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Metro and Delta services focus of town hall

How Metro Vancouver and Delta is continuing to provide its services was one of the topics of the latest virtual town hall on Thursday morning.
Virtual town hall seven
Hosted by the City of Delta on its Facebook and Instagram pages, Mayor George Harvie was joined for the discussion by Delta police Chief Neil Dubord and Metro Vancouver board chair Sav Dhaliwal for the seventh virtual town hall since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Metro Vancouver and Delta is continuing to provide its services was one of the topics of the latest virtual town hall on Thursday morning.

Hosted by the City of Delta on its Facebook and Instagram pages, Mayor George Harvie was joined for the discussion by Delta police Chief Neil Dubord and Metro Vancouver board chair Sav Dhaliwal for the seventh virtual town hall since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dhaliwal said at the start of the pandemic, Metro emphasized the need to ensure that critical services would be provided without interruption.

“There is nothing more critical than water, so working with local governments, we are ensuring that all continues,” he said. “In fact, over the last three weeks, the usage of water has gone up. It relates that the water is going to be available, security and safety continues to be very high. Water will be delivered and will be cleaned properly just as it has been. Water, garbage, sewage all remains just as before. There have been no staff layoffs in any of these areas. The board said those essential services will be provided. You don’t have to worry about this.”

Below is a sampling of other questions and answers from the session:

Q: When can I start to volunteer again at the community police stations?
A: “That is a question that we have been receiving a lot the past few weeks where we are seeing our volunteers anxious to get back to work and into our community police stations, but right now we don’t have a date,” said Dubord. “We want to make sure we do it in a safe fashion. The last thing we want to do is bring people who are donating their time and giving to the community and then hopefully put them in an area where they might be put at risk. We are going to take our time with this.”

Q: Do you know when residential tax notices will be mailed out this year?

A: “We are reporting back to council at our next meeting whether we are keeping the date or deferring the penalty. We are also monitoring what is happening with the rest of the cities,” said Harvie. “There will be tax notices sent along with a letter from the mayor with regards to where the taxes are proportioned, projects that we are doing, those types of things related to the COVID-19 virus.”

Dhaliwal added that is important for residents who are able to pay their taxes to do so.

“Local governments really rely…this is a pay as you go system as you know…generally dates June and July cities are determining across the region, and some are deferring to September,” he said. “Local governments have regular requirements to pay Translink and Metro. In order for Metro to continue to provide those services that we need to deliver, that money comes from the local governments. Those dates don’t change, so please keep that in mind.”

Q: How has this pandemic effected Metro Vancouver affordable housing?
A: “About 9,000 people are currently in Metro Vancouver housing throughout the region, so it has effected in a couple of ways,” said Dhaliwal. “We are working with residents and being mindful of social distancing and supporting residents in carrying out those responsibilities. We normally have a rent increase in April, but we have put that increase on hold. We have also offered people who have not the ability to pay their rent in April, May, or June to have a deferral system which is on an individual case-by-case basis.

“In the long-term the province is looking at additional housing, so that will affect us as well. There will be more demand for more housing, so we will be continuing to work with local governments on this as well.”

Q: What is happening with the Mayor’s Housing Task force and other Delta committees?

A:“We are going to be in contact with the task force to see if we can do it virtual and we are also contacting the other committees of council,” said Harvie. “We will start these committees back up. We are going to be in this situation for a number of months if not well into next year, so we have to see what we can do differently – just like we are doing council meetings differently.”

A replay of the full town hall session is available on the Delta Optimist Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/TheDeltaOptimist.

Next week’s virtual town hall is at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 7. The scheduled guest is Delta North MLA Ravi Khalon.