Mural adds punch to puMphouse
page
4
Bc conservative platforM up close
page
6
Burger poll Back as writ drops
page
10
wednesday
April 17 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
new west’s chief planner lisa spitale will soon be taking over the top job at City Hall. see page A5
ElEction 2013:
The race is on
nEwslEAdEr filE
Four lanes, six lanes, a new location and scrapping the Pattullo Bridge completely could be on the table among the options being floated by TransLink.
New Pattullo public pitch coming More options to be presented following provincial election Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
The reset button is about to be hit on Pattullo Bridge public consultation, although it won’t be pushed until after the May 14 provincial election. That’s when TransLink and the cities of Surrey and New Westminster will be taking a shortlist of options to the public on what to do with the deteriorating
75-year-old structure. TransLink’s board chair Nancy Olewiler said last week the organizations will work together to try to find a mutually agreeable configuration of a new bridge, which New West residents fear will increase local traffic. Olewiler told Black Press the province also needs to be part of the Pattullo discussion to deal with routing of trucks and connections to provincial highways like the South Fraser Perimeter Road and Highway 1. Those talks with government will
have to wait until after the election, she said, but added it’s important to “make sure the big picture is looked at and this isn’t just our little bridge in the middle of it.” New Westminster Coun. Jonathan Coté, co-chair of the city’s master transportation plan committee, said it’s good TransLink is willing to look at other options besides the six-lane ones it proposed a year ago. “I wouldn’t say we’re back to square one but I would say we’ve definitely taken a step backward from the consultation we had a year ago,” said Coté.
He believes the starting point for discussion of options will be the ones, including two from TransLink, the city presented in its own open house in May 2012. The others presented were: demolishing the bridge and not replacing it; rehabilitating it at a cost of about $200 million; building a new fourlane replacement with pedestrian and cycling access for about $650 million; building a replacement over Sapperton Bar which TransLink pegs at $2 billion; and building a replacement that connects Burnaby
JUDY DARCY Change for the better, one praCtiCal step at a time
please see trAnslink, A3
www.judydarcy.ca 604-517-8400 Authorized by Financial Agent Cheryl Greenhalgh, 604-517-8400
While they’ve been quietly campaigning for quite a while, the four declared candidates in New Westminster will kick it up a notch now that the writ for the May 14 provincial election has been dropped. The quartet will be seeking to replace retiring New Democrat MLA Dawn Black. To fill her shoes, the NDP has nominated former Hospital Employees Union leader Judy Darcy. She’ll be opposed by marketing and business consultant Hector Bremner for the B.C. Liberals, former MP Paul Forseth of the B.C. Conservative Party and teacher Terry Teather of the BC Green Party. Amongst their many activities in the upcoming month, they’ll be participating in an all-candidates forum being put on by the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce. It will be held at the Inn at the Quay on May 1 from 7 to 9 p.m. Watch the NewsLeader in coming issues, and visit www. newwestnewsleader. com to get to know your candidates.