Thank you very much, member.

First, I'll just address some of the latter things you mentioned, and then I'll turn to my colleague from TransLink to address the cost of construction.

First of all, we use a whole variety of different sources of funding. At this point in time, to fund transit in Vancouver and the region we use a combination of property taxes, and in Vancouver, developers' cost levies and negotiated contributions through development. Obviously, we use revenues. We use grants from other levels of government. Vancouver has a very active debenture program that we use to fund much of our infrastructure. Some of our utilities are funded through pay as you go, but that's not 100% by any stretch.

We have a variety. There's a parking tax that contributes to TransLink's revenues. I'll ask Mr. Cummings to expand on that.

As I said earlier, we believe that a good transit system that's coherent and integrated across our region benefits everybody, whether they ride it or not. It benefits people who move goods, because the roads are less congested. It also benefits the people who must take a car.

You mentioned the gas tax. We've really benefited from the gas tax fund and from its growth over the years that it's been in place. It has levelled off recently, in part due to the fact that just in Vancouver alone, we've reduced the number of cars going to the downtown because we have very effective public transit.

You can't depend on one source. The incentives and disincentives will create weaknesses in one source of funding over many years. So it is an array of sources that we use, and we believe that's appropriate for continuing sustained investment in transportation.

I'll pass it over to Mr. Cummings to give you a few more specifics.

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