Minister Falcon Says Build It Or Lose It! NO CHANGES ALLOWED! re: Mufford /Glover/64th Overpass

BREAKING NEWS ! What a coincidence! On the Friday night at 4:36 pm, just before Monday's most controversial Township Council public meeting, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon sent a letter to Mayor & Council (SEE HIS LETTER HERE) , which says that if the Township does not go ahead with the proposed 64th street overpass (preliminary design my ass!) that the funding will be re-allocated to other Provincial projects! His letter was INDIVIDUALLY addressed to each member of council to we can only guess get maximum impact. Wonder who suggested this idea!

Talk about putting a gun to this Council's and to this community's heads! The timing is curious and one again wonders where are the Langley Waldos on this issue and what knowledge/involvement they had with this letter and when? The Langley Waldos are of course our Provincial Liberal reps like MLA Coleman, Polak and of course Coleman's protege and constituency riding president, councillor Jordan Bateman.

The sword of Damocles in this case is ~$42 million of funding that is being threatened to be withdrawn! Conspicuous timing and tactics to say the least don't you think so? So, will you still be voting for Coleman & Polak this spring? The Falcon letter was faxed at 3:34 pm and emailed to Council at 4:36Pm, the latest possible Friday afternoon timing before the Monday council meeting! Thanks to Councillor Kim Richter for emailing LFP the letter.

Also for your information late polling occurred this past week of many Township residents. The polling firm apparently identified themselves and when they were twice asked specifically who commissioned this poll, the answer twice was that it was the Township of Langley. Apparently this was not true! It is thought that the poll is actually commissioned by the Roberts Bank Rail Corridor Program Group, (the project consortium). In addition the only two answers permitted to the specific poll question was agree or disagree. There was absolutely no opportunity given for any third option such as "yes, but at a different location or design" in their poll!

The Total Langley funding from others of ~$42 million is said to be ALL at risk if Minister Falcon as threatened pulls out the province's support for anything but this design! The budget allocation sharing for this Mufford/64th overpass was previously agreed to be shared as follows:

• $ 2.7 Million - Feds
• $12.5 Million - Province
• $24.7 Million - Translink
• $ 1.8 Million - Ports
• $ 9.3 Million - Township of Langley
• $51.1 Million TOTAL

The Total allocated and budgeted dollars for for rail improvement provisions from Roberts Bank through to Langley is to be shared as follows (includes the above 64th /Mufford overpass $51.1 million):

• $75 Million - Feds
• $50 Million - Province
• $50 Million - Translink
• $50 Million - Ports
• $32 Million - Rail
• $50 Million - Local Municipalities
• $307 Million TOTAL