Frankly Speaking

One of the final opportunities to have input into Parliament's approach to legalizing physician-assisted dying in Canada will come on Saturday. Conservative MP Mark Warawa (Langley-Aldergrove) and Liberal MP John Aldag (Cloverdale-Langley City) are co-sponsoring a session where the public can give input on this important issue. I have been asked to moderate this event. It takes place at the Langley Township council chambers (Fraser River presentation room), 20338 65 Avenue, Langley from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday (Jan. 30). The government has been given an additional four months to come up with legislation on this topic by the Supreme Court of Canada, which threw out the prohibition on the practice in the Carter decision, which came down in February, 2015. Anyone with an interest in this topic would find attending this event very worthwhile.

The Prince George Free Press closed in April, 2015, but there is a future for most community newspapers, which have a much better chance of survival than do small dailies. My former Black Press colleague Bill Phillips writes a perceptive and interesting blog from his home base of Prince George. Bill was editor of the Williams Lake Tribune (David Black's first newspaper) for many years and editorial director of what was once known as the Cariboo Press division of Black Press. He transferred to the Prince George Free Press in 2006 and edited that newspaper, which was sold to Bob Doull's Aberdeen Press about six years ago, until its closure in April, 2015. He wrote a great column about its closure, which can be found here . A native of Fernie (one of my favourite places in B.C.), he has been in the community newspaper business for 30 years. He started at the Fernie Free Press, which his father Lloyd once edited. In the light of all the negative journalism news over the past...

Kinder Morgan photo Twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline will have a profound effect on Surrey, the National Energy Board was told last week. The City of Surrey stated its position on the proposal to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline at National Energy Board hearings last week. It is not in favour or opposed to the pipeline proposal – it simply doesn’t want the project to cost local taxpayers more money. In addition, the city has concerns about portions of the proposed new route. It also would like to see the new pipeline route accommodate both the twinned pipeline and the original line, thus taking the line built in 1953 through portions of north Surrey out of commission. Surrey’s position in many ways dovetails with the general attitude of many B.C. residents, and the provincial government. The enthusiasm for the pipeline project is lukewarm at best, and specific benefits are demanded in return for support. At the same time, many other B.C. residents, including mem...

The sense of community in large cities like Surrey and Vancouver is sometimes difficult to fathom. While it exists in many ways, in organizations and neighbourhoods, a city-wide sense of community is usually absent. Certainly in Surrey, it’s been a long time since the vast majority of residents have been deeply committed or moved by any single event. In White Rock, it still exists. The strong sense of community is one reason there has been a lot of attention paid to the takeover of the White Rock water utility by the city (for a yet-undisclosed figure) and more recent plans to add chloramine to the water supply. That has prompted a furious reaction that landed at city hall. City council passed a motion unanimously to halt chloramination, but to some degree it will be out of their hands. Dr. Michelle Murti, medical health officer at Fraser Health Authority, said that total coliform counts over the summer indicated “we have a problem with the distribution system,” requiring secondar...

Paul Godfrey is the CEO of Postmedia Network The combining of newsrooms in four Canadian cities by Postmedia Network has prompted a tremendous amount of media coverage today. Multiple media outlets on all platforms have devoted a lot of time and energy to the announcement that newsrooms in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver would be combined. As part of this restructuring, each city will have one editor overseeing the combined newsrooms, even though there will continue to be two newspaper titles in each city. A total of 90 people are losing their jobs, and buyouts will also be offered in Ottawa and Vancouver. As many as 50 more journalists may be without jobs after that is complete. It’s interesting how much attention this has received, but not surprising. The media love to report on the media. Meanwhile, 430 people who work at a potash mine in New Brunswick, where finding new jobs is much harder than in a large city, also lost their jobs today. Potash Corporation of ...

Allan Dann was toasted and remembered at a celebration of life Saturday at Newlands in Langley. Among those attending were longtime Cloverdale residents, business people, volunteer firefighters, family and many other friends. My father Art Bucholtz enjoyed seeing former colleagues and friends, such as former notary El Fedewich and Alan Davidson, longtime insurance executive at Hugh and McKinnon. Allan Dann was toasted and fondly remembered by a large crowd on Saturday. The longtime Cloverdale businessman died in December at the age of 91. He lived an amazing life. Born in Surrey in 1924, he lived and worked in Cloverdale for most of his 91 years. He took over his father Ernie's radio and electrical business after returning from service in the Second World War, working for many years alongside his mother Doris. Many of those details are contained in a Cloverdale Reporter story , but suffice to say that, when he closed his business in January, 2013, his family had operated it f...

Surrey has just recorded its second-highest total for building permits in history. The 2015 total of $1.46 billion is second only to the 2007 total of $1.49 billion. The building boom continues unabated in the early weeks of 2016, but there are a number of uncertainties out there which may weigh on it as the year progresses. One of the biggest ones is interest rates. The Bank of Canada is under pressure to keep rates low, due to job losses, falling commodity prices and other weaknesses in the Canadian economy. Those low interest rates are a lifeline to most home buyers, who otherwise could not afford to pay the going rate for housing. Whether they will continue is an open question. Another uncertainty is the state of the stock market. Much of the current turmoil is due to a lot of questions about what is happening with China’s businesses. This has many side effects, some of which spill right into the local housing market. There is no question that part of the ong...

Kinder Morgan photo A portion of the twinning of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline through Jasper National Park has already been built. The B.C. government hasn’t closed the door tightly on Kinder Morgan’s plan to twin the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, but Monday’s submission to the National Energy Board from the province is certainly a devastating blow to the twinning proposal. In particular, the province is unable to determine whether the project meets two of five conditions it has insisted upon for supporting heavy crude oil pipelines, based on the information provided. These relate to oil spills along the pipeline route and at the Burnaby marine terminal, and the company’s ability to respond to emergencies. Most B.C. residents support the strong stance the province has taken, and the five conditions that Premier Christy Clark has insisted must be met for B.C. to accept such a pipeline. It is important to remember that the Kinder Morgan pipeline played...

The value of homes in Surrey and the surrounding region continues to rise, according to figures released by the B.C. Assessment Authority on Monday. The authority took the unusual step of stating in early December that many assessed values would increase “notably more than average.” It said many property assessments, particularly of homes on lots, would rise by 15 to 25 per cent from the January, 2015 assessments. These significant jumps would take place throughout the Metro Vancouver area. Assessed values are used for property taxation purposes, but are also widely used by realtors, home buyers and sellers and others wanting more information on what’s going on in the real estate market. The authority wasn’t wrong about the jump in property values. A press release issued Monday shows that the assessed values (which are based on a hypothetical sale on July 1, 2015) have risen by between 10 and 17 per cent in Surrey, Delta and White Rock. The “typical” assessed value for sta...