Province hastily fills big loophole in new fare evasion laws
Posted September 7, 2012 3:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It turns out fare evasion laws that came into effect earlier this week were not as strong as TransLink and the provincial government thought. A major loophole has been discovered.
What’s being called a ‘glitch’ has allowed people caught riding the system for free to refuse showing a transit police officer their ID. That meant a ticket couldn’t be issued and the offender would instead be escorted off transit property.
Incoming Transportation Minister Mary Polak says it’s been taken care of.
“I was briefed yesterday on the loopholes that needed to be closed. It was our mistake. I’ve signed off on that yesterday and that will, indeed, close the loophole that allows people to ride for free. That’s over,” she tells us.
Transit Police have been refusing to write tickets in some cases this week due to confusion and uncertainty.
In the past, if someone refused to show ID on TransLink property, they could be arrested, but that wording was left out of new legislation.
NDP Transportation Critic Harry Bains says the loophole probably would have been caught if the bill was debated properly in the legislature.
“The result of rushing through legislation in the last week of the last session and that’s what happens, the errors and the omissions can never be detected.”
He says it shouldn’t come as a surprise if other pieces of legislation passed during the last week of the session also have mistakes.
