Exactly how the conversation got around to comparing the newly refashioned TransLink to the Mob I'm not sure, but across the table from us sat the unlikely capo di tutti capi, a slight and soft-spoken man with silvering hair. His name was Dale Parker. He was very nice, impeccably mannered. I thought, he'd make a terrific grandfather.

He was also the hand-picked chairman of TransLink -- or what is now officially known, cumbersomely, as the South Coast B.C. Transportation Authority. He came out of semi-retirement to become so, though he clearly does not need the aggravation.

He is no dummy, having graduated from Harvard, and he has run everything from White Spot to the WCB to the Bank of B.C.

The subject got around to funding.

How was TransLink going to bankroll its budget shortfalls in the future, they were asked, when the public was clearly sick of more taxes?

"We have to find other sources of revenue," Parker said. "I think we have to recognize that the property tax is getting maxed out."

It was then that Parker divulged -- probably more than was wise to, considering the setting -- that TransLink was developing a real estate arm to buy and develop land around its planned rapid transit lines.

TransLink would get in early, quietly buy properties around stations and either develop them or sell them for profit. Density will naturally increase around those stations, and the price of real estate would go up. This, Parker suggested, would benefit both TransLink and the municipality. TransLink makes money: the municipality gets a rapid transit line.

Of course, that means some measure of cooperation, or, if you will, compliance, on the part of the municipality.

"If they [the municipality] are going from a density of 2.5 to 4 or 5 or 6, I mean, this is probably more than what the municipality was initially anticipating in any event. And they're going to, I think, need to recognize that without a source of revenue from real estate, this [rapid transit line] probably isn't going to be the top priority. In other words, you'd like to think there's going to be a little bit of a horse race among the municipalities."

This was big money Parker was talking about. At first, Jacobsen -- who may have been trying to play it down at this point -- suggested the real estate arm might generate in the neighbourhood of $30 million a year in revenue. But Parker said, oh no, TransLink could do a lot better than that -- maybe $150 million per year, or $1.5 billion at the end of 10 years.

At this, there were eyebrows being raised all around the table.

How would you keep these transactions secret? the members of the editorial board wanted to know.

How would you guard against loose lips within TransLink, and profiteering by developers with insider knowledge?

Sun business columnist Don Cayo said:

"It strikes me that there's a tremendous moral aspect [to this]. It strikes me that you're going to be wearing an uncomfortable mix of hats as basically land speculators and the guys who decide to make the speculation pay off or not. You mention horse-trading between municipalities: That could easily cross a line to bullying and coercing. There could be a lot of room for chicanery in the location of stations and so on depending on where you own the land. It strikes me as an uncomfortable mix of public and private tools."

"Well," Parker replied, "it may be, and I suppose it's where the risk might lie . . . While you have to do a lot of this in confidence early on, it's a clear understanding in strategy, and you have to be very transparent in what you've done so the public can see what you've done in a transaction."

"Jane Jacobs said that when you combine the power of the command of control to decide what to do with public money with the ethics of the business community, what you end up with is the Mafia."

There was nervous laughter around the table. Probably, Cayo will not receive in the mail tomorrow a fish wrapped in newspaper, or wake up with a bloody horse head in his bed.

But his comments suggested a greater question:

Who, I wanted to know, will have the greater effect on town planning -- TransLink, with its new power to create densification around stations, or the municipalities those stations will be in? Who is really in charge? The people, or the transit line that purports to serve the people?

Well, Parker said, all municipalities have town plans, and TransLink will work closely with them. But:

"I think we need to have a significant amount of influence, and I believe the municipalities and the region are recognizing these have got to come together in a more comprehensive way of density around these lines. It doesn't mean we won't have suburbs and whatnot, but there's got to be a corridor that provides a lot of density in order to make it work."

As a taxpayer who lives in a suburb "and whatnot," I couldn't help think:

Man, this guy is really nice. But did Metro Vancouver just get an offer it couldn't refuse?

pmcmartin@png.canwest.com or 604-605-2905