2019 Federal election All Candidates Meeting

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The Willoughby Residents Association (“WRA”) is hosting an All Candidates’ Meeting (“ACM”) on

WHEN: Thursday, October 3, 2019

TIME: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

WHERE: 20097 72nd Ave, Langley, BC (Shepherd of the Valley Church auditorium)

WHO: Well Willoughby has not one, but TWO federal ridings: Langley-Aldergrove and Cloverdale-Langley so you can come ask questions of federal leaders in general (which are already accumulating) or of a particular person.

Once again, the Willoughby Residents Association is pleased to present an All Candidates’ Meeting.  The suggested donation will be $5 or more (cash only, we will have no change), as your pocket book permits.  If you are a resident of WIlloughby, however, we will also give you a membership form with that.

The format will be written submissions done at the door or you can download the form here and email the entire form to willoughby.residents.assn@gmail.com.  Paid, voting members will get a form sent in advance for early submission.

While the focus of the #ACM2019 will be on Willoughby, everyone is welcome to attend whether you are a Willoughby resident or not.   This is your town, your federal representatives; come ask those questions! This is your chance to find out about Retirement issues, Federal health and Pharmacare, housing and transportation. Veterans – your opportunity to find out how you would be represented! How about immigration policies? Tuition costs? How do your prospective representatives feel about climate change? Carbon tax? Child care? Guns? Do you know? Do they have solutions? What do they think the issues around employment and employment insurance are? How do they feel about the changes for NAFTA? And what federal election would be complete without the Pipeline?

The WRA is an apolitical grassroots organization.   Why do we do an ACM?  Because we care about our community and hope by doing so, we can provide the opportunity for public engagement.

Entrance will be first-come first-seated, doors will open at 6:30 pm and as we learned last year, the venue is limited in size. We will also be live streaming on our FaceBook site.

Please join us in learning more about the people with whom you wish to entrust your tax dollars.

We have had confirmation of attendance from the following candidates:

John Aldag Kaija Farstad
Rae Banwarie Leon Jensen
  Natalie Cudmore
  Stacey Wakelin
  Alex Joehl

Is your candidate not on this list? Call them and find out why!

Thank you to our sponsors!

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A special thank-you to the Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.  They have graciously donated space for the next year so we have a home.

They are located at 20097 72nd Avenue, Langley BC and we really want to thank them for their hospitality.

Thank you to the Township of Langley for their gracious sponsorship of our 2019 activities.

Thank you to Polygon Homes Ltd for their kind sponsorship in making our All Candidates’ Meeting 2018 happen.

Thank you to ceascape.business.solutions, a member of the Langley Chamber of Commerce, for their sponsorship for 2019

Community Meeting: Tuesday, September 24, 2019

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The next meeting of the Willoughby Residents Association is Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at 7:00 pm, 20097 72nd Ave (Shepherd of the Valley Church).  If you live in Willoughby (Langley, BC) or are concerned about the Willoughby area, come have your say in your community and hear what we’ve been up to. 

Tell us what is on your mind? Do your children have access to safe play space? Are they able to go to local schools? What is the crime like in your part of Willoughby?

We need to hear from YOU! Email willoughby.residents.assn@gmail.com or call 604.888.6606

If you would like a copy of the agenda in advance, please sign up at http://eepurl.com/cqDLjz

Our next delegation: Monday, July 8, 2019

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Join us on Monday July 8, 2019 at 7pm at the Township of Langley Hall. We are discussing signage at playing fields and have an every increasingly beautiful PowerPoint presentation. And who doesn’t love a PowerPoint presentation? We have diagrams and pictures and other fun stuff to learn about Willoughby.

What do we need? We need YOU – come support the WRA by showing up and letter the TOL know we are here and active. We look forward to seeing you on Monday and don’t forget to come say hi and let us know you’re here!

Annual 2019 Willoughby Survey

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It is once again time for the annual Willoughby community survey. We take your anonymous responses and put together a presentation for the Township of Langley, to let them know how the residents see things. This year, you can either complete the survey manually by downloading a paper copy here: https://willoughbyresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-WRA-survey-final-1.pdf

You can fax that back to us at 778-372-4253 or there are other fun ways to drop it off to us listed on the survey either through the website here:

Or for even more fun, you can complete this survey online:

Create your own user feedback survey

or going to this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9Y88D88

Either electronically or paper, if you choose to not be anonymous and complete the contact information, your name will be entered into a draw for a coffee card which will be presented at our AGM.

Please post this everywhere and forward to all your neighbours. Thank you in advance for your participation in our event.

This event is possible through the grateful funding and contributions from ceascape.business.solutions, the Shepherd of the Valley Church and the Township of Langley.

Letter to the editor: Recent PIM

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We attended a recent Public Information meeting for a proposed business / hotel development at 19881 86 Ave et al.  We attended on behalf of the Willoughby Residents Association (WRA) because we saw in their proposal they were asking for a reduction in parking as a variance. Believe it or not, that area is already full on many surrounding streets.  Semis and cars alike fill this area in the daytime, often parked illegally during peak times.  We assume they are from the industrial and commercial ventures that are already existing.  To reduce parking would be a major mistake.  A young woman at the meeting invited us to “ask any of us” and a gentleman came up and said “can I answer your questions”.  Our discussion was brief because he said quickly “Oh that’s not my department, you need to go over there” and pointed me elsewhere, where my partner was.  Okay, not an auspicious start.  And the people to whom I was directed were stunned when I pointed out their own picture had parked cars in it.  They countered with how they would be sure to have strict parking enforcement so those currently parking on the street wouldn’t be parking in their new commercial area. 

But as we read the boards further, we noted it said “Connections made to existing bicycle networks….”.  We pointed out that that meant there would be no connection, since that area has no existing bicycle network.  The person who came up to be helpful and answer our question said “oh yes, they are here on paper and we’ll connect with them on paper”.   I hope you read that with the same stunned silence I had at first, before I tried to point out the reality of disjointed paths that simply stop and go nowhere is not, by definition, a network.  How can they hope to connect to a network that isn’t there?  I got three sentences in as I attempted to explain the meaning of “existing” and “network” before my partner realized my futility and moved me along.

And that put me in front of the tree board.  I asked, yet another helpful host, if they were being affected by the new tree bylaw.  “Oh, that doesn’t apply to us, we’re developers”.  And that’s when we left.  The trees that are in “poor health” are noted to be 344/401 trees. 

I would query, then, that if bicycle paths only have to exist on paper, then isn’t it possible that 344 trees are only sick on paper and thus in the real world, are actually worth saving?

All in all, this project deserves another look by council and not a rubber stamp as so many things seem to be manufactured on paper, with little bearing on reality.