Frankly Speaking

Voters lined up at the Whalley Legion hall to cast ballots in a Surrey election - probably about 50 years ago. Photo from the Surrey Archives. An update: There will be a meeting for the eight Surrey mayoral candidates tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 3) at Morgan Creek Golf Club in South Surrey. It is sponsored by the South Surrey-White Rock Chamber of Commerce. I will be involved as one of the two moderators. The meeting is open to the public, and starts at 6:30 p.m. I am planning to post a more detailed look at the candidates running in Surrey and the major issues of the campaign thus far. It will appear on this blog in the coming days, as I find time to do sufficient research. Surrey residents who are planning to vote will have to pick through 84 candidates running on 10 different slates, along with a large number of independents, when they go to the polls on Oct. 20. While the sheer number of candidates and slates may seem overwhelming – and it is – there are many good ...

There's more than one way to freeze things in Surrey. In January, 74 Avenue in Clayton was covered with snow. A few months later, demolition contractors took down three homes on the street to prepare the site for the building of a new elementary school. Now it is November - and there is still no funding in place for the school to be built, even though funds for it were promised at about the time of this snowfall. A rally on Oct. 28 once again highlighted the need for more school space in Surrey. This issue has become even more critical this school year, as a settlement between the B.C. government and the B.C. Teachers Federation following a lengthy court battle means class sizes are significantly smaller. Many Surrey schools were already short of space, and now there is significantly less. The rally was held at Earl Marriott Secondary and was organized by the Surrey Schools Coalition, a group encompassing parents, city representatives and the business community. Karen ...

Frank Bucholtz photo Plans for 136 new homes across the street from the new Clayton North secondary will be discussed at a public hearing held by Surrey council this month. The Clayton area has a severe shortage of classroom space for students. Surrey schools expect to have an extra 1,000 students in the classrooms when school began on Tuesday. As challenging as that is, even more challenges are coming. Development is continuing at a frenetic pace, despite a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax which seems to be addressed more towards Vancouver, the North Shore and Richmond. There are a number of signs of real estate activity slowing down in those markets, but many people continue to buy homes in Surrey for the simple reason that it is more affordable. If all the development proposals now in the planning stages go ahead, the school district will have several thousand more students in the next few years. Longtime trustee Laurae McNally points to a proposed development in Clayt...

Frank Bucholtz photo This development proposal sign went up on 184 Street, shortly after work began on a new high school for Clayton. The new school is expected to open in September, 2018. Fresh on the heels of Premier Christy Clark saying last week that there is no need for a “made in Surrey” solution to the severe overcrowding in some schools, the Surrey Board of Education has unanimously asked the city to stop approving development applications in three neighbourhoods. Grandview, Clayton and South Newton schools are all overcrowded, with portables used to house thousands of students. Meanwhile, the provincial government, which determines when new schools will be built, has been slow to approve new schools for Surrey. This led to the board agreeing unanimously on Thursday (April 21) to ask the city to “temporarily suspend all new development approvals in the Clayton. Grandview/South Surrey and South Newton regions until the Surrey School District receives adequate prov...