PREMIER John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who were scheduled to meet on Monday morning (January 13) in the Parliament Buildings in Victoria, will now will meet by video conference because of the weather.
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Horgan and Trudeau will meet by video conference (update)
If the BC and federal govts’ have a mutual objective of attracting investments from domestic and overseas companies and individuals to all of Metro Vancouver, and not just to MV’s “North of Fraser” sub-region, then Horgan and Trudeau should conduct a joint press conference wherein they commit both of their respective govts to:
1) Establishing a joint task force* that would be charged with promoting and facilitating MV’s perennially neglected “South of Fraser” (SOF) sub-region’s economic development;
* Made up of representatives of the BC and federal govts, and South of Fraser cities;
2) Relocating most or all of the existing (BC govt, fed govt and other) social services from Surrey City Centre and other SOF Urban Centres and Regional City Centres) area…
… while emphasizing the severe impediments that have resulted from decisions** to saturate Surrey’s City Centre (and Surrey’s other Urban/Regional City Centres) with social services and make-work-project non profit agencies…
** previous Surrey and BC govt administrations’ misguided decisions)
3) Paying for at least two-thirds of the construction costs of a NETWORK of SkyTrain lines in the South of Fraser area that would connect existing and to-be-designated SOF Urban Centres, Regional City Centres and Municipal Town Centres;
Why should the already extensively developed North of Fraser sub-region receive a fifth legitimate rapid-transit (SkyTrain) line- the planned $8.5 Billion UBC subway- while the perennially neglected, under-developed, much larger (geographically)- and far faster growing (in population) South of Fraser is, ridiculously, offered a $1.6 Billion 19th century-technology FAKE rapid-transit street-car (“LRT”) line- that the vast majority of SOF business owners and residents don’t want??
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Background:
https://www.burnabynow.com/news/burnaby-s-257-million-surplus-more-than-double-projected-for-2017-1.23298921
https://www.burnaby.ca/Assets/our+city+hall/financial+reports/2017+-+2021+Financial+Plan.pdf
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/what-will-or-should-burnaby-do-with-its-1b-reserve-fund-1.4253774 :
“(North of Fraser city Burnaby) has accumulated more than $1 billion*** in reserve funding… Community benefits, much of it in the form of cash, have been coughed up by developers in exchange for building homes with more density”
*** Over $1.7 Billion as Jan 2020)
https://www.straight.com/life/354186/towers-rise-burnaby-all-according-plan
“(Burnaby’s)… high-rise developments are being concentrated in four town centres linked by rapid transit: Metrotown, Brentwood, Edmonds, and Lougheed… to allow more places for people to live,”… we have designated for high density: density around (rapid) transit, housing around transit.’”
Burnaby’s developers’ investments boom would not have occurred if the city did not have a network of legitimate**** rapid-transit (SkyTrain) lines connecting the city’s 4 “town centres”, and instead had been given what the previous (un-objective, heavily politicized) Metro Vancouver and Translink Boards attempted to impose on South of Fraser cities: FAKE rapid-transit street-car (“LRT”) lines (in-middle-of-roadway, human driven, SLOW!!)…
**** Automated (computer-driven), separated-from-roadway, RAPID transit lines;