Frankly Speaking

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 ...

Rich Coleman's new responsibilities for BC Hydro, which he assumed in today's cabinet shuffle, are a signal that the BC Liberals want to deepen the fissure between the NDP and the Greens over the Site C dam project. The objective is another election, as soon as possible. Most people may think the revised cabinet announced by Premier Christy Clark on Monday is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the rapidly-sinking Titanic. On the surface, that is absolutely correct. However, a closer look at the new cabinet could lead to the conclusion that Clark is outfitting them with life preservers, in the strong hope that this new cabinet will all board life boats, and make their way aboard a new ship. The new responsibilities given to Langley East MLA Rich Coleman illustrate this point perfectly. He has been named minister of energy and mines, with responsibility for BC Hydro. He is still deputy premier, even though that fact was left out of the news release announcing th...

Martini Film Studios puts Langley up there with some big players in the fast-expanding world of made-in-B.C. entertainment projects. The new facility in the former Starline Windows plant on 96 Avenue in Port Kells features no less than eight sound stages. It is the brainchild of Gemma Martini, and almost literally happened overnight because the Martini family also owns Starline. They already owned the land and the building, and they saw a good business opportunity. With some renovations, they are now in business. The studio was shown off to guests at a special opening event on Tuesday. As the North Langley community director for the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, I was pleased to be invited to attend and am very excited to see firsthand this major boost to the Langley and B.C. economy. The B.C. film industry is responsible for a full 60 per cent of all such work in Canada - a figure considerably higher than I would have believed. The Martini studio itself is expected to creat...