Scott MOE MOE SERVICE
MOE RESULTS
604.533.3491 www.scottmoe.com
“...highly recommend him to anyone!” - D & M Karius, Surrey
Your Week Weekly k l y CClover l o ver Valley Newspaper July 8, 2015 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y
Treeland Realty
REFERENDUM
Doomed from the start? Mayors were quickly on defensive By Jeff Nagel Many observers and some mayors predicted the referendum was doomed from the start. But Metro Vancouver mayors – forced into a box created by Premier Christy Clark – opted to proceed in the hopes that they could pull out a surprise win, just as the premier had a year earlier. They did succeed in hammering out a detailed transit expansion plan a year ago in a tight time frame laid down by the province. The only mayor opposing it then was Burnaby’s Derek Corrigan, who called the $7.5-billion package too ambitious and predicted failure. Haggling continued over what funding source to propose until after the 2014 municipal elections. When mayors settled on the sales tax hike in December, two more mayors from West Vancouver and Maple Ridge voted against proceeding. Lack of sufficient control over TransLink ‘The whole thing by the mayors was a major objection for the was a waste.’ holdouts. While the Yes side - Gordon Price, SFU City Program didn’t have complete consensus of mayors director out of the gate, it did have a huge and growing coalition that united disparate groups from business leaders to environmentalists. But despite the big tent of supporters – more than 140 groups ultimately signed on to the coalition – confusion and strategic errors ensued. Observers say the lack of time available to prepare voters for the campaign was a major cause of the defeat. See HEPNER / Page 9
MARLENE DELCOURT PHOTO
Early landing
Metro voters reject sales tax hike for transit plan Referendum defeated by 69 per cent in Surrey, mayors search for plan B By Jeff Nagel The finger pointing has resumed between the province and Metro Vancouver mayors after voters resoundingly defeated a proposal to charge a 0.5 per cent sales tax in the region to fund transit and transportation. The proposed tax that would have funded $7.5 billion in upgrades over 10 years was rejected with 61.7 per cent of voters saying No and 38.3 per cent saying Yes. The Yes side lost in every major city of the region – even in Vancouver where it
MacMILLAN “Your Cloverdale TUCKER & MACKAY Law Firm”
Our goal is to provide you with top quality service in a comfortable, friendly environment.
LOCATED in the heart of Cloverdale 5690 - 176A Street, Surrey
Cloverdale resident Marlene Delcourt spied this winged visitor to her garden one morning last week when the tiger swallowtail butterfly landed on her aptly-named butterfly bush. ‘There were a couple of them but just wouldn’t land close enough to each other to get them both in one frame,’ she says. Got a photo to share? Email newsroom@cloverdalereporter.com. Be sure to include a brief description of your image.
ICBC CLAIMS & GENERAL PRACTICE
604-574-7431 www.mactuc.com
ALL YOU CAN EAT TUESDAYS!
got 49.1 per cent – and only won in sparsely populated areas like Belcarra and Bowen Island in the mail-in plebiscite conducted over 10 weeks. The No vote was strongest at 75 per cent or more in areas like Maple Ridge and Langley Township. Elections BC received more than 798,000 ballots – 51 per cent of all registered voters – but more than 38,000 ballots were rejected. The defeat leaves the region without $250 million a year in new revenue the tax would have brought to expand transit.
Open Fridays until 9pm
Surrey and Vancouver are expected to try to cobble together their own plan B strategies to build light rail in Surrey and a SkyTrain extension west along Broadway. But the region will be without the funding required for a broad 25 per cent bus service lift, including many more frequent express bus routes that had been in the mayors’ plan, nor will there be money for increased SkyTrain, HandyDart, night bus or SeaBus service that was to have swiftly kicked in after a Yes vote. See PREMIER / Page 8
WELCOMING NEW PATIENTS
CLOVERDALE ONLY
835-17685 64th Ave CLOVERDALE
604-575-2115
101 - 17750 56 Ave Surrey - Cloverdale
A UTHENTIC ENGLISH
S TTYLE YLE
FISH & CHIPS
604-599-9215
101 - 15953 Fraser Hwy - Fleetwood
www.saltysfishandchips.ca
(located next to London Drugs)
778-571-0800 www.cloverdaledentalclinic.com