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ELECTION: Langley Township council candidate Phyllis Heppner

A Voter’s Guide to key election questions.
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Phyllis Heppner

Phyllis Heppner

Running for council in Langley Township

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Business owner, age not provided

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• Have you held office in past? If so, please specify: No

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Candidate provided bio: I have lived in Langley for 34 years where my husband and I have raised four great kids – now adults. This is my first foray into seeking office as a candidate for Township council.

As a classical and jazz musician and piano teacher, I want to promote the arts. My leadership experience includes: president of Registered Music Teachers branch, President of Langley Morning Toastmasters, Commander of AWANA program in my church, owner-operator of my business, member of the Brookswood -Fernridge Planning Committee.

It ‘s while serving on this committee that I realized that I should put myself forward to make a real difference for all of Langley.

I enjoy the challenge of working on difficult projects, looking deeply into issues, collaborating with others, considering opposing viewpoints, and creating beauty wherever possible.

For smart growth, consider casting a vote at “the bottom of the ballot” - Phyllis Heppner.

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Website: phyllisheppner.com

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Facebook: @Phyllis-Heppner-Your-new-voice-for-Langley-Township-Council

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• Who is your favourite superhero, and why? sdfgdfas

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There are 23 candidates running for eight Langley Township council seats. 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:Brookswood (some people in Aldergrove wanted to write me off because of where I live. How relevant is this? :))

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2. How many years have you lived in Langley?

Answer: 34 years

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3. How many Langley Township council meetings have you attended in the past year?

Answer: Don’t know. At least 5.

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4: Should the municipality be directly funding social housing to reduce homelessness?

Answer: Don’t know. The homeless must be cared for! But I am leery of direct government funding. Government help is often not real help. But the township can absolutely support charities and churches who are doing this work. by offering property for building and incentives.

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5. Do you support elevated rail over light rapid transit from Surrey to Langley?

Answer: Yes.

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6. Should the municipality fund an arts centre?

Answer:

Don’t know. As much as I want to see an arts centre in Langley, the municipal taxpayers should not fund it. The money should come from community amenity charges along with private and/or corporate donors.

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7. Would you vote to raise taxes to hire more police?

Answer: Yes. We keep up with proper police/population ratio, but I would rather cut waste elsewhere than raise taxes.

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8. Does Langley need a new or second hospital to serve the growing population?

Answer: Yes

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9. Does Willoughby need its own dedicated library?

Answer: Yes

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10. Is there enough effort being made to preserve farmland?

Answer: Don’t know.

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11. Should Langley allow construction of residential towers?

Answer: Yes

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12. Should Langley have its own municipal police force, replacing the RCMP?

Answer: No

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13. Do you think residential property taxes are too high?

Answer: Yes

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14. Do you support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline?

Answer: Yes

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15. Should the municipality offer tax breaks, incentives, or rebates to companies looking to set up shop here?

Answer: Yes

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16. Is Langley being pushed to grow too fast?

Answer: Don’t know. Too fast? Only if we don not prepare in advance. We do know what to expect so we can plan for the growth and create great communities for the future. If we squelch growth, we increase the cost of housing and force our young people and seniors out.

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17. Do you support redevelopment of Fort Langley’s downtown?

Answer: Yes - but only with a goal to preserve the character. This is a destination location and so parking needs to be improved and the trucks re-routed to River Road so they do not go through town.

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18. Should development of Brookswood be phased in?

Answer: Yes

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19. Should the Township set a deadline to finish widening 208th Street in Willoughby?

Answer: Yes

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20. Should there be a limit to the number of consecutive terms a member of council can serve?

Answer: Yes