langleywatchdog…. and more!

“The best predictor of FUTURE BEHAVIOUR is PAST BEHAVIOUR!”

The topic of this BLOG Post is based on my personal experiences with Kevin Falcon when I was Mayor of the Township of Langley. (circa 2008 – 2011) For the Record: I have been a life-long free enterprise supporter going back to 1975, a community activist, party insider, Constituency Executive Member, Provincial Convention Plenary Chairman and candidate, although all of that was during the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Since that time, in my opinion the free enterprise option has seriously lost its way in our province under the B.C. Liberals aka B.C. United, a lot of things have changed. I have never been able to be a blind loyalist to a given political party if they break from traditional beliefs, “bad government is bad government, on the left or the right.”

In 2017 a group of us had the opportunity to have a two-hour meeting with then candidate John Horgan, NDP Leader – we were very suitably impressed. We found John Horgan far more reasoned and balanced than any NDP Leader we have known, competed against or known since the mid-70s, he just had a good dose of common sense and in our opinion wasn’t drawn to the traditional extreme elements of his party! We supported John and the NDP since that time and have not been sorry for it with so many common-sense actions legislated by his government. Personally I didn’t agree with everything, but on balance he ran a good government, my opinion. Many of my old allies thought I had lost my mind – but then a problem, John Horgan stepped down!

The NDP’s new leader David Eby has been very disappointing – “He is NO John Horgan”. I certainly was willing to give him a chance, but to no avail. The NDP are now back to making decisions, absent any critical thinking, consultation or knowledge on so many issues. They have reverted back to their Social Engineering agenda on a variety of issues. Issues such as removing community plans, zoning and parking requirements with no experience or consultation through Bills 44, 46 and 47; communities as we have known and invested in them will be changed forever. The problem here is that it will take a number of years to realize how bad these decisions were. Their disingenuous press releases regarding highway 1 widening and completion times while ignoring interregional public transit south of the Fraser, short-sighted and poorly thought-out decriminalization of drugs, the revolving door on crime, out of control provincial finances and so much more, it is getting worse.

More on the NDP in a future BLOG Post.  

Back to the very negative issues against Kevin Falcon, which are many but I will outline just a few serious issues that tell me he cannot be trusted in any capacity of leadership.

The Mufford Crescent Diversion (circa 2008 – 2011): In short, this issue stemmed from the Roberts Bank Rail Corridor agreement consisting of 12 funding partners with the purpose to fund 9 overpasses between Roberts Bank and the main rail line South of the Fraser. It was decided by well-known elected political insiders that the Township overpass was to be located at Mufford Crescent over Glover Road. Despite ZERO public consultation, the decision and the very surprising connecting road network was made behind the scenes by those insiders we identify as the Langley Mafia, well connected and involved politically. This was a major issue I ran on during the 2008 election. Despite the then Mayor denying any plan for an overpass we obtained a supporting document confirming our suspicions. After successfully winning that election and before my swearing in, I contacted the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) at which time I had it confirmed that the commissioners were considering this proposal at that moment. I served notice at that time that I would be taking this issue to a series of public open houses and a public meeting to receive public input – despite that notice the ALC gave conditional approval of the proposal shortly after my phone call, not waiting for input from our newly elected Council and input from our community. The above is only the start of our very successful BUT long two-year fight.

The issue with Kevin Falcon? This project’s lead agency was TransLink and their consulting company – Falcon was responsible for TransLink. My opposition to this project without any public consultation was met with derision by then Minister of Transportation Kevin Falcon. Very soon after my swearing in I received an open letter from Minister Falcon “if we didn’t want their funding, they would move the money elsewhere”? Really! No phone call, no conversation, just a threatening letter. On the same issue, after an MFA meeting in his Victoria office the Minister ran after me once again stating a threat to move the money to another project if we didn’t like what they were proposing? Let’s put it this way, it was a very short conversation – a polite version would be “get stuffed”! We would not be threatened – again after two years, we won!

Why did we object to their concocted proposal? They had designed a multi- KM – 4 lane road from Mufford Crescent, cutting the old Hudson’s Bay Farm in half with an overpass over the railway tracks and Glover Road with the road cutting the Bella-Vista Farm in half continuing to 216^th and 64^th – a direction nobody wanted to go connecting to a two-lane country road. In short this would have isolated about 300 acres of farmland that would be very difficult to farm therefore becoming nothing more than a land deal for future development. After close to 2 years, thanks to the then new ALC Chairman Richard Bullock, based on our committee’s minority report’s three major arguments, he voted against the project creating a tie vote therefore defeating the proposal. Kevin Falcon fought us all the way. FYI – The B.C. Liberals removed Richard Bullock from his position shortly after that decision, we retained over 300 acres of prime agricultural land because of his support.

The full and complete story can be read at https://langleywatchdog.com/2013/02/

Financing for the Evergreen Line from TransLink members – During the campaigning for the Evergreen Line in the early 2000s, the regions Councils had campaigned very hard for a lower cost light rail passenger transit option to serve Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. The region’s TransLink members agreed to a $400 million contribution but had very limited legislative options to raise that kind of money.

Unfortunately, the Provincial Government coopted by the Federal Government then advised all TransLink members that they would build a transit system but it had to be SkyTrain! As is the case on every extension of SkyTrain, the cost ballooned exponentially as budgets exploded and the TransLink members refused to come up with the previously promised funding coupled with the fact operational costs were that much greater. We fought Kevin Falcon on this issue – his answer you can add it to your municipal property tax rolls! Really? We ended up agreeing to an additional 2 cents a litre on gas tax, but did not add an additional expense on property taxes throughout the lower mainland. When Kevin Falcon tells you who he is believe him!       

Truck Parking on Agricultural Land – Quality of Life has always been an intrinsic value, asset and reason for so many to move to, and live in the Township of Langley. 75% of the Township’s land base is locked into the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), protecting it from residential development. The ALR protects that land from the pressures that come with it, and protection of our quality of life. An issue that started before and during my term as Mayor was what I called the bastardization of the ALR, specifically the non-permitted use of ALR land for a variety of commercial uses, not allowed by provincial legislation BUT the ALC did not have adequate or even minimal enforcement personnel to respond. The ALC always tried to rely on municipal by-law officers who were dealing with pressure from many other areas due to development and staffing pressures.

One of the major issues is the use of ALR land for truck parking which has exponentially got worse over the past decade. We cannot allow these uses in the ALR or we will lose the ALR forever. We have those in society that don’t believe the rules apply to them excusing away the problem with saying there is no place to park their trucks? There is no excuse for breaking the law and there is a process to deal with their problem and issue, USE IT!

Now we have Kevin Falcon arriving in the Township of Langley for a speaking engagement and in an interview with local media stating – “Due to the importance of trucking to the local economy, he would allow truck parking on ALR land”! This was in the response to the Township of Langley taking action against this illegal activity. Really? Unbelievable!      

Changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve – Kevin Falcon during his local Langley media interview stated he would be making changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve! That says it all, and based on my experiences with Kevin Falcon “When Kevin Falcon tells you who he is, believe him!”

A Provincial Government MOT in-house Fraser Valley Transportation Study (Circa 2008 – 2010) In typical Kevin Falcon fashion, he has shown his stripes in favor of BIG Rail (ie CP, CN etc). We all remember the infamous Gordon Campbell / Kevin Falcon Government promise – we will not sell B.C. Rail promise pre-election and then post-election he leased B.C. Rail to CN for 999 years, how insulting! That obvious addiction to support corporate heavy rail over the interests of the public raised its head on another issue in 2009 involving yours truly, so a little history is in order as follows.

In a February 2009 in-camera meeting, as Mayor I had questions regarding the volume of Heavy Rail going through the Langleys and our ability to deal with various rail related issues.

I was advised of a report that our TOL corporate lawyers provided after a 2005 investigation. After viewing that report there were conclusions with an added “subject to what is in the Master Agreement”? Problem – nobody had been able to uncover that Master Agreement? After the meeting and 5 phone calls, I had a copy on my desk the next morning (anonymous). This agreement was between B.C. Hydro and CP Rail, it was a complete previously unknown revelation. A lot has been written about this over the years and I will be providing an update in a future BLOG Post. The key point for this discussion is that the Master Agreement covering the joint section through the Langleys was for 21 years. renewable at either party’s option including the renewal clause. It had to be renewed by August 26^th, 2009. I launched a renewal campaign with all municipalities South of the Fraser, unanimous approval except Chilliwack. I deliberately did not go to the provincial government given their past record of non-support for passenger rail but went directly to then B.C. Hydro CEO Bob Elton – Passenger rights were renewed in June of 2009. Of interest is the fact Bob Elton was removed as B.C. Hydro CEO a few months later? Coincidence, I don’t think so!

I am raising this here due to the past obvious biases of the then B.C. Liberal Government with heavy rail at the expense of the public’s interest and their rights. This was in no way an effort to stifle heavy rail movements but it is and was ensuring that the joint use of the publicly owned and passenger rights protected corridor was sustained. There were very specific commitments made by CP Rail as part of the Freight Rights Sales agreement made in 1988.

It was during this period while campaigning to renew this corridor in meetings with then Mayor of Chilliwack Sharon Gaetz, she stated bizarrely – people don’t leave Chilliwack, we don’t need it? Interesting about 5 years later she publicly stated that it was needed. Pushed by Chilliwack the Provincial Government Ministry of Transportation in-house Fraser Valley Transportation Study (Circa 2008 – 2010) was conducted supported by TransLink and BC Transit (Both agencies controlled by the B.C. Government). In keeping with past self-serving non-educated in-house studies it was produced with pre-determined outcomes. It is interesting to note that the renewal of passenger rights occurred in the early stages of this study, but was not mentioned or considered. Despite the fact this was supposed to be a Fraser Valley Study with Chilliwack participating, it is interesting that all other Fraser Valley Municipalities were excluded and were not asked for input on this study. Kevin Falcon was Minister of Transportation during this period, he is responsible for ignoring the rights of the people of B.C. in favor of his heavy rail friends and insiders in an attempt to squash interest in passenger rail.

NOTE – A NEW 2-part series is coming on the campaign and status to reactivate the publicly owned, passenger protected 99 km Interurban Rail Corridor with State-of-the-art Hydrail Passenger Rail – Go to www.southfrasercommunityrail.com for a view of the proposal.    

In Summary: It should not be surprising to see the B.C. Liberals / BC United doing so badly in the polls. It all stems from their disastrous 16 years in government of which Kevin Falcon was a key part. The public are not stupid, changing the party name without changing what you stand for or cleaning house of old tired personalities who are guilty through participation of the past will not be accepted by the people of B.C.

RG

I am working on a few posts at present that I believe are of significant concern to Township of Langley Residents, come back often for news of interest to Township residents.

Protect your Democratic Rights – Protect your NEIGHBORS Democratic Rights – stay informed, stay involved and VOTE!!!

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