Vancouver mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe says he's willing to dismantle the controversial $6-million Point Grey bike lane, if that’s what residents wanted.
“I’d consider it if the community says we really want it out. I would,” he said, speaking to CTV Morning Live a day ahead of the civic election.
The Non-Partisan Association leader says he believes in bike infrastructure, but only if the community is properly consulted before any implementation.
LaPointe says his party would review the Point Grey Road “situation” if he took over city hall.
“I don’t believe the community was properly consulted,” he said.
The mayoral hopeful said he would leave the route alone if the community supported having it there.
“And even if the community says they’re not sure about it more, I have to examine the city finances properly. I need to make sure that it’s not going to cost us millions of dollars to dismantle something,” he told CTV’s Mi-Jung Lee.
LaPointe says he wants to cut three per cent from the city’s budget – about $36-million.
He didn’t specify what, if any, services would be cut in order to save the cash, instead saying he’d conduct an “operational review.”
“The tax take from the city has gone up 46 per cent over six years, so to claw back some of that is not an unreasonable amount,” he said.
An Insights West poll among decided voters shows 46 per cent of the vote for current Mayor Gregor Robertson, 41 per cent for LaPointe and 9 per cent for COPE candidate Meena Wong.
The online study was conducted between Nov. 6 and 8, and claims a margin of error of +/-4.5%
