Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts zeroed in on three critical needs in her annual State of the City address last week.
The sad thing is that these have been three of the most critical needs in the city for the past 20 years or more. Even though there have been some strides forward, they have never brought Surrey close to catching up with needs in the areas of health care, education and transportation.
Watts proposed some interesting and detailed ideas in her speech. Perhaps one of the most interesting was the idea of an “Innovation Boulevard,” stretching from Surrey Memorial Hospital to Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus.
This would involve installation of high-speed fibre-optic service and other infrastructure that could serve to attract medical research and innovation, and bring a focus on medical technology to Surrey.
This has always been a challenge for Surrey and other communities outside Vancouver. The presence of the University of B.C. with its medical school, coupled with numerous hospitals that specialize in various areas of medicine, has meant that researchers and innovators usually want to locate in Vancouver.
Yet the population of the area south of the Fraser keeps growing, and medical needs also grow. While Surrey Memorial Hospital now handles many more complex cases than it once did, most critical and specialized cases end up in Vancouver.
With the cost of medical treatment, it doesn’t make sense to duplicate expensive specialized care for those with challenging medical conditions. But at the same time, medicine is changing rapidly.
An emphasis on innovation, and the infrastructure to make it come about more easily, could mark a sea change in how the medical community views Surrey.
Watts also talked about education. While basic educational needs are being met by the K-12 system, and new schools are being built, she called for provincial funding for a specialized high school near 24 Avenue and 168 Street that would emphasize learning, active living and sports excellence.
It would be built in conjunction with an aquatic and community centre on land owned by the city and the school district, in a fast-growing area of South Surrey.
Of even more importance was her emphasis on the lack of post-secondary opportunities for many Surrey young people. Surrey is the largest school district in B.C., yet students with 75 per cent averages cannot get into university. Students are told they must take post-secondary training to get good jobs, both at university and technical schools, but this is not open to many of them.
As Watts pointed out, almost one-quarter of Grade 12 graduates in B.C. are coming from Surrey and other South Fraser communities.
It’s great that Simon Fraser University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University are located in Surrey, and that Kwantlen has an excellent trades campus in Cloverdale. Much more attention to this critical shortage of space for post-secondary training is needed from the province.
Watts’ third emphasis was on transportation, and she noted that without changes to TransLink, there is little hope of expanded transit service.
However, on Monday, the province and TransLink mayors’ council said they will be working on a plan to improve funding and governance issues at TransLink.
This working group may even looking at road pricing, as Surrey politicians have long called for.
A great deal has been invested in new roads, bridges, overpasses and other infrastructure, and this is needed. But at the same time, transit spending in Surrey and other South Fraser cities has lagged behind badly.
Transit is critical to Surrey’s future, and all levels of government need to understand this.
Frank Bucholtz writes Thursdays for the Peace Arch News. He is the editor of the Langley Times.
