by Miranda Fatur/Black Press
Langley City and Township mayoral candidates sat down to offer their solutions and ideas for Langley issues prior to the municipal election on Oct. 20.
Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce hosted a mayoral all-candidates forum at the monthly chamber dinner meeting on Oct. 16 at Cascades Casino.
Approximately 130 people attended the meeting.
Mayoral candidates for the City are Peter Fassbender, Val van den Broek and Serena Oh.
Mayoral candidates for the Township are incumbent Jack Froese, Anna Remenik and Alexander Joehl.
The mayoral candidates were asked pre-selected questions on a range of topics, including attracting new business, housing affordability, marijuana, transit, infrastructure, taxes, stakeholder engagement, and possible amalgamation of the Township and City.
The mayoral candidates were asked pre-selected questions including topics about business, affordability, marijuana, transit, infrastructure, taxes, stakeholder engagement and a potential amalgamation of the Township and City.
Each candidate was given 45 seconds to answer the question asked.
In response to a question about engaging stakeholders, Fassbender said he believes in collaboration.
“We need leadership and without leadership nothing gets accomplished. My commitment is to collaborate.”
In response for ideas to lower taxes, Remenik said she would look at reducing property transfer taxes and giving more incentives for businesses to come into the Township.
Van den Broek said she doesn’t support an amalgamation of the two Langleys because they are two different cities with different needs.
Joehl agreed an amalgamation wouldn’t work.
“With such great differences and needs, we are best served with separate democracies.”
When asked if council would support retail sale of marijuana, Froese said the current council hasn’t looked at it seriously yet, so he would need to ask Langley residents what they would want for a policy around marijuana retail.
As for affordability and housing, Oh critiqued current politicians and said they don’t engage with higher levels of government.
When the issue of safety in regards to crime was discussed, Fassbender said there needs to be a change in the judicial system for those who are caught.
“We need to ask our community to work with us to protect themselves as best they can.
Froese added that Langley needs more funding and programs for youth.
“We need recreation programs and supports for them. I think that’s important.”
Remenik said she wants to look at the “root cause.”
“Where does that come from, who are we having issues with. It’s people who don’t have a place to live or are taking drugs. So if we put supports in place for them and have a place for them to be and give them a fair paying job then they won’t need to do that.”
Chamber executive director Colleen Clark explained this year’s candidate meeting was different from previous meetings.
“In the past, we used to hold all candidates events, but we found we couldn’t get our questions through to twenty-two or more candidates. So this year we went with filming videos in office.”
The candidate videos can be viewed on the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce YouTube page.