Apr
21
2011
Light Rail Transit for Surrey – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Surrey residents were invited to “be part of the plan” as TransLink held public consultation sessions on various technology options for future rapid transit service. The four technology options proposed at the meetings were rapid rail (SkyTrain), light rail, rapid bus transit, and what TransLink calls “best bus” service, where all dollars are funnelled into expanding bus service to a much higher capacity, without any capital investment in rapid transit infrastructure. At this point in the planning process there is no plan for where the dollars for these transit service expansions will come from. But what was most obvious at
Apr
21
2011
SCC calls for a solution to portables crisis – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Surrey has not done a good job of ensuring its infrastructure keeps pace with its rapid growth. The pace of growth—about 1,000 new residents per month for the past 20 years—has helped Surrey build a bigger tax base, create jobs at home, and generally assume its rightful place as the urban centre south of the Fraser River. But in terms of services for its citizens, Surrey continues to fall further behind. Perhaps nowhere is the infrastructure deficit felt more than in education. Surrey has been the province’s largest school district for many years now, but no capital funding for a
Apr
21
2011
Arts Investment in Surrey – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
In the new knowledge economy, cities that are most able to attract the highly skilled, intellectual and creative people who drive society’s innovation, are the ones that will thrive economically. Just ask Richard Florida, one of my favourite authors and writer of The Rise of the Creative Class. Success in a knowledge economy will depend largely on a metropolitan area’s ability to draw intellectuals, artists, professionals and skilled immigrants from around the world. So given that most people in Surrey want the city to succeed economically, from a business standpoint, what should be done? Well, the answer doesn’t seem to
Apr
21
2011
Electoral Reforms review – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
It is a very exciting time in BC politics. First the HST has sparked a grassroots political movement not seen here for a generation. At the same time, with much less fanfare but just as significant, the provincial government is reviewing how we elect our local governments. The Local Government Elections Task Force is currently reviewing submissions from stakeholders and will recommend potentially sweeping changes to municipal election laws by the end of May. Changes to the way municipal elections are run in BC could have a particularly significant impact in Surrey, the second-largest city in the province, where elections
Apr
21
2011
Olympics arts and culture in Surrey – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Now that the Olympics and Paralympics are over, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the positive investments that were made as a result of the Games. Most people seem to agree that the investments in public transit made throughout the month of February led to outstanding results. The substantial increase in service, both with buses and Skytrain, allowed many people south of the Fraser to comfortably ride public transit to and from different venue sites, some for the first time. Of course, without badly-needed additional funding from the provincial government for TransLink, our transit system will continue
Apr
21
2011
Pending school funding crisis in Surrey – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Surrey’s school district faces the same incredibly daunting challenges faced by school districts across this province, as a lack of education funding by the provincial government threatens the most basic of programs. But because Surrey is the largest school district in the province and one of the few that is still growing (enrollment increased by nearly three per cent last year), Surrey’s students are going to feel the impacts of cuts even more intensely. Confronted with a budget shortfall of between $15 million and $20 million for the next school year, no program or service to students will be safe.
Apr
21
2011
Fraser Heights Development – Opinion
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Fraser Heights Development – Talk is cheap Surrey First has again used its majority on council to skirt public consultation and bulldoze through a development contrary to residents’ wishes. After a year of admitting the neighbourhood consultation process in Surrey is broken, they proved it again by voting in favour of third reading for a controversial development application near Highway 1 and 176 Street, despite intense community opposition. Three neighbourhood community groups – the Fraser Heights Community Association, the Abbey Ridge Steering Committee, and the South Port Kells Community Association – have been expressing their opposition to the plans
Apr
21
2011
What Surrey must do to solve the mega-home crisis
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
What Surrey must do to solve the mega-home crisis. By Stephanie Ryan, Special to the Sun – November 6, 2009 – Original Article from Vancouver Sun – The recent controversy in Surrey about mega-homes is entirely the city’s own doing. Surrey is infamous for unchecked development, unregulated secondary suites and not enforcing its own zoning bylaws. Now it has to deal with the fallout. Zoning issues came to the forefront again when the Mayor Dianne Watts and council attempted to hastily bring about sweeping changes to the “RF” (single family residential) zone. The process has been rotten from the start.
Apr
21
2011
Surrey council shouldn’t ignore concerns about Welcome Home recovery home.
SCC Opinion Pieces 0
Stephanie Ryan: Surrey council shouldn’t ignore concerns about Welcome Home recovery home By Stephanie Ryan – October 1 , 2009 Many people in Surrey are wondering what it is about the proposed Welcome Home facility that city council wants so badly that it would ignore its own planning and development department’s recommendations. The controversy will come to a head on Monday (October 5), when the proposal goes to a public hearing. Welcome Home is being billed as a therapeutic community that will aim to equip recovering drug and alcohol addicts, as well as court-ordered offenders, with the life and job
Apr
21
2011
Surrey needs real sustainable development, not just rhetoric.
SCC 2008 Election 0
Stephanie Ryan: Surrey needs real sustainable development, not just rhetoric By Stephanie Ryan – June 5, 2009 Sustainability. It’s the current buzzword in Surrey. But city council’s actions belie the rhetoric. Take, for example, the recent suggestion by one of Mayor Dianne Watts’s council team to swap “unfarmable” land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve to use it for industrial purposes, including truck parking. The ALR was established in 1972 by the NDP government to protect farmland so that present and future generations would be able to grow healthy, local food. In 1973, 86 percent of the vegetables consumed in