If you had to vote today, who would you vote for mayor of Surrey?

2 Comments

  • Annie Kaps - 5 years ago

    SEMIAHMOO FISH & GAME CLUB - PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE - Municipal Election Questionnaire
    Tom Gill / Surrey First did not reply
    Bruce Hayne / Integrity Now - replied yes to all three questions
    Doug McCallum / Safe Surrey Coalition – replied yes to all three questions
    Pauline Greaves / Proudly Surrey as a resident of the area replied yes
    Imtiaz Popat & John Wolanski also responded in support

    In recent weeks I have been approached by a number of Club members asking who they should vote for in Saturday’s municipal elections. It is not my position, or that of the Club, to solicit votes for one party or another. Having said that, the Club does however, have an intense interest in the position of the mayoralty candidates and their parties when it comes to the protection of Little Campbell River, the related forests and wildlife. Over the past decade a large amount of our senior director’s time has been spent campaigning with elected officials to protect the Little Campbell River watershed from destructive development.

    The focus in the past three years has been our opposition to the City of Surrey’s plans to introduce commercial development onto the banks of the river east of the Club grounds. This development plan is called the South Campbell Heights Local Area Plan (LAP). Since the 630 acres encompassed in the LAP moved development into the Metro Vancouver Urban Containment Boundary (UCB) it required Metro Vancouver approval. The UCB was designed to protect rural areas, agricultural lands and green spaces from urban sprawl. The City of Surrey’s application was rejected by a vast majority of the Metro Vancouver Council in May of this year. The area south of 16th Avenue is frequently referred to as the Hazelmere Valley.

    The Club, in conjunction with the Friends of Hazelmere Valley; the Surrey Environmental Partners; the Little Campbell River Watershed Society; A Rocha Canada and the Grandview Heights Stewardship Association it was decided to ask the Mayoralty candidates three questions to assess their commitment to protect this area from development. The questions were:

    1) Will you continue to support the Metro Vancouver Board decision which rejected a City of Surrey LAP proposal? The board recognized that there were valid concerns that development would end the rural nature of the area and could have endangered the Brookswood Aquifer and the Little Campbell River.

    2) Do you support the current Urban Containment Boundary - a boundary that was designed to protect rural areas, agricultural areas and green spaces from Urban Sprawl in the Metro 2040 Plan?

    3) Do you endorse the idea of a Regional Park in the unique area in South Surrey known as Hazelmere? Many parts of the Hazelmere Valley including parts of the Little Campbell Watershed within the special study area have been put forward for years as areas to be saved for future municipal, regional and national* urban park space needs.

    The results of the questionnaire are as follows:
    Bruce Hayne / Integrity Now - replied yes to all three questions
    Doug McCallum / Safe Surrey Coalition – replied yes to all three questions
    Pauline Greaves / Proudly Surrey as a resident of the area replied yes
    Imtiaz Popat & John Wolanski also responded in support

    Tom Gill / Surrey First did not reply

    I provide this information as a guide if you have a concern with further development in South Surrey and plan to vote.

    I encourage all club members to take the time and vote for your candidates of choice.

    Bob Donnelly,
    President

  • Annie Kaps - 5 years ago

    Citizens should be reminded---as per Black Press articles---of City Surrey mayor and council in their Hawthorne Park actions.

    Mayoralty candidates Hayne and Gill, as well as council candidates LeFranc, Starchuk, Steele and Woods, are/were on Council when abused Canadian Charter Rights of Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech......imagine calling RCMP on post-public hearing citizens seated on bleachers outside city hall......imagine city clerk, Jane Sullivan, advising staff to deny access to public libraries.......imagine mics being turned off at Sounds of Summer until attendees vociferously demanded that anti-AAP protester could speak.....imagine that, in our Canadian democratic country, a lawyer had to be engaged to right this abuse. Next, imagine them gone from Council!!

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