New Delta mayor to face tunnel replacement, land use challenges
Posted October 9, 2018 5:00 am.
Last Updated October 18, 2018 11:50 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DELTA (NEWS 1130) – After more than 18 years with the same mayor, people in Delta will be choosing a new face to advocate for a municipality that includes very distinct and separate communities: Tsawwassen, Ladner, and North Delta.
Lois Jackson is stepping down from the top job, a post she’s held since 1999.
In recent years, she’s become an outspoken voice behind a push for a replacement for the Massey Tunnel.
“We’re still in dire need of a replacement. They have finished studying it but they haven’t made any decisions,” she notes.
Now, a new mayor will be dealing with that and taking on issues including housing, land use and response times with the ambulance service — the latter being especially important for seniors living in Tsawwassen.
Jackson has some advice for her mayoral replacement:
“If you’re going to represent your community and do it right. It takes a lot of heartache and a lot of drive. You have to be prepared to put in the time. Make sure your family is onboard with that because it’s tough on families, especially ones with little children.”
But she’s not beyond partisan alignments. Jackson is on the Achieving for Delta slate and supporting the city’s longtime chief administration officer, George Harvie, as her replacement.
In all, six people are running for mayor including two other well-known names: retired elementary school teacher Syliva Bishop and former Delta Police Chief Jim Cessford.
Bishop’s Team Delta includes four other council candidates, weighing in on emergency response times, affordable housing and dealing with odours from a compositing plant.
Meanwhile, the Independents Working For You slate, under Jim Cessford, includes candidates for council and school board, who are campaigning on issues like accountability, community safety, agriculture, and recreation.
At just over 100,000 residents and a 3.3 per cent increase in population since 2006, Delta is not one of the faster growing municipalities south of the Fraser.
Why?
That question might be at the heart of different approaches and ideas about very real things like how to deal with the future of farmland, commuting, and serving people of all ages and needs across very different communities that make up Delta.
A total of six people are competing for the mayor seat.
Twenty people are vying for six council positions.
Seventeen people are in the race for seven school trustee positions.
