Paul Albrecht
Running for council in the City of Langley
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Civic engineering technologist (35+ years), no age provided
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• Have you held office in past? If so, please specify: Yes, one term (four years)
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Candidate provided bio:
Paul has lived in Langley City for 27 years with his family and was elected to his first term as councillor in 2014. As councillor, Paul has represented Langley City on numerous community committees, as well as serves on the UBCM executive board.
He has over 30 years of civil engineering experience in the Lower Mainland, brings considerable skills in progressive team building and extensive knowledge of labour-management relations.
Key campaign issues: Housing/affordability – partner with BC Housing to develop housing opportunities, protect and grow rental stock, provide better housing balance in our community.
Public safety – improve relationships with all community partners to resolve our social issues along with continuing to improve lighting, parks and community policing.
Economic development – aggressively cultivate relationships with business in the high-tech and creative industries to stimulate our local economy as well as implement Nexus vision for our downtown destination strategy.
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Website: https://paulalbrecht.ca
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Facebook: @paulalbrechtlangley
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Other internet/social media platforms where voters can learn about you: Twitter @paulalbrecht and face-to-face conversation/meeting anytime, please call me.
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Phone: 778-241-9403
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• Who is your favourite superhero, and why? My hero is my mother, who is super fantastic.
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There are 16 candidates running for six councillor seats with the City of Langley. The following are questions asked of each candidate hopeful. They were directed to provide a minimum of a Yes, No, or Don’t Know answer, and given an option to expand on one answer in print (to a maximum of 100 words per question). They could expand on all questions online, if they wished to do so. The following are their replies.
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Questions and Answers:
1. What neighbourhood of Langley do you live in?
Answer: Nicomekl
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2. How many years have you lived in Langley?
Answer: 27 years
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3. How many Langley City council meetings have you attended in the past year?
Answer: All of them for the past four years and most of the previous three years.
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4: Should the City be directly funding social housing to reduce homelessness?
Answer: Yes, but it is more important to strengthen our relationship with our community partners in order to address this complicated issue effectively.
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5. Do you support elevated rail over light rapid transit from Surrey to Langley?
Answer: Yes, from a regional perspective an elevated rail system moves more people faster with less conflict.
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6. Should the City’s industrial area be phased out in favour of residential and commercial development?
Answer: No, we need to retain and even improve the ability of our residents to work in the community that they live.
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7. Would you vote to raise taxes to hire more police?
Answer: Yes. I would certainly consider it if based on facts and a business case proved that more policing was required.
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8. Do you agree with the growth estimates for Langley City in its new Nexus of Community strategic plan?
Answer: Yes, and I believe it is extremely important to prepare for that growth now to ensure that we create the type of community that we all want and not settle for development that is not in the communities best interests.
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9. Should Langley have its own municipal police force, replacing the RCMP?
Answer: No.
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10. Should the City fund an arts centre?
Answer: Yes, I believe we need to create a destination in our downtown core area, that said we need a partnership with non-profits, private industry, and the provincial and federal governments.
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11. Does Langley City need an indoor swimming pool?
Answer: Yes. I believe that we do, but it is important that the community support such a facility financially as well.
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12. Should Langley City lobby for its own urgent care centre?
Answer: Yes, any time we can improve the health and well-being for our residents I would be supportive.
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13. Do you think residential property taxes are too high?
Answer: No.
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14. Should the City amalgamate with the Township?
Answer: No.
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15. Should the municipality offer tax breaks, incentives, or rebates to companies looking to set up shop here?
Answer: Yes, this is something we should examine and consider. A strong local economy translates to a healthy community.
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16. Is Langley City being pushed to grow too fast?
Answer: No.
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17. Should Langley City take more direct action to combat the opioid crisis locally?
Answer: Yes, the provincial and federal governments have finally conceded that there is a crisis, it is important for us to lobby for all assistance possible to face this along with strengthening our relationships with our community partners.
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18. Should the City encourage the creation of more rental and low-income housing?
Answer: Yes, but it is more important for us to protect and improve/rebuild our existing rental and low-income housing. Other housing options and opportunities should be explored to complete the full housing continuum, including the missing middle.
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19. Should the City taxes be cut by cutting services?
Answer: No, the reduction of the current servicing levels is not something I would support.
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20. Should there be a limit to the number of consecutive terms a member of council can serve?
Answer: Yes. Either way would be fine with me. But, I have faith in the democratic process and when residents vote they have the opportunity to place limits on any elected official holding office.