Without nine years of work by Lynn Whitehouse, Langley’s border crossing would look very different, MP Mark Warawa said.
The Langley-Aldergrove MP officially thanked Whitehouse, the retiring executive director of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, for the years-long fight for an expanded Aldergrove crossing.
It was nine years ago that word came that commercial traffic would be diverted away from the Aldergrove crossing, Warawa said at a small ceremony at the crossing Thursday.
The aging border facility was to be replaced, but not upgraded.
“There was somebody that got very involved, and that was Lynn Whitehouse,” Warawa said.
She got the chamber involved, then pulled in local politicians and found allies on both sides of the border in favour of expanding the crossing.
Two years ago work began on a $17.7 million upgrade, which was completed last year.
Whitehouse was lauded as the driving force behind getting Ottawa to commit to the project.
Scott Johnston, president of the chamber, joked that the crossing would be re-named the Lynn Whitehouse Border Crossing.
“It’s official, the president has decreed it so,” he said.
Johnston and Warawa talked about how much time Whitehouse put into the campaign.
“Lynn has worked tirelessly over the years for the expansion of this border crossing,” Johnston said.
Whitehouse threw a lot of her support to the other people involved, including local politicians and the network of people pushing for the upgrade.
“Nobody has let it go all these years,” Whitehouse said.
Whitehouse is being honoured as she prepares to step down from her 30-year post as executive director of the chamber.
She started the year of Expo ’86 and has seen the chamber move its offices multiple times, merge with other smaller neighbourhood chambers, and change its role and duties over the years.