed $370 million but when the bid came in over budget, they contributed an extra $65 million. TransLink also put in extra money by committing money from the sale of the Sexsmith Park and Ride in Richmond and from the introduction of a special fare in the Airport Zone.

In November 2004, bid costs were reduced by postponing the construction of a walkway between Waterfront Station and the Cruise Ship terminal, by removing Westminster Station and moving Richmond Center Station and the end of the line several hundred metres north. TransLink would further pay for the cost of reinstallation of the trolley wires along Cambie. As a way to further reduce the Best and Final Offer, RAVCO no longer required that the proponent provide for 59 ticket vending machines and 38 ticket validating machines, or for a police unit to operate on the RAV line. RAVCO also shifted responsibility for moving trolley wires from SNC-Lavalin to TransLink. Costs were also decreased due to decisions to single track sections on the Richmond and Airport Branches. The Richmond branch was single tracked from Ackroyd Road onwards in large part due to Richmond City Council pressuring for the visual profile of the overhead line to be reduced for aesthetic reasons.

On July 11, 2006, decision is made to relocate Broadway station half a block north at a cost of $3 million to allow for better integration of the station with Broadway and a new development in the area. The funding is provided as follows: one third from the city of Vancouver, one third from TransLink, and one third from surplus funding available to CLCO.

In February 2007 TransLink approved the addition of a pedestrian and bike path to the Canada Line Bridge and agreed not to postpone the construction of a station at 2nd Avenue (Olympic Village Station), but instead build it to be ready when the line opens. The $10 million cost of the bridge bike path is paid for by TransLink and is not considered part of the cost of the Canada Line. The Olympic Village Station will cost an additional $29 million.

RAVCO was set up by the agencies funding the transit line to oversee project design, procurement, construction and implementation. This TransLink subsidiary, later renamed Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc (CLCO), made distributions to the builder as work progressed.

The table below lists the year by year contributions (in million dollars) made by various partner governments on a year by year basis up to December 31, 2008: Contributions by TransLink are total disbursements minus contributions by the City of Vancouver, the government of British Columbia and the government of Canada. Calculations show that TransLink has contributed $271 million to date. It has committed an additional $52 million in its 2009 budget.

The private sector will operate the line for 35 years in return for a share in the operating revenue of the line.

Early 2006, TransLink decided not to install turnstiles at Canada Line stations, but stations would be designed to accommodate controlled access to allow TransLink to install them for less cost if it wished to do so in the future. On April 9, 2009, TransLink, the Provincial Government, and the Government of Canada announced joint funding of $100 million to introduce turnstiles at all 49 SkyTrain stations. While a large portion of this funding will be used on the Expo and Millennium Line, a portion will be used on the Canada Line stations. The federal government is contributing $30 million and the province is adding $40 million, which will go to what it calls faregates, or controlled access gate.