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Shared Policies of Atwal & Bue

The following policies are believed to be the most important by the councillor candidate team of Surjit Atwal and Dan Bue:

Pay Increase for Abbotsford councillors

Atwal and Bue would both like to express their disapproval of the high pay raises that Abbotsford councillors have just awarded themselves. The timing could not have been more inappropriate, occurring right after announced overruns on Plan A and high tax increases to the general public as a result of Plan A. It may be that they were behind comparable communities but this was most definitely not the year to consider catching up.

Emergency Planning

Needs to be strengthened so that the City is fully prepared for every contingency, which in the Fraser Valley would be primarily flood control and earthquake management. Flooding tends to be a yearly concern and improved river dyking needs to be in place as well as serious attention given to dredging to allow greater water volume. Earthquake preparation also must be in place. We are in an earthquake zone and, eventually, we will need to deal with the aftermath of a major quake. This will mean that we need to have emergency water, power and medical capability for a reasonable recovery period. This also means that we should be encouraging the Federal government to establish a bigger military presence locally to be available in times of emergency. This could be in the form of a militia or reserve presence.

Transportation

We see 3 aspects as being important:

• Commuter access to Vancouver
• Transportation within Abbotsford
• Going green

1. Commuter access to Vancouver
   We see the twinning of the Port Mann as a necessary first step in relieving pressure on an overburdened public transportation system. The current difficulty of movement is adding many dollars in unnecessary expenses to the consumer because of the delays in moving goods and services through clogged arteries. However, this is not a long-term solution. There is also a need to add a light-rail commuter link on this side of the river to service the many thousands of commuters who make the daily trip into the city for their jobs. This could be done most reasonably through the utilization of abandoned rail lines, such as the BC Electric line. The West Coast Express is a great service which needs to be duplicated on this side of the river where there is a larger population.


2. Transportation within Abbotsford
   Lane marking must be given greater attention within Abbotsford. Poorly marked lanes are a serious safety issue, especially during wet, evening conditions when lights reflect from the whole roadway. Pressure must also be brought to bear on the Provincial Government to pay more attention to lane marking on highways.)
   
   As the community continues to grow, more attention must also be paid to having major access and arterial roads keep pace with the growth. For example, some of the east-west through-routes come to abrupt ends and snarl traffic (some examples: George Ferguson Way, McKee Rd., Marshall Rd.)


3. Going green
   Better attention must be given to having designated bike lanes linking the whole city so that local workers can have cycling to work as a safe and viable option. A start has been made, but there are many improvements that can be added, such as adding a bike lane to the sidewalk on one side of the street, where there are two sidewalks (this is commonly done all over Europe and it works). Also, where bike lanes are being added to new roads (such as Watcom Rd.), the lanes need to be wider and separated by a curb to make them safer and more user friendly (the extra bike lane width could be easily gained by making the median slightly narrower).

Homelessness & Crime

From his recent work as a prison chaplain, Bue has learned first hand that most crime is drug related. More than 80% of the inmates he was involved with had been incarcerated due to drug involvement. There is also much homelessness associated in the cycle of drugs and crime.

A proven solution to lower rates of both homelessness and crime lies in the example of the Craftsmen’s Guild and the Bidwell Training Centre in Pittsburgh. These programs, which have been successfully emulated in other cities, not only provide shelter for the homeless, but also provide a complete program involving the residents as active participants. Residents are fed and housed, and training for various skills is provided. Through extensive involvement in their total educational and support program, the participants develop the confidence to be able to market their newly acquired skills elsewhere (See Strickland’s book, "Making the Impossible Possible"). Through the encouragement of churches and charitable organizations to develop such programming, it can be achieved without a significant expense to the tax payer.

Property Taxes

When Plan A was presented, both Atwal and Bue could see the advantages to the community, in that it would provide more opportunities for sports, art and culture to flourish in our own community and give our young people something to do at home. However, for such a huge cost over-run to be announced so shortly after the vote is totally unacceptable. An individual wouldn’t budget for a new house and then spend 30% more so why would the caretakers of our city do any differently? Most taxpayers would have felt that the high tax increase was already going to stretch household budgets without having the additional shock of an early huge cost over-run. councillors need to be aware that many of the constituents whom they serve are already finding the tax burden onerous and are quite unprepared to handle such a shock to their budgets.

Airport Expansion

We believe that we have a very viable option to the Vancouver Airport right in our backyard and we need to look at every means possible to expand this facility. This can be not only in an expanded number of routes available but also in airport-related industry. This will serve to bring more jobs right into our own market place and allow more people to stay right at home in our own community.

Business-Friendly City Hall

We must develop a more business-friendly approach in city hall so that developers are more interested in doing business here. Recently, the Sandman Inn almost went elsewhere because of bureaucratic delays and obstruction at city hall. At one point, Bue considered moving his business to Chilliwack for similar reasons. Chilliwack has a reputation as being more business friendly and we need to improve our profile so that we can also readily attract businesses here. We want to be able to provide more opportunities for our residents to be able to work within their own home community.

Water

Cities fail for lack of water. For example, ancient Ostia, a city founded in Italy at about 850 B.C., became uninhabited after 1000 years because of a breakdown in their infrastructure, most notably the viaduct which brought their water supply. We, too, have such a problem developing. With a fast growing population, we are not too many years away from having a fresh water shortage. There is a large available supply of fresh water at Harrison Lake, but it will require beginning a contingency fund immediately so that tapping into that supply at a later date will not be an onerous expense.