Frankly Speaking

Assessments on Surrey homes rose dramatically, due to a red-hot real estate market in the first part of 2016. Assessments are based on the actual value of homes as of July 1, 2016. It is a rare occasion when the homeowners’ grant becomes a hot political issue, but it was shaping up to do so in the run-up to the May 9 provincial election - until today. The reason is that many Metro Vancouver home owners, including a substantial number in Delta, Surrey and Langley and an even higher percentage in high-demand areas like White Rock, South Surrey, Tsawwassen and Fort Langley, could have lost their homeowner grants due to soaring assessments. In many areas of the South Fraser region, assessments rose close to 40 per cent over the 2016 figures. Some homeowners saw their assessments rise by much higher amounts. On Tuesday morning, the provincial government eased that possibility. (In my own neighbourhood, assessments rose dramatically. Interestingly, on one side of the street, the...

Almost 40 years ago, I used to ride by bicycle over to Vancouver Island on an annual basis. I would meet up with my friends Barry and Terry O'Neill and attend the annual bottle show in the Juan de Fuca Arena in Colwood each summer. They would usually travel with Terry's parents Margaret and Ron Wagner and I could spend the night with them, so I didn't have to pack much of anything. In those days, I didn't even bother taking a bottle of water. I would drive to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, ride my bike onto the ferry and make my way to Colwood. There was no easy way to cycle in from the ferry. I rode on Highway 17, East Saanich Road or Interurban Road. All had a fair bit of traffic, although Highway 17 was far and away the busiest. It also had some steeper hills, but it was the most direct. Nowadays, there is a much better alternative. The Lochside Trail , most of which is on the former Canadian National Railways right-of-way between downtown Victoria and Sidney,...