Metro Vancouver mayors will meet with the province’s transportation minister next Monday, armed with a host of suggestions aimed at keeping the Evergreen Line rapid transit project alive.

The mayors, who met privately Wednesday, refused to say what they will propose to Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom, but some said they’re optimistic they will finally be able to move forward with the 11-kilometre line linking Burnaby and Coquitlam.

The line was supposed to be operational by 2014 but has been stalled because Trans-Link doesn’t have its $400-million share of the funding for the $1.4-billion project. The provincial and federal governments have committed $410 million and $417 million respectively (it’s unknown where the remaining $200 million will come from).

“We’ve got to move forward on it or we’re going to lose the funding,” Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said. “There’s nothing concrete, but we’ve thrown some suggestions out. It’s a negotiation, so until we’re down that road with it I’d hate to get it off the rails.”

Regional mayors have opposed raising property taxes -the only mechanism they have to collect funding -to pay for transit improvements such as the Evergreen Line, or rapid transit along Broadway or south of the Fraser.

This prompted the province to strike a memorandum of understanding with the mayors to come up with alternative forms of funding, such as a fuel tax -in the form of a second carbon tax -to a vehicle levy, congestion charges or road tolls.

Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender said all these options remain on the table as the mayors try to reach shortand long-term solutions to TransLink’s funding woes.

“The livability of the region is at stake,” Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said.

Metro’s regional planning committee last week agreed to recommend the board reaffirm that 100 per cent of the federal gas tax be directed to Trans-Link for transportation.

TransLink, meanwhile, is moving ahead with projects aimed at keeping the system in good repair, such as a new elevator at Scott Road station and new power running rails on the Expo line. The transportation authority plans to release its base plan in the next few weeks.

ksinoski@vancouversun.com