Surrey needs to use clout with province in coming months



The City of Surrey has more clout than it realizes in the year leading up to the provincial election. Thus far, it has been reluctant to use it.
Mayor Linda Hepner, somewhat belatedly, realized that there was a problem with school capital funding. She only seemed to realize the depth of the problem after the Surrey Board of Education voted on April 21 to ask the city to suspend development applications in three fast-growing areas. She offered the board some support, saying a month later that the city and school district had to come up with “their own plan.”
Hepner said the city will no longer sit idly in the face of school construction delays, saying “The formula is broken. We’re going to develop (a formula) ourselves and present it to the minister.”
Surprise, surprise. The province was receptive to the issue, and indeed almost fell over backwards to accommodate the school district. The BC Liberals won five of the eight Surrey seats in the 2013 election, and at least two of those seats are far from secure in the next election. Within a few weeks of the board of education’s action, the government announced $100 million in capital funds for schools.
Now there seems to be an unreasonable delay in getting provincial approval for improvements to the Highway 99/32 Avenue interchange. This interchange was first built as part of a quid pro quo with the provincial government. Surrey agreed to allow a pre-trial centre to be built adjacent to city hall, in exchange for the interchange.
That area of South Surrey has grown exponentially since the interchange first opened. There are often lengthy delays getting on or off Highway 99, and on the two major streets the interchange connects to – 152 Street and 32 Avenue. Surrey’s plan calls for capacity improvements to the on- and off-ramps, as well as improvements to the turning lanes at the 32 Avenue/152 Street intersection. 
Surrey first announced its plans for the interchange in 2012 – four years ago. The province must be a part of the project. It owns Highway 99 and has exclusive control over highway interchanges. Clearly, much of the funding will come from provincial coffers.
However, the province had other plans for Highway 99. It decided to go ahead with an interchange at 16 Avenue – which was also needed. This road serves both South Surrey and areas further east, such as Langley and Abbotsford, and the interchange there is a welcome improvement.
However, that does not mean that nothing should be done at the 32 Avenue interchange. Surrey Coun. Tom Gill says the project will now likely not get started until sometime between 2019 and 2021. If it is the latter year, groundbreaking will occur nine years after it was first unveiled,
Such a delay is unacceptable. The province has plenty of money -  it just revealed that its budget surplus for 2015-16 was $730 million, far more than projected.
Surrey has to apply pressure to ensure that it gets a commitment from the provincial government to proceed with the project – and it needs to get that commitment before the election, which takes place in May, 2017.
There are other projects in Surrey which the province can play a major role in. Certainly, there needs to  be more provincial support to help Surrey deal with the issues of homelessness and drug overdoses in Surrey. The services available here are minimal when compared to many other areas. That needs to improve.
The province can also be pushed harder on its financial commitment to rapid transit projects in Surrey. While TransLink does the negotiating with the province on the projects, Hepner is vice-chair of the Mayors’ Council which oversees the TransLink board.
The Surrey First slate, which holds all nine seats on Surrey council, has been very reluctant in the past to publicly push the province. It has been, for the most part, little more than a BC Liberal farm team, with the notable exception of Coun. Judy Villeneuve.
Hepner’s actions on the school capital issue showed that she was finally ready to advocate a little more publicly and forcefully for the city. Hopefully, this will continue on other fronts. The 32 Avenue interchange on Highway 99 would be a good place to start.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bad day at Black Press

Image
News today that Black Press has voluntarily entered creditor protection and could be sold to a three-way partnership is the latest in a long string of bad news stories for community newspapers. David Black, longtime owner and founder of Black Press, is out of the newspaper business after more than 50 years. It has been a sad day for me. I have spent the past 46 years involved with the community press, mostly as a reporter and editor. I was a Black Press editor for 16 years with The Langley Times, retiring from full-time work in 2015. I am particularly saddened when I think of the many great people I worked with at various newspapers, most of them now owned by Black Press. Some still work there, some have retired, some have left this world behind. Community newspapers have been struggling to find an arrangement that works for them, as businesses, and for their readers, for the better part of 20 years. This became a particular challenge when smart phones, notably the iPhone, made their a
Read more

Na Tigie Jawara - she was a rock to many in Kabala, Sierra Leone

Image
Bonnie and I paused for a photo with Robert and Na Tigie Jawara when we visited their home in Kabala, Sierra Leone in December, 2013. Their granddaughter Tigos, who has just turned six, is with them. Students at Kabala Christian School enjoy the shade under a giant mango tree on their school grounds in Kabala, Sierra Leone. Update: The Jawara's three children who live outside Sierra Leone (two attend university in The Gambia, and one is working in South Korea) are now on their way back home for their mother's funeral, which will take place Sunday. Na Tigie's death has had a huge impact on many people there, as she was well-known in so many circles and well-loved by many. Just under three years ago, my wife Bonnie and I had the privilege of travelling to Sierra Leone and Ghana in West Africa. Our daughter Christina (Chrissy) first went to Sierra Leone in 2008, when she was in Grade 12 at Fraser Valley Christian high school in Surrey. She spent most of he
Read more

Capital parcel tax biggest culprit in massive Surrey tax increase

Image
Property taxes in Surrey jumped by far more than the 2.9 per cent claimed by Mayor Doug McCallum. The biggest culprit is the capital parcel tax, which jumped by 200 per cent for every single property in the city. This is steep - and regressive. Many Surrey residents are upset about the boost in their property taxes. Some say they have gone up 15 to 20 per cent - a far cry from Mayor Doug McCallum’s claim that they were only boosted a modest 2.9 per cent. Property taxes are complex although Surrey, to its credit, breaks down the portion collected for its operations quite specifically. Not all municipalities do so. The Surrey property tax bill also includes a significant amount for schools, as well as small amounts for B.C. Assessment Authority, Metro Vancouver and TransLink. There is no doubt that McCallum’s claim was misleading, right from the moment council adopted its 2021 budget. A 200 per cent increase in the parcel tax, from $100 to $300, ensured that everyone’s taxes would rise f
Read more