With gas prices painfully high and transit services overcrowded or limited, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee continues to question why the provincial government is spending more than $3 billion for the roads and bridges of the Gateway Program.

The environmental organization, which favors immediate transit investments, is distributing 60,000 copies of a report entitled Stuck in Traffic? We have a Choice.

Ben West, Healthy Communities Campaigner for WCWC, isn't deterred the government is already building parts of Gateway.

"What we're hearing about Gateway is that it's a done deal and I think it's a dumb deal," said West, who wonders what the ever-escalating price of gas will be by the time the Port Mann Bridge is twinned and Highway No. 1 widened.

The report claims the $14 billion transit plan announced by the province earlier this year includes $621 million more for highway expansion than transit and only $219 million for transit over four years.

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said yesterday the actual figure for transit spending is $580 million.

"I'm extraordinarily proud of the fact that over the next 12 years, total government spending on roads over total spending on transit will be $14 billion on transit and $9.6 billion on roads up to 2020," said Falcon of money being spent by the federal, provincial and municipal governments.

for ch"The strategic investments we're making are very consistent, I think, with the fact we have a growing population," he said. "They're going to be driving something. They need a road to drive on."

http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=873b871d-33b8-4ae…