RIDING PROFILE: Tri-Cities, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge

COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) – Transportation, education, and affordable housing will likely be on the minds of voters and politicians in the six ridings that stretch along Lougheed Highway between Port Moody and Maple Ridge.

Among the top three fastest growing communities in Metro Vancouver, Coquitlam underwent a 9.8 per cent population growth spurt between 2011 and 2016, according to Statistics Canada. As more families move to the region to avoid the rising cost of housing, getting to work, school and even hospitals has become harder, according to Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay.

“We’re at the midpoint of the Lower Mainland so we get people coming and going,” he says, adding the Evergreen Line SkyTrain extension has helped. “The expansion of Highway 1 and the Port Mann Bridge has been good to help even more people come in and out of the Tri-Cities, so we need to make sure we’re balancing that with where people are moving and where they want to go.”

Clay stresses whichever party forms the next government they will need to work closely with the Mayors’ Council to complete their 10-year transit plan. “A Broadway extension or a Surrey extension are still very important to us because that’s where our residents are going to work, where their family members are or where they’re going to school,” he explains.

Promises from the Liberals and NDP to cap or eliminate tolls respectively on the Port Mann and Golden Ears Bridge have been met with apprehension from Tri-City mayors. Many of the mayors view the tolls, or some alternate form thereof, as vital to funding infrastructure, maintenance and managing congestion.

“We find ourselves asking, ‘Who’s in charge of regional transportation?” Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart wonders. “We’re trying to manage our growth based on regional growth strategy and regional transportation challenges and when they get changed on a whim, it gets really problematic.”

Congestion has also caused headaches for residents trying to access services in the city. Moore says sometimes congestion on the 60-year-old Barnet Overpass gets so bad that people can see Royal Columbian Hospital, but can’t get to it.

Healthcare

In a region with a growing and aging population, health care will also be among the key issues in the ridings.

Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster is in the process of undergoing a $1.3 billion redevelopment to increase capacity by 50 per cent, but the project won’t be finished until 2025. “A lot of people are talking about the need for our Eagle Ridge Hospital,” Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore says. “There was an announcement to expand the emergency room but for most of us that doesn’t go far enough.”

Education

More people and families have put the squeeze on schools across the Lower Mainland. Tri City News editor Richard Dal Monte thinks education will dominate in Port Moody-Coquitlam, Coquitlam Maillardville and Coquitlam-Burke Mountain where the third largest school district in the province needs funding for new buildings and seismic upgrades.

“The slow drip of funding to get new schools built in a rapidly growing area has been an issue,” he says.

The Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on class sizes and composition has put added pressure on schools and daycares. With smaller classes requiring more rooms, Stewart says four school-based daycares have been told there is no space for them next September.

Notable ridings

With half of the six regional ridings having been decided by less than 1,000 votes in the 2013 election, the races are likely to be tight again. Coquitlam-Maillardville was the closest race in the 2013 election, coming down to a judicial recount and 41 votes between BC Liberal candidate Steve Kim and now-incumbent NDP MLA Selina Robinson. It’s round two this election with both candidates on the ballot. The Green Party has also taken note of the riding, putting up LGBTQ activist Nicola Spurling.

Coquitlam-Burke Mountain has traditionally been held by the Liberals, but swung to the NDP in a 2014 by-election, in what’s speculated, as a battle over education funding.

In Port Moody-Coquitlam, the Liberal’s Linda Reimer won by just over 400 votes against NDP’s Joe Trasolini. This year she’s facing off against the NDP’s Rick Glumac, a Port Moody city councillor, and the Green Party’s Don Barthel, the founder of two high tech businesses, Softline Systems and UsedVancouver.com.

Liberal MLA Doug Bing is under pressure to maintain his seat Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows where his party won by 620 votes four years ago.

He’s faces off against Lisa Beare, a trustee on the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School Board who won the most votes in the 2014 election.

The only relatively secure riding is Port Coquitlam, currently held by the NDP’s Mike Farnworth who was first elected in 1991 and went on to win five of the last six elections.

Swing Ridings

In a region where politicians are fighting over a small sliver of votes, Clay says it may come down to party lines.

“I think it’s a Liberal, NDP battle and I think it’s just going to come down to people’s philosophy of whether the lean left or right,” he says. “What I’m hearing is there’s a lot of people who aren’t as far to the left or right as the two main parties. They feel like they want to be more in the middle.”

He believes this leaves room for a more centrist party that doesn’t polarize the populace much, but admits he doesn’t see any party like that in this election.

Ridings and Candidates

Port Moody-Coquitlam

BC Liberal Party: Linda Reimer (incumbent)
BC NDP: Rick Glumac
BC Green Party: Don Barthel
Coquitlam-Maillardville

BC Liberal Party: Steve Kim
BC NDP: Selina Mae Robinson (incumbent)
BC Green Party: Nicola Eyton Spurling
Libertarian: Jesse Velay-Vitow

Coquitlam-Burke Mountain

BC Liberal Party: Joan Isaacs
BC NDP: Jodie Wickens (incumbent)
BC Green Party: Ian Donnelly Soutar

Port Coquitlam

BC Liberal Party: Susan Chambers
BC NDP: Mike Farnworth (incumbent)
BC Green Party: Jason Hanley
Libertarian: Lewis Clarke Dahlby
Cascadia: Billy Gibbons

Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows

BC Liberal Party: Doug Bing (incumbent)
BC NDP: Lisa Marie Beare
BC Green Party: Alex Pope
BC Conservative Party: Gary John O’Driscoll
Independent: Steve Ranta

Maple Ridge-Mission

BC Liberal Party: Marc Dalton
BC NDP: Bob D’Eith
BC Green Party: Peter Pak Chiu Tam
Libertarian: Jeff Monds
BC Conservative Party: Trevor Hamilton