Langley City Council Talks to Province About Healthcare, Housing, and Transit

As I noted last week, Langley City Council is attending the annual Union of BC Municipalities convention this week. At the convention, Councils have the opportunity to book meetings with various provincial ministers and ministries. Langley City Council booked six meetings, and I wanted to post about the four meetings we've had over the last several days.

Some members of Langley City Council, with Transportation Minister Rob Fleming

Our first meeting on Monday was with Health Minister Adrian Dix. We raised the concern that Fraser Health is planning to move the current Urgent Primary Care Centre in Downtown Langley City to a part of Langley that is not as accessible via walking, scootering, or transit. We noted that many choices about the location of medical facilities are made by high-income folks who drive cars. We noted that in Langley City, many folks cannot drive or cannot afford to drive and that moving the Ugerent Primary Care Centre would reduce health services in our community for people who need it the most. I offered to go on a walking tour with Ministery staff to show how easy it is to get to the current Ugerent Primary Care Centre and how hard it will be to get to the new location. We asked the province and Fraser Health to keep the Urgent Primary Care Centre in Downtown Langley City. We will be following up on that walking tour.

Our next meeting was with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon. We thank him for advocating to the federal government to expand the federal rental housing construction program to provide affordable housing for middle-income folks. We ask for his continued support as we advocate for expanding the federal program. On the topic of federal advocacy, we also asked for his support to the federal government to lift the height restrictions in Langley City due to the Langley Regional Airport. This restriction can be lifted near SkyTrain stations while still providing for the safe and effective operation of the airport.

On Tuesday, we met with Premier David Eby. One of the challenges we see in Langley City to improving the outcomes of folks who are in a mental health crisis, want a way out of problematic substance use or are unhoused is the fractured and siloed systems in our province. Langley City staff has been doing ground-work to understand these gaps in our community over the last year, and we asked the Premier to commit to working with our staff as we work to break down these silos and move towards a social and healthcare system that is focused on people and not programs. We asked to be a pilot community for person-centred care based on the work we've been doing. We believe this is the only way to improve health and social outcomes for people in our community.

Later in the day, we chatted with Transportation Minister Rob Fleming. We talked about the need to deliver transit services where they are needed the most to support newcomers and shift workers in our community.

We have further meetings on Thursday.