THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2004

Vancouver…The President of the Building and Construction Trades Council, representing fourteen (14) construction unions and 35,000 highly skilled crafts workers, has called on Translink Directors and the provincial government to re-examine proposals to finance and build the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver (RAV) so that the proposed extensions to the Rapid Transit Line can move forward.

“I’m asking everyone to put their politics aside, roll-up their sleeves and get down to the work of making this happen,” said Gary Kroeker, President of the BYCT-BCTC. “According to today’s news the so called ‘gap’ in funding is now down to $30 million. I call on the Premier and Minister of Transport to pick up on this and find a way to cover the remaining ‘gap’,” Kroeker said.

“It is also reported that two of the six Translink Directors who voted against moving forward with RAV last Friday are now reconsidering their opposition. With overwhelming public support to move forward with construction, I call on all the players to put aside their entrenched positions to see how to put RAV back on track for the benefit of the entire region,” Kroeker said.

“I’m not blaming anyone for this bottleneck. Everyone agrees that the Rapid Transit extensions are required. The money is there, the studies have been done, let’s get on with the job of ironing out the details so that tomorrow’s transit infrastructure is in place, on-time and on-budget,” Kroeker concluded.

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For further information contact 

the BCYT-BCTC office:  604-291-9020

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