Justin Trudeau's win leads Metro Vancouver mayors to start preparing wish lists

Metro Vancouver mayors are piping up about priorities for their cities following a victory for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who ran on a platform of infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy.

In his election platform, Trudeau said decisions on how to spend that money would be left up to local leaders.

"It's refreshing that Justin is talking about local people making the decisions on what priorities will be set for infrastructure," Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan told The Early Edition host Rick Cluff.

"Hopefully that will come true as the Liberal Party begins to govern."

Corrigan said many of the region's mayors will want to use new infrastructure money for "nitty-gritty" issues like wastewater. For him, the top priority is buidling the Lion's Gate Waste Treatment Facility to help deal with the region's sewage.

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Robertson: still need local funding for Broadway

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was excited about the prospect of working with a Liberal government, especially after what he called a "difficult" relationship with the Conservatives.

He said he's particularly buoyed by the Liberals' commitment to fund a portion of the Broadway subway line in Vancouver — but there's still the challenge of finding a portion of the funding from the municipal level, with no new funding options coming from the province.

"The local third is still up in the air," Robertson told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn. "We're working with Minister Fassbender on this, and the next couple of months are going to be critical."

"There's good news in that I think we're going to see a very firm commitment from Ottawa for their one-third, and that's really going to crank up the pressure."

Robertson was also asked about what the election of the Liberals means for the retail marijuana industry in Vancouver, given the hostility of the Conservatives to it.

"It's not a key priority for us. We are working on the regulation of the dispensaries," he said. "Whatever system Ottawa comes up with, I hope and trust that they will take action to create a more sensible system and drug policy."

Hepner: light rail could come sooner

For Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, the infrastructure priority is perhaps easy to guess: she wants to get light rail in her city, a project that she made the major plank of her election platform.

And perhaps working in her favour is the fact that four of Surrey's ridings went Liberal on Oct. 19 — although she noted herself that all parties made "strong commitments" to light rail in Surrey.

"I'll be working hard to make sure they make good on those infrastructure and transportation promises," she said.

Hepner promised during her own election campaign that light rail would be running in the city by the end of her first mandate, but that timeline has been in question since the transportation plebiscite failed to pass.

"I'm more encouraged because Justin made comments around making sure those kind of improvements happen collaboratively with local government, and not only that, but happen immediately," she said.

"I'm at least encouraged that we could move a little more quickly."

To hear the full interview with Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, click on the audio labelled: Derek Corrigan and Linda Hepner on priorities from new government.

To hear the full interview with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, click on the audio labelled: Gregor Robertson on priorities from new government.