A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.
In an attempt to kick-start major redevelopment in the core, Chilliwack council to recently voted to assemble of a key block of land in the downtown.
As a result of the environmental damage caused by construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, the province is looking to spend money on improving salmon habitat in Surrey Bend Regional Park.
Translink has been a hot topic over the past week and Metro Vancouver mayors are demanding to know what transit services TransLink will slash from its new plan if they cancel a temporary property tax increase and derail a promised launch of the Highway 1 Rapid Bus service.
Surrey has teamed up with federal government to build a new organics biofuel facility to be located on city-owned land in Port Kells next to the Surrey Transfer Station. It will be created to process residential and commercial kitchen and yard waste into a renewable fuel and have the capacity to take 80,000 metric tonnes of organics per year.
Debate over the New Prosperity mine in B.C.’s interior continues as Taseko Mines has submitted an environmental impact statement that will setting the stage for public hearings in an attempt to save the $1.1 billion project that was turned down in 2010 by the federal government due environmental concerns. The previous mine plan would have drained Fish Lake and put a tailings storage facility nearby. Vancouver-based Taseko has since redesigned the mine to retains Fish Lake and shifts a tailings facility 2 kilometres upstream as well as address other issues raised by the federal review.
Citing the need to deal with growing costs from provincial and federal offloading, mayors will be pushing for new sources of revenue from the province next week when B.C.’s local government leaders gather in the Victoria next week.
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