Development, infrastructure, and working with other governments were the dominant themes of 91原创 Township Mayor Eric Woodward's State of the Township address on Thursday, May 15.
Woodward spoke to a crowd of a few hundred people in the banquet room at 91原创 Events Centre, during the second State of the Township event.
He emphasized the Township's unique and contrasting characteristics 鈥� it's extremely rapid growth, and the fact that a majority of its land remains in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
"Our population is now 155-160,000," Woodward said. The growth is happening at about 3,000 to 5,000 people per year, and there are currently 3,300 housing units under construction, and 7,500 approved and ready to proceed at any time.
"With the city of Surrey, we are the last municipalities in Metro Vancouver with so much urban undeveloped non-ALR land," Woodward said. "Yet, we will remain for a long time, if not forever, mostly rural. It's a unique combination鈥� to be growing as we are, but mostly in one compact area, Willoughby and Willowbrook."
The population is expected to rise to 250,000 people in the coming decades.
"To achieve that, we have to invest now, in facilities, invest in parks and amenities, invest in roads and infrastructure, as well as find a way to replace aging infrastructure, which we have a lot of," Woodward said. "Reservoirs in Walnut Grove, Aldergrove, and Brookswood; kilometres of asbestos water mains; failing culverts and bridges that need to be replaced."
Woodward also went through a list of projects the Township has begun since he and his Contract With 91原创 slate were elected in 2022, including 400 units of affordable housing to start construction soon, 28 road projects including the widening of 208 Street and Fraser Highway, plus the repaving of Old Yale Road west of 216 Street.
"A big, big catch-up program is needed and we've been working on it. Roads, roads, roads. We get it and we're on it as fast as we can," Woodward said.
He also touched on the hiring of new firefighters and RCMP officers, and the construction of the new Brookswood firehall, now underway.
On parks, he mentioned plans for two new municipal parks, including the 300-acre property becoming Nathan Creek Park in Glen Valley, and a new municipal park in Willoughby to serve people living in high-density neighbourhoods.
Woodward defended the project-specific borrowing the council has undertaken for major projects, emphasizing that ever-increasing costs of construction means the cheapest time to build new parks, community centres, or other amenities is now.
He also reserved time to criticize the provincial government, touching on its housing policy, while reserving a fair amount of time to talk about the need for hospitals and health care, school construction, and upgrades to provincial highways like Glover Road.
"We are at least six or seven schools behind," Woodward said. "Vancouver gets schools, we get portables."
Following his speech, Woodward was interviewed by Global TV legislative reporter Richard Zussman, who asked questions about how vocal Woodward has been when criticizing Victoria, as well as the Township's relationship with 91原创 City, including the ongoing strife over de-integration of the local RCMP into two detachments.
Woodward talked about how communities South of the Fraser are working together more when lobbying the provincial government, or in Metro Vancouver 鈥� Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke introduced Woodward at the event. He also said that issues like the de-integration of the 91原创 RCMP aren't personal issues, but are about achieving public safety objectives in the Township.
