Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy offered an endorsement of the federal budget in a statement offered on Wednesday, April 17, and expressed disappointment.
“As one of the fastest growing municipalities in the Metro Vancouver region, and growing over twice the national rate, the City of Maple Ridge welcomes the federal government’s focus on housing initiatives in Budget 2024 with Canada’s Housing Plan,” said Ruimy.
He is a former MP for Pitt-Meadows Maple Ridge, and was a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party. Ruimy was elected in 2015, when Trudeau came to power with a majority government.
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Ruimy served as an MP until he was defeated by current MP Marc Dalton, a Conservative, in the federal election of 2019.
“This federal budget has significant new spending dedicated to core infrastructure like water and sewage treatment, transit and road networks and other infrastructure that cities like Maple Ridge desperately need as we add new housing to meet the needs of our rapidly growing population,” he said.
“We were also pleased to see the $400 million top-up to the Housing Accelerator Fund which is an encouraging signal to communities like Maple Ridge that we can access the next round of funding. Maple Ridge was overlooked in the first round of funding, which distributed $4 billion to cities for housing projects. With an average of over 10 per cent population growth every single year, Maple Ridge has acute infrastructure needs along with a history of being overlooked as a community. It’s good to see the federal government putting significant dollars into housing and recognizing that we have an infrastructure deficit in our city.”
The former fed did express misgivings about transit funding.
“We were disappointed to see that the federal government has not heard our call for speeding up the delivery of the Permanent Transit Fund,” he said. “This money isn’t scheduled to roll out until 2026, leaving TransLink with a two-year gap with no federal funding for transit. We are hopeful that the government will find a solution so TransLink can move forward with the Access for Everyone plan, which includes a new Bus Rapid Transit line from Maple Ridge to Langley.”
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He said the city will explore partnership opportunities to support projects that have been identified as priorities in the city’s Maple Ridge Moves strategy. These projects include securing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) funding, the full expansion of Abernethy Way, and the 240 Street Bridge project, which will ensuring better connectivity to Silver Valley and the Golden Ears Provincial Park, B.C.’s most visited Park.
Others in B.C. were not effusive in their praise for the budget.
B.C. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy said Tuesday afternoon in a statement that her government welcomes Ottawa’s decision to invest billions in housing, but called the move “overdue” and lamented lack of funding for infrastructure to support that housing.
Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association B.C. president Marci Deane said Ottawa needs to do more than allow 30-year mortgages, and other measures.
“While these are encouraging steps, we know that further policy changes will be needed in order to more broadly help British Columbians who feel priced out and ignored by policymakers,” Deane said.
– with files from Wolf Depner
READ ALSO: B.C. reaction to the 2024 federal budget predictably mixed