To those people who volunteered or those who donated to our cause, thank you very much. We couldn’t have run the campaign without you.

To every one of our outstanding candidates: Thank you for giving so much of yourselves.
To Ijaz Chatha: Thank you for your tireless efforts to get Surrey its fair share of funding for the past three years. Your determination as a School Trustee will be missed.

To Charlene Dobie, congratulations on your election to the Board of Education. We are confident you will serve the students, parents, teachers, support staff and all other stakeholders with the respect they deserve and will always strive to improve the lines of communication among everyone in the education community.

And especially to Bob Bose: You unselfishly served Surrey as mayor and councillor for more than three decades. Surrey will miss your principles, honour, and integrity; your unique combination of humour and valour; and your calm disposition in the face of adversity. May the light rail transit line you have lobbied for since the 1970s, or the additional parkland you fought to protect since the 1980s, be named in your honour.

Finally, to all the citizens of Surrey: The Surrey Civic Coalition will take a deep breath then return to stand on guard. We will continue to work together for the betterment of everyone in our great city.

Opposition council candidate Grant Rice said Thursday that warning bells should be going off about the city’s foray into moneymaking enterprises usually left to private developers.

“The people running the Surrey City Development Corp. don’t have the expertise to handle multimillion-dollar projects. They’re burning through $1 million a year and the taxpayers know very little about it,” said Rice, who is running for the Surrey Civic Coalition.

“I’m sticking up for private developers here and asking how we can insure that they have a level playing field,” said Rice.

Meanwhile, Mayor Dianne Watts’ office has released the details of three joint-venture projects with private businesses that will start in 2012:

• A $25-million development at the Cloverdale Mall with 102 residential units and 2,000 square metres of retail;

• A $39-million townhouse development in East Clayton with 141 units;

• A $15-million brewery, office and retail project that will take up 9,200 square metres in Bridgeview.

Independent mayoral candidate Ross Buchanan said the corporation’s annual financial statement reads like an “Enron” balance sheet because details have been left out about the contracts and who is earning $632,000 in salaries.

Buchanan, who is challenging Watts’ Surrey First party, said the corporation was almost $3 million in the red at the end of 2010. Expenses in 2010 were $1.3 million.

“The political involvement by the mayor and councillor [Linda Hepner] as directors of the corporation creates a conflict of interest with what’s best for the city,” he said.

Buchanan said there are inherent business “risks” such as those involved in the money-losing Olympic Village in Vancouver.

“Some developers go bankrupt a couple of times,” he said.

Watts, meanwhile, said the corporation will provide huge benefits for the city and save taxpayers’ money.

It makes “strategic” land purchases, shapes growth, lowers taxes and adds “significant value” to city holdings, she said.

“We want to create a revenue stream to help pay for capital projects like a new performing arts centre,” she said.

Watts said the corporation’s $2.8-million deficit will be “wiped out” this year as land sales bear fruit.

The salaries are necessary to manage major projects such as the city’s new $38-million library, she said.

Other Canadian cities have established corporations similar to Surrey’s, including Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, she said.

“Edmonton is very active in residential and industrial land development,” said Mark Hall, Edmonton’s development manager. “It is a for-profit venture.”

Watts said she will never be in a conflict of interest.

“I will always do what’s best for the city,” she said.

Chatha, a Surrey School Trustee who is seeking reelection with the Surrey Civic Coalition, said he could have gone to Surrey’s Economic Summit on the taxpayers’ dime but he chose not to.

Chatha said all trustees were asked if they would like tickets but he declined. Four trustees, all members of Surrey First, did go, he said.

“Should $600 of taxpayer money be spent to attend a summit conference?,” asked Chatha. “No, I don’t think so. I believe this is not something that the voters of Surrey elect the trustees for. They elected me to be honest, trustworthy, and committed to the issues, and it gives me pride to say I have preserved the trust of the residents of Surrey in my last three years.”

Chatha said the provincial government is not giving enough money for the needs of Surrey students for Community Link funding. In comparison to some other school districts we are not getting the fair share to support this program, and this issue has been raised with the education ministers several times.

Chatha said he thinks economic summits are good for Surrey but elected officials should pay their own way if they want to attend.

“Six hundred dollars may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things but I would rather have this money spent on vulnerable students. Therefore I did not accept because I don’t think it is worthwhile using $600 just so I can be seen at a summit conference.”

for further information, please contact:
Ijaz Chatha  778-883-0161

She predicts the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council will get boxed in by the provincial government and “are likely to break their promise that transit won’t be funded through property tax increase.”

Ryan explained that the BC Liberals have put legislation in place for the new TransLink two-cent-per-litre gas tax to be deducted starting April 1, 2012. Mayor Dianne Watts and other members of the Mayors Council voted in favour of the new two-cent-per-litre gas tax.

Ryan said TransLink’s share of the $400 million required for the Evergreen Line is legislated to come from property taxes until the province and the Mayors’ Council agree on an alternative long-term, sustainable funding source. The gap in funding will need to be bridged within the next year.

Ryan said the province and Mayors Council haven’t got a good track record of negotiations and “are unlikely to reach agreement within the next year. So homeowners should anticipate an increase in their property taxes.”

Ryan said, “TransLink and the province have been unable to agree on a long-term, sustainable funding source for public transit in the Lower Mainland. Experience shows us that unless someone can work a miracle in the next 12 months, the Mayors Council will be forced to default to withdrawing funds from property taxes, something the majority of them previously promised would never happen.”

Ryan said she too is opposed to funding transit through property taxes, saying it is a regressive form of taxation that charges people based on the value of their property rather than their ability to pay.

“It’s time for the provincial government to provide adequate funding for local transit so residents can be assured their property taxes won’t be used to fund transportation.”

For further information, contact:

Stephanie Ryan
c. 778-855-8574
e. stephanieryan86@gmail.com

Stephanie Ryan with the Surrey Civic Coalition says the Mayor during her term has fallen short in getting transit improvements, “Mayor Watts was Chair of the Mayors Council for Translink for a year and I think most people would point to a lack of results in getting some more equitable funding for Surrey and south of the Fraser during that one year tenure.”

But, Dianne Watts says progress at Translink is more than just an increase in transit services, “There is a realization that over the next 20 years, 70% of the regions growth is coming south of the Fraser. So, I think there was a process where the mind set had to be changed.”

Watts says the governance structure of Translink also needs to be changed.

Original article: http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1573295

We can’t recommend the reelection of Mayor Dianne Watts after her defence of former president George W. Bush’s recent visit to her city. Watts has also sent conflicting signals over whether she wants Metro Vancouver to build a waste incinerator in Surrey, whereas one of her opponents, Ross Buchanan, has been unequivocally opposed. Another mayoral candidate, Vikram Bajwa, has tried to find out how much Surrey taxpayers ended up forking out on the Bush visit. We say vote for him if you don’t like people who start illegal wars of aggression visiting your city. For council, we like lots of the progressive Surrey Civic Coalition candidates, notably incumbent Bob Bose, Stephanie Ryan, Rina Gill, and former councillor Gary Robinson. They all know their stuff. If you have to vote for members of the Watts gang, the best choices are incumbents Judy Villeneuve and Barinder Rasode, who’ve been associated with progressive causes in the past.

Since I live in Newton, I frequent this area quite often and when I noticed the parking meters, I indirectly avoided parking there as well. I usually spend an extra 5-10 minutes searching for free parking and then end up walking quite a bit of a distance to my destination. While visiting with some of these businesses yesterday, I learned that if you are using the free parking in the adjacent mall but then coming to the shops on 137^th street, you can potentially get a ticket. I wasn’t aware of this until now. Apparently, the parking enforcement officer is strict and patrolling the area on a regular basis.

Since I’m a small business owner; I can completely empathize with the challenges the others are dealing with. This part of Newton is a low income area. People cannot afford to pay for parking, so what ends up happening is they avoid visiting the shops and businesses in this area altogether. This has resulted in approximately 15% decrease in revenue for all the businesses along 137^th Street.

While speaking with Harry from the UPS Store, he walked me through the whole process the City undertook to install these parking meters. Harry and his fellow business owners presented the City of Surrey a lengthy petition of people who opposed the parking meters; however the City continued to proceed with their original plans.

Now the City is re-evaluating this decision to see if it’s benefiting them revenue-wise. If people are opting to go elsewhere instead of paying the parking fees on 137^th street, then it defeats the purpose of setting this up as a revenue stream for the City and the businesses are losing out on customers.

Why did City of Surrey choose this street to install parking meters in the first place? I’d like to know the rationale behind how this was determined. I understand one of the objectives was to prevent people from parking in one spot all day long, however other solutions should have been considered. Also, how much did it cost the City of Surrey to install these parking meters? And now, how much is it going to cost to remove and relocate them?

Rina talked to Harry from the UPS Store who proposed a solution that benefits both City of Surrey and businesses, however, City of Surrey has ignored this solution by telling Harry they will look at this issue after the election is over. Please take a few minutes to watch this video:

Rina Gill, SCC Candidate for Surrey City Council

604 599 9902  /  rina@rinagill.ca

Surrey has become a have-not city when it comes to public transit. Residents are understandably fed up with abysmal transit service.

We are not prepared to wait any longer. It’s time to get our fair share now.

For two decades, Surrey has been growing at an unbelievable pace of over 10,000 new residents each year. But transit – like schools, hospitals and other infrastructure – has not kept pace.

Surrey has become the poor cousin in TransLink negotiations, and receives only 25 to 30 per cent of the service that communities north of the Fraser do.

This is patently unfair. Data on growth shows that Surrey has grown at nearly three times the rate of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster since 1986, when those cities first welcomed the opening of Skytrain.

Even with the newest two-cent-per-litre gas tax plan, which Surrey Council proudly boasts will allocate 45 per cent of new bus service hours to the city, Surrey will receive very little, dollar-for-dollar, compared with communities north of the Fraser.

The Evergreen Line to the Tri-Cities, with a population half that of Surrey, is expected to cost $1.4 billion while the new bus service hours coming to Surrey will cost about $194 million, which is less than 10 per cent of Translink’s two-cent-per-litre gas tax plan.

But not only do Surrey residents receive less service, we have to pay more than our counterparts to the north. Surrey residents will pay the same extra two-cents-per-litre as everyone else but are more reliant on their cars and have to drive greater distances. Add to that, the fact that Translink has added an additional fare zone for those who cross the river into Surrey and, finally, all three bridges leading north over the river are expected to be tolled in the years ahead.

It’s a triple whammy for Surrey that applies nowhere else in the province.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts chaired the TransLink Mayors Council for a year but failed to fix any of the funding inequities.

Meanwhile, her Surrey First Councillors nod along, toeing the line, gratefully accepting whatever TransLink happens to throw their way. That just isn’t good enough.

Surrey residents can no longer afford to wait with Watts as she dithers over transit service. We have been paying into TransLink for years without receiving our fair share of service. It is time to start playing catch-up with those cities that receive many more service hours per capita than we do.

Whether it’s tolls, gas taxes, fare zones, or a proposed vehicle levy, it is time Surrey reaped the rewards of a system we have been paying into all along.

Surrey residents should reasonably expect their City Council to take a more aggressive stance at the TransLink bargaining table, pursuing an expansion of bus service, bus rapid transit, and light rail service now – not just when it is politically convenient.

In politics, you get what you negotiate and that means taking risks, being bold, building alliances and not accepting ‘no’ for an answer, particularly when the people you represent are being treated as unfairly as Surrey residents are.

What does Surrey need? More tough negotiating with the province, and fewer celebrity “love ins” with world leaders.

Stephanie Ryan
Candidate for City Council
Surrey Civic Coalition
c. 778-855-8574
e. stephanieryan86@gmail.com

While current City Councillor Tom Gill says the Surrey First team supports the position, as long as the Province provides the funding, Independent mayoral candidate, Vikram Bajwa says that role should have been created years ago.

Surrey Civic Coalition candidate Grant Rice says when an Auditor-General is chosen, he wants that person to look at sales from back in 2003, “When Campbell Heights was sold for 15 cents on a dollar, 35-thousand dollars an acre to Progressive and Kingswood.”

Among other topics covered at the discussion were whether the RCMP should be kept in the city and what candidates would do to improve areas of Surrey like the City Centre.

Gary Robinson, with the Surrey Civic Coalition: “It’s one more example I guess, of the Provincial Government not listening. If it takes a city standing up to them, then a city needs to stand up to them. It’s a colossal waste of money.”

Robinson says people he has talked to are opposed to a system that monitors their actions.

Original article: http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1571649