Anna Remenik has attended Township of Langley council meetings for a number of years, speaking under the alias ‘Anna R.’ to protect her safety when discussing sensitive issues and debates.
“It seemed to be a proactive approach to ensure things wouldn’t get to the point of being unmanageable,” said Remenik.
Now that she is running for mayor in the Township, Remenik said she is putting herself before the public eye to run a campaign that “puts, first and foremost, the quality of life for the residents who are already here.”
At previous council meetings, public hearings and delegations, Remenik spoke about issues regarding the Brookswood official community plan, backyard chickens and various zoning changes.
As mayoral candidate, Remenik wants to have a further reach on behalf of the community.
“In the mayor’s position you have a more far reaching output as far as what happens regionally as well at the Greater Vancouver Regional District. So many of the decisions being made are from policies made at the regional level so I’d like to have more input there.”
Remenik’s concerns involve school catchment areas, farmland and the ALR, community resources and infrastructure and sustainability.
“There’s a lot of fallout in what is happening because of the growing pains we see. I see families not able to bring their children to the same catchment even though they live a block away from the school, they have to bus their kindergarten child out to another school to get them to attend.”
Remenik said the ideal council is one that is “well-functioning.”
“I don’t want to focus on negativity, however I believe it’s extremely important to have a well-functioning council. One that can sit down and discuss things in a rational manner and (capitalize) on the individual strengths of council members and come to a win-win situation when faced with issues they don’t agree on.”
Remenik has lived in the Township consecutively since 2007 as well as for several years in the 1990s.
She works as a special education assistant in the Langley School district and volunteers with the Special Olympics and Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association.
