Frankly Speaking

Frank Bucholtz photo Inge Violet (centre) was honoured as one of Langley's women of distinction at an International Womens Day lunch in March, 2014, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Langley Central. Also in the photo are club president Terry Smith and executive member Dorothy McKim. Among her many community involvements, Inge Violet was also an active Rotary Club member. The death of Inge Violet marks a good opportunity to reflect on the dramatic changes which have come to Langley’s agricultural landscape and economy since she and her husband Claude moved here from Europe in 1981 to establish the Fraser Valley’s first winery. She passed away of cancer on March 13 at the age of 80, and was remembered by her family and many friends at a funeral service on Friday. She will be missed by many. Claude Violet (who passed away several years ago) came from a French family who had been winemakers for generations. He and Inge, who was born in Germany, sold their winery in Fr...

The Alex Fraser Bridge is already more congested than in the past, due to tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and growth in the region. If it remains the only free crossing out of five over the Fraser, traffic jams will be ongoing and horrendous.   The BC Liberals are risking a substantial loss of support in the May 2017 election with a continued do-nothing approach to bridge tolling. Independent Delta MLA Vicki Huntington and Delta Mayor Lois Jackson exposed the BC Liberals’ weakness on this issue last week, when discussing Jackson’s call for a $1 toll on all bridges in the Metro Vancouver region. Jackson’s press release calling for $1 tolls say they would encourage drivers to use the most convenient crossing, and at the same time collect the toll revenue needed to pay for existing toll bridge financing obligations. Unlike Transportation Minister Todd Stone, who lives in Kamloops and knows little about Metro Vancouver traffic congestion, or Premier Christy Clark, who repr...

Heritage rarely gets much consideration from Surrey council or city staff, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out how much effort has been recently put into actively pursuing names for roads, districts and geographic features. Much of this work came to fruition with significant changes to Surrey’s original road numbering bylaw no. 1500, which was adopted in 1957. That bylaw eliminated most of the names of Surrey streets, replacing them with numbers. The changes to the original bylaw were adopted by council last summer. The changes recognize that the original bylaw called for named streets - those that are not east-west or north-south in direction. While this has been done in many parts of Surrey since that time, the streets that have been named have usually reflected the desires of developers, not necessarily the city at large. Thus developments like Birdland (in Guildford) and Cowtown (in Cloverdale) came about, using names of birds and cattle respectively. The changes c...

LRT vehicles in Surrey would look something like this. In a March 1 meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at city hall, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner again emphasized the importance of Surrey’s proposal for two LRT lines, as well as other green infrastructure. It was the first visit ever of a sitting prime minister to Surrey city hall, which demonstrates Surrey’s rising importance nationally. It continues to be one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada. It also suffers from a significant infrastructure deficit, with schools, recreation facilities, roads, parks and transit projects all in short supply. “I wholeheartedly welcome Prime Minister Trudeau’s commitment to work with municipalities to build strong and vibrant communities across the country,” said Hepner. “We had a very constructive meeting and I look forward to working with him and his team to bring positive results on issues that intersect on both the local and national level.” The timing of the LRT line cons...

This timetable board once was located at the Marpole station of the B.C. Electric Railway, where V&LI interurban trains went north to Vancouver, south to Steveston or east to New Westminster. It has now been relocated to the Cloverdale station of the Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society. On Saturday, we had a chance to walk along a portion of the former Vancouver and Lulu Island rail line, better known as the Arbutus Corridor. As it turned out, it was an auspicious time to do so. On Monday, an agreement between the City of Vancouver and Canadian Pacific Railway was announced. CPR will tear up the rail line and turn the corridor over to the city, for $55 million. This 11-kilometre stretch of rail line from Kitsilano to Marpole was once a key link in an important transportation corridor. The V&LI line was built by Canadian Pacific Railway, starting in 1900, and by 1902 trains ran between downtown Vancouver and Steveston. At that time, there were just two stops outside the d...