Surrey mayor\u2019s bid rejected to defer Transport 2050 plan to after civic election<\/p>\n
Published 2:40 pm Thursday, June 25, 2026<\/p>\n
The Mayors\u2019 Council on Regional Transportation rejected Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke\u2019s request to defer dealing with the Transport 2050 and Access for Everyone Plan until after the October 17 civic election.<\/p>\n
The was during the council\u2019s June 25 meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have real concerns with it for a number of reasons,\u201d she told her fellow Metro mayors, \u201cnot the least of which is the lack of enthusiasm from the provincial government to support what is transit in our region. I think this would be better off if we could refer it and bring it back after the fall election to see where everybody\u2019s sitting then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locke said \u201cright now\u201d the plan as is \u201cis not very realistic given our ability to finance the program so I would rather see this postponed until after the election so I won\u2019t be supporting moving forward or staying the court at this time. I don\u2019t think it makes sense \u2013 I think we have to have a real serious look at the honest or real ability to raise the kind of money we\u2019re going to need to fulfill it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The matter had already been deferred from a previous meeting.<\/p>\n
Among \u201cheadine\u201d goals of the 2050 plan are to reduce traffic congestion by 20 per cent; that by 2050 no household, especially renters, spend more than 45 per cent of household income on transport and housing; to reduce serious traffic injuries and deaths by at least five per cent each year with the aim of achieving zero by 2050; and lowering greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from light-duty vehicles by 65 per cent, over 2010 levels, by 2030 and eliminate all transportation GHGs by 2050.<\/p>\n
Sarah Ross, TransLink\u2019s vice-president of transportation policy and planning, noted it\u2019s required under legislation to review the long-range transportation strategy every five years and by mid-2028 this has to be done. \u201cThe purpose of the item at this time coming now is that I wanted to seek direction on what level of scale of review to do in advance and to be compliant with that legislative direction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ross conceded that the results of a civic election can change the composition of the mayors\u2019 council and the new council would have the prerogative to change direction to staff. \u201cSo it would be very helpful to have direction from the mayors\u2019 council today on whether we should start planning and building into our 2027 budget to review Transport 2050. It will be difficult for us to adjust although we always would adjust at the direction of a future mayors\u2019 council to the greatest extent that we can. But it would be helpful to have direction and if we need to adjust under a new mayor\u2019s council we will.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council voted to stay the course on the plan, with only Locke opposed.<\/p>\n
Coquitlam Councillor Brent Asmundson (alternate) said a \u201clot of work\u201d has been put into the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we back off now that just gives the federal and provincial government the reasons to back off funding us for what we really need and it\u2019ll just keep putting the region further and further behind on the transporation need,\u201d Asmundson said. \u201cSo I would basically take staff\u2019s advice, keep 2050 as it is and keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued the council needs to keep the higher levels of government\u2019s \u201cfeet to the fire, because this is what we need for our region. If they\u2019re talking about all the housing they want, all these things they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve gave us housing targets; we should give them hospitals, transit, every other target that we need to be successful, so I wouldn\u2019t back off on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone agreed. \u201cThis is an opportunity for us to send a message \u2013 I know we\u2019re all going into elections, I know there\u2019s going to be a lot of rhetoric coming out over the next four or five months that we\u2019re all going to have to address in our own communities. I think this mayors\u2019 council has demonstrated its commitment to this plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s keep pushing forward,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s send a message to the public that we are and continue to be committed to expanding public transit in this region, to meet the growth in this region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy said the council and staff \u201chave worked hard to get to where we are today. I have no intention of waving a white flag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West noted a \u201csignificant\u201d amount of work has gone into the plan. \u201cI think the key moment in this is going to be whether the Province delivers on its commitment for a new funding model. That becomes incredibly important to the future deliverability of this plan and we know that will be staring us down next year. If at that point in time the Province reneges on its commitments, then the consequence of that will be that they will have nailed the coffin of Transport 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey mayor\u2019s bid rejected to defer Transport 2050 plan to after civic election Published 2:40 pm Thursday, June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-762278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}