Translink board meetings no longer open to public

The newly appointed chair of Greater Vancouver's transportation authority is already taking heat for a decision that regular meetings will no longer be open to the public or the media.

Translink announced Wednesday that Dale Parker was elected to a three-year term by the new nine-member board while current CEO Pat Jacobson, who's been on the job for seven years, will step down in April.

The new Translink board, appointed by the government and made up of nine professionals, replaces the 12-member board composed of locally elected mayors and councillors.

Parker, a former CEO of the B.C. Workers Compensation Board, said Wednesday he expects the board will meet six times a year and the meetings will not routinely be open to the public.

Opposition New Democrat MLA Maureen Karagianis said the new arrangement confirms what the NDP has suspected since the province passed legislation restructuring the authority last March.

"This group, [which] has enormous powers of taxation, [is] going to be able to do their business in secret without any public accountability," said Karagianis, NDP's transportation critic.

But Parker said the new board will hear from delegations and will hold public hearings on significant decisions.

Any decision on raising taxes or transit fares will still be made by locally elected politicians, he said.

"We're accountable to the council of mayors and we have to go there and get approval for any increased taxation," Parker said.

Translink spokesperson Ken Hardie said the authority will still be subject to freedom of information and decisions made behind closed door will be available in public documents.