The following is copied and pasted direct as is from the Maple Ridge Concerned Citizens latest report - if you are interested in maintaining some slight sense of order in Haney, then come to the meeting. Drinks on the house!!!
Unfortunately this is another progress report that does not have much progress to report. To start things on a positive note there has been progress is communication with the offices of both Maple Ridge MLA's. At this time both MLA Micheal Sather (Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows) and MLA Marc Dalton (Maple Ridge/Mission) have agreed to attend the next MRCCC community meeting which takes place September 28th from 7 – 9 pm at 22610 -116th ave - Fraserview Village Community Association. In case anyone is wondering, the divide line between the two provincial ridings is 224th st. Given that Northumberland Court's address is Fraser Street, which is one street east of 224th it is important to invite both provincial representatives to participate in a long term positive solution. Anyone that knows the area knows that the problems that emanate from Northumberland Court don't stop because of the provincial riding boundary and those in the immediate area of Northumberland are equally affected regardless if they are on the east or west side of 224th st.
The other reason for inviting both MLAs is that there is an opportunity presented here to get a representative from both the Liberal and NDP parties to sit at the same table and work together for the common good of the entire community. Similar to the United States system where a representative from the two elected parties come together to sponsor a bill, all of us as a community have a chance to convince our locally elected representatives to work together to sponsor a bill to get SCAN legislation passed in British Columbia. This is not to say that the legislation will come into existence with this one meeting, but getting representatives from both parties on side and committed to this cause will move our community, our city, and our entire province one step closure to ensuring that community rights will not be trampled, abused and ignored, like they have been for so many years. One thing to be stressed at this point is that this meeting is in no way meant to replicate the caustic shouting competitions that have become the town hall meetings over American health care. This meeting is all about establishing communication with the provincial government on what has been happening for years in our community, while concurrently putting forward a framework for meaningful legislation that will ensure it does not happen again here, or any other community.
Now for some less positive news:
It appears that no repairs have been done to the majority of suites at Northumberland Court so the reports to date, other than pointing out the obvious which is that many of the suites are barely habitable have achieved nothing.
The business license suspension imposed by the city of Maple Ridge has been a complete flop and has accomplished nothing.
It appears that the province continues to fund the majority owner to provide substandard housing even though the city has reported out the condition of the suites and suspended the business license of the owner.
All citizens of Maple Ridge should get ready to have city dollars allocated to the majority owner to undertake the repairs regardless of how many other uses and needs these dollars have and how much value in property the majority owner is in position of including a mansion on River Road.
To date nothing has come out of the city explaining if city dollars are going to be used to repair privately owned property will the city be charging interest on this money (time value of money).
Given what is coming out of Victoria about the debt of the province why is the city entertaining such a money losing venture. It's difficult to believe at this point if any substantial or long term progress has been made at all and for that reason anyone interested may want to attend the council meeting scheduled for September 8th and find out just what is going on, how many years will this go on and ask the mayor directly as to why this has been allowed to go on for so many years, and how much more this is going to cost the city.
Updates to the website regarding the Sept 28 meeting should be done by Sept 1
The other reason for inviting both MLAs is that there is an opportunity presented here to get a representative from both the Liberal and NDP parties to sit at the same table and work together for the common good of the entire community. Similar to the United States system where a representative from the two elected parties come together to sponsor a bill, all of us as a community have a chance to convince our locally elected representatives to work together to sponsor a bill to get SCAN legislation passed in British Columbia. This is not to say that the legislation will come into existence with this one meeting, but getting representatives from both parties on side and committed to this cause will move our community, our city, and our entire province one step closure to ensuring that community rights will not be trampled, abused and ignored, like they have been for so many years. One thing to be stressed at this point is that this meeting is in no way meant to replicate the caustic shouting competitions that have become the town hall meetings over American health care. This meeting is all about establishing communication with the provincial government on what has been happening for years in our community, while concurrently putting forward a framework for meaningful legislation that will ensure it does not happen again here, or any other community.
Now for some less positive news:
It appears that no repairs have been done to the majority of suites at Northumberland Court so the reports to date, other than pointing out the obvious which is that many of the suites are barely habitable have achieved nothing.
The business license suspension imposed by the city of Maple Ridge has been a complete flop and has accomplished nothing.
It appears that the province continues to fund the majority owner to provide substandard housing even though the city has reported out the condition of the suites and suspended the business license of the owner.
All citizens of Maple Ridge should get ready to have city dollars allocated to the majority owner to undertake the repairs regardless of how many other uses and needs these dollars have and how much value in property the majority owner is in position of including a mansion on River Road.
To date nothing has come out of the city explaining if city dollars are going to be used to repair privately owned property will the city be charging interest on this money (time value of money).
Given what is coming out of Victoria about the debt of the province why is the city entertaining such a money losing venture. It's difficult to believe at this point if any substantial or long term progress has been made at all and for that reason anyone interested may want to attend the council meeting scheduled for September 8th and find out just what is going on, how many years will this go on and ask the mayor directly as to why this has been allowed to go on for so many years, and how much more this is going to cost the city.
Updates to the website regarding the Sept 28 meeting should be done by Sept 1
