Vision Vancouver has rolled out its plan to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.

That must be good, right? No one wants to live in the brownest city in the world, or the black and bluest. Green is easier on the eyes … not to mention the ear, nose and throat.

When you dive into the details, though, one big question emerges: Who is going to pay for making Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020?

If you guessed “we are,” you win the free trip to the poorhouse.

Get your calculator out and you’ll discover there’s a conflicting, unstated and unwelcome vision gathering momentum, and that’s the one to make Vancouver the reddest city in the world by 2020, as in red ink.

For example, how much is it going to cost to reduce average car-trip distance by 20 per cent? There are a huge number of hidden costs hiding under that rock: More bicycle lanes, more transit, more gas taxes and higher parking fees.

When you consider Metro mayors are already lined up to add another two cents a litre at the pump just to pay for the legendary, much-delayed Evergreen Line, how much more transportation cost can the average taxpayer endure?

I am amused (in an appalled way) by the news that Metro Vancouver costs are scheduled to go up another 44 per cent in five years, and Metro is complaining that somebody else – Ottawa? Victoria? – should kick in more money, because they’re not paying their fair share.

Don’t these guys get it? There is one taxpayer. One. You. And you only have one pocket to pick.

Metro Vancouver is a big city that just keeps on getting bigger, but the people who live in it just keep getting smaller, as their struggle to pay the mortgage on their $850K bungalow or buy gas or a bus pass to get to work gets tougher with every increase at the pumps and dumps.

We’re being nibbled to death by user fees.

Green is good, but when it comes to ink, black is better. And it’s much better than red.

Premier Christy Clark had it right the other day when she came out against her own minister’s endorsement of the mayors’ plan to raise the gas tax. People have had it, and she knows it.

But then someone pointed out she was pulling the rug from under her transport minister, and she had to do a 180.

Cut the premier some slack. With all these expensive visions in the air, you can’t blame her for being confused about which ones are hers.