Surrey city council voted unanimously this week to withdraw from the Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy.
WATCH: The City of Surrey appears to be fed up with Metro Vancouver . Council has voted to look at forging its own path, potentially leaving the regional growth strategy. As Travis Prasad reports, councillors are unhappy with how the regional government is being managed. Metro Vancouver describes the strategy, adopted two years ago, as the region’s “shared vision of how projected population, housing, and job growth will be managed over the next 30 years.
“It does fail Surrey, as it is,” said Mayor Brenda Locke. “It’s very clear in here that it’s talking about things that attach everything to public transit. It stops us from doing a lot of the development we can and should be doing.”Surrey Coun. Linda Annis pointed to continued concerns about governance and spending at the regional body, ranging from the massively over-budget North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant to international travel to stipends for attending committee meetings.
“I quite frankly have lost confidence in them and I think they need to get back into the core service, and that’s water and sewer.”Liberals top Tories for 1st time in years, new Ipsos polling saysAndy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, said Surrey’s move reflects a feeling among many south of the Fraser that the region has been long overlooked for infrastructure funding.
“Going alone, you couldn’t. There is no idea of a municipal sewage system. These are systems that are best operated at a regional level.”Metro Vancouver says no municipality has ever withdrawn from any of its growth strategies, and that it will reach out to Surrey to hear the city’s concerns. Locke, meanwhile, said the city is planning to hold a summit with the mayors of neighbouring municipalities to discuss a coordinated strategy to ensure the cost of regional services stays under control.March or April? Where Trump tariffs stand as 2 key dates nearViewed
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