Transportation Minister Todd Stone was in town to talk about transportation issues in a visit to the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce on the eve of Metro Vancouver’s mail-in transit and transportation plebiscite.
Voters are being asked if they will support a new .5 per cent congestion improvement tax to fund the Mayors Council Transportation and Transit Plan.
If passed, the tax would pay for light rail lines in Surrey, a SkyTrain extension and improvements to roads and transit structures. Registered voters living in Metro Vancouver can vote from March 16 to May 29.
Paul Orazietti, executive director of the Cloverdale Business Improvement Association urged Stone to encourage a north-south rapid bus, with a station at Fraser Highway, to better serve residents and businesses in the historic town centre, and points further south-east.
“This would be with the goal of having a link for residents coming to the fairgrounds, also to the town centre and also more importantly to Campbell Heights, which is going to be one of the largest business parks in all of Canada,” Orazietti said.
“Those priorities are made and will continue to be made by the mayors council,” Stone said, before promising, “We’ll offer our opinion to the mayors council.”
He added: “Cloverdale is really the heart of Surrey, period.”
