Affordability, Taxes & Value for Money

• Maintained annual property-tax increases at approximately 3.6%, the level City finance staff had identified as required to maintain existing municipal services.
• Continued major infrastructure, recreation and public-safety delivery within that tax framework, including through COVID-19 and other extraordinary pressures.
• In the final budget, approximately 2% represented the municipal increase and approximately 1.6% related to the retroactive RCMP collective-agreement impact.
• Reduced the business-to-residential tax ratio from 4.25% to 3.5% over four years, moving Maple Ridge closer to the regional average and reducing the disproportionate burden that had accumulated on long-standing commercial properties.
• Redirected resources toward the Community Social Safety Initiative and Community Safety Officer model rather than simply layering the full cost of a new response onto taxpayers.
• Invested approximately $30 million in parks and recreation during the term while maintaining the City’s long-term financial framework. annual property-tax increases at 3.6%, which City finance staff had identified as the level required to maintain existing municipal services.

Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities

• Delivered and opened the Albion Community Centre.
• Completed major improvements at the Albion Fairgrounds, including a new multi-purpose field and pump-track/cycling amenities.
• Completed the major Maple Ridge Leisure Centre pool rehabilitation.
• Delivered Telosky sports-field improvements.
• Delivered McIlDoon Bike Skills Park.
• Undertook additional sports-field, playground, trail, court and park improvements across Maple Ridge.
• Secured the property required for the future Port Haney Waterfront Park, preserving the waterfront opportunity for future development.
• Completed the Parks, Recreation & Culture Master Plan to guide longer-term recreation and facility investment.

Fire Protection & Emergency Preparedness

• Constructed, staffed and opened Fire Hall No. 4 in Albion in 2020, expanding fire protection for Albion and Central Maple Ridge.
• The new post-disaster facility incorporated firefighting operations, firefighter training, emergency-management functions and supporting City infrastructure.
• Fire Hall No. 4 initially accommodated approximately 25 paid-on-call firefighters together with emergency-management and training personnel.
• Completed the Fire Master Plan.
• Purchased and installed the City’s first earthquake early-warning system.
• The earthquake system cost approximately $450,000 and was fully grant-funded.
• The system provides advance warning of significant seismic activity and can trigger automated protective responses such as opening fire-hall doors and shutting down gas infrastructure.
• Long-term fire-service planning included a future Silver Valley fire hall on city owned land.

Public Safety, Homelessness & Addiction

• Led the closure of the Anita Place homeless encampment in downtown Maple Ridge.
• Cleaned up the former encampment site and opened Beckett Park in its place.
• Created and implemented the Community Social Safety Initiative (CSSI), a coordinated public-safety and social-support strategy.
• Created a three-tier public-safety response model intended to match police,
  municipal/community-safety resources and health/social interventions to the nature of the problem.
• Created and deployed Community Safety Officers as frontline municipal responders.
• Created the Integrated Safety Ambassador Team (ISAT) to address street disorder and connect vulnerable residents with services.
• Created a Community Resource Hub to connect vulnerable residents with health, housing and social services; Maple Ridge was among the early BC municipalities to establish a local Hub model of this kind.
• Established an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team in Maple Ridge through advocacy with Fraser Health, providing intensive mental-health and addiction support to high-needs residents.
• Advanced youth intervention/diversion and an integrated court approach.
• Developed public performance reporting/dashboarding for CSSI.
• By June 2022, City staff reported the Community Social Safety Plan as 100% operationalized.
• Reported CSSI results included reductions in street disorder, crime/police calls and an 11% reduction in overdoses by year three under the initiative’s reported measures.
• Advocated for increased provincial ambulance resources so medical, overdose and
  mental-health emergencies received an appropriate health response rather than shifting those responsibilities to municipal fire and police services.
• Opposed a supervised drug consumption model while advocating for detox, treatment and a broader continuum of health, housing and social supports

Housing & Provincial Advocacy

• Pursued a broader continuum of housing addressing seniors, people with disabilities,
  lower-income residents, people requiring treatment/recovery supports and residents needing affordable housing.
• Secured approximately $200 million in provincial commitments for various forms of housing across that broader continuum.
• Challenged provincial downloading of homelessness, addiction, health and housing responsibilities onto municipal taxpayers.
• Took Maple Ridge’s concerns about local-government autonomy to UBCM and secured majority support for advocacy to the Province.
• Opposed additional shelter/supportive-housing proposals where Council believed the proposed model did not meet Maple Ridge’s needs, while advocating for alternative housing, treatment and health supports.
• Continued to seek reimbursement of approximately $1.5 million in costs associated with the encampment closure and security, in addition to legal expenses.
• Continued advocacy for treatment, mental-health, addiction and ambulance services within provincial jurisdiction.

Transportation & Congestion

• Advanced Maple Ridge’s Strategic Transportation Plan and aligned local work with regional transportation and growth planning.
• Advanced the Lougheed Transit Corridor Area Plan and pushed for sufficient transit-supportive density along the corridor.
• Advocated for higher-order rapid transit/BRT connecting Maple Ridge toward the Evergreen SkyTrain corridor and improved rapid service east toward Albion.
• Supported inclusion in Transport 2050 of a future rapid-transit corridor connecting Langley and Maple Ridge via the Golden Ears Bridge and Maple Ridge Town Centre.
• Pursued improvements to major east-west corridors, including Lougheed Highway and Abernethy Way.
• Secured written TransLink support in August 2022 for widening Golden Ears Way/Abernethy Connector between the Lougheed interchange and 210 Street.
• TransLink confirmed that Stage 2 of the original Golden Ears Bridge project contemplated the four-lane configuration and estimated the widening at approximately $10–15 million, subject to detailed design, funding and stated conditions.
• Separately, Council advocated for a four-lane configuration associated with the north end of the Golden Ears Bridge/Lougheed Highway work rather than retaining a two-lane bottleneck.
• Secured a Provincial commitment to four-lane the north end of the Golden Ears Bridge.

Economic Development — Pitt Meadows Regional Airport

• Beginning in 2019, worked jointly with Pitt Meadows Mayor Bill Dingwall, Pitt Meadows and YPK leadership to reposition the jointly governed regional airport for investment and growth.
• Maple Ridge Council supported airport modernization and development planning and worked jointly with Pitt Meadows on employment opportunities around the airport.
• More than $70 million in airport/private development has followed, with approximately another $100–120 million in development in the pipeline.
• The investment was attracted without Maple Ridge property taxpayers funding those
  airport/private development investments.
• Current YPK reporting attributes approximately 840 direct, indirect and induced jobs, approximately $60 million in household income, approximately $90 million in Canadian GDP and approximately $170 million in economic output to airport activity.

Jobs, Employment Lands & Tax-Base Diversification

• Advanced employment/industrial lands planning intended to create local jobs and reduce reliance on residential property taxes.
• Advanced planning for the 240 Street and Yennadon employment lands.
• Investigated additional employment opportunities at 256 Street and Thornhill/Whonnock.
• Advanced work examining Thornhill as an employment area with potential to materially increase Maple Ridge’s industrial/commercial tax base; the working estimate used in the 2026 review is approximately a 10% shift.
• Completed an Economic Development Strategy.
• Completed a Tourism Strategy.
• Pursued additional commercial and industrial development opportunities to broaden Maple Ridge’s tax base

Growth & Core Infrastructure

• Advanced planning for water, sanitary sewer, stormwater/drainage and transportation infrastructure required to support long-term growth.
• Connected infrastructure planning to the OCP and the ability to accommodate responsible infill and density within the urban containment area.
• Undertook Building Services and Planning Services reviews.
• Completed major capital projects while maintaining the City’s long-term financial framework.
• Integrated infrastructure planning with transportation, housing, recreation and employment strategies

Planning for the Future

During the 2018–2022 term, Maple Ridge completed or substantially advanced a number of long-term plans intended to guide growth and investment over the following decade, including:

• Strategic Transportation Plan
• Parks, Recreation & Culture Master Plan
• Fire Master Plan
• Economic Development Strategy
• Tourism Strategy
• Communications & Public Engagement Strategy
• Housing Action Plan / build a complete continuum to meet our city needs)
• Community Social Safety Initiative
• Building Dept Service Review
• Planning Dept Service Review
• Human Resources plan
• Lougheed Transit Corridor plan (to second reading, deferred for more density, no industrial/warehousing)
• employment-lands planning
• airport employment-land plan
• water, sewer and drainage infrastructure/servicing work supporting long-term growth
  

The 2018–2022 record therefore includes both delivery and planning: facilities and services were completed and launched during the term, while other initiatives were advanced so future Councils could continue implementation.