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Nathan J Pachal

Independent for Langley City Mayor
We must work together with others to moving forward in a good way in Langley City

Climate Change

Active Transportation

Increase the amount of sidewalks in our community
Continue to implement safer crosswalks
Work towards implementing a Grade Crescent Greenway
Support an Old Yale Road Walking Corridor
Work towards implementing a Michaud Crescent Greenway
Implement a trail bridge in the Brydon Crescent area

Electric Bikes & Scooters

Support end of trip facilities and charging

Energy-Efficient Buildings & Retrofits

Support increasing energy efficient step code
Encourage use of solar power in apartment building
Explore the use of direct energy systems

Flooding

Reduce encroachment in Nicomekl Floodplain
Support raising the flood evaluation level of habitable space
Support flood mapping study

Green Space

Increase and enhance our urban tree canopy
Support funding to enhance our parks and park programming
Build new parks and greenways in northwest area of Langley City as SkyTrain and redevelopment occurs
Improve washroom facilities in parks

Parking

Support a parking study for community
Support planning for a parkade in Downtown Langley

Private Vehicles

Support public EV charging

Urban Heat

Support increasing urban tree canopy
Support retaining trees during redevelopment
Support reducing non-permeable surface such as in parking lots

Zoning

Support updating the zoning bylaws which has been significantly updated in 20+ years.

Housing & Homelessness

Affordability

Investigate rental-only zoning
Create affordable housing policies

On Council, I led in creating and preserving affordable housing - putting forward a motion to protect Langley Lions Housing and safeguarding housing for our seniors. I also put forward a motion to ensure that we create new affordable rental housing when older rental buildings are redeveloped - ensuring that we have affordable housing options for all moving forward.

As Mayor, I will continue to advocate for more rental housing in Langley City, and will work with the Province and TransLink to ensure that additional affordable rental stock is built in close proximity to SkyTrain, further improving affordability for everyone in our community.

Support seniors affordable housing

On Council, I led in creating and preserving affordable housing - putting forward a motion to protect Langley Lions Housing and safeguarding housing for our seniors.

Rental Stock

Fair and just tenant relocation policy

Langley City Council recently adopted a tenant relocation policy to enable residents to move back into our community when rental redevelopment projects are complete. I will work with others on Council to ensure this new policy is fair and equitable include a right to return with reduced rent.

Street Sweeps

I will work to make sure the City gets the basics right
I will support getting the basics rights.

Unhoused People

Building a supportive housing facility in Langley City to get people off the street
Lobby the province for complex care in Langley City
Better coordinate services for people experiencing homelessness

Homelessness is a complex, growing and pressing challenge. While many people are doing good work to address homelessness, it has been a piecemeal approach resulting in many people falling through the cracks.

However, this is not a challenge that Langley City can solve alone. Coordination has been a tremendous barrier to solving this crisis. That is why it is so important to have an effective facilitator. That is why as Mayor, I will bring together partners, working with local doctors, non-profits, and the province, to ensure timely and effective access to primary care - including mental health & addiction support services and housing. Doing so will ensure that we take a holistic approach to addressing this pressing challenge in our community.

As a Councillor for two terms, I've strongly supported having the City take a leadership role in facilitating and coordinating resources. I was proud to advocate with others on Council to hire someone who recently started working with partners and people experiencing homelessness in Langley City to close the gaps, get people the help they need, and get people back on their feet. We have a lot more work to do.

Zoning

Support updating the zoning bylaws which has been significantly updated in 20+ years.

Human Rights

Physical Accessibility

Ensure universal access is embedded into all City plans and processes
Ensure that will include people with lived experience around universal access when designing our spaces

Mental Health, Drugs, & Addiction

Mental Health Crisis Response

Will lobby the province to investing in complex care including improving access to mental health care in Langley City

Treatment Programmes

Will lobby the province to increase access to treatment programs for Langley City residents

Public Safety & Policing

Non-Police-Based Public Safety

Create a Citizens Assembly on Community Safety. Implement their plan.

Based on Langley City’s Community Survey, in 2004, 82% of residents felt safe and secure. Over the past two decades, this number has been steadily dropping. As of 2019, only 67% of Langley City’s residents felt safe and secure. This is despite the City’s protective services budget more than doubling over the past 18 years.

In 2004, the City budgeted 39% of property tax for the police and $8.5 million on protective services overall. In 2022, the City budgeted 45% of property tax for the police and $20.5 million on protective services overall.

The top concerns in our City remain poverty, homelessness, and the perception of crime.

The status quo, how we are responding to these concerns, is not working and is costing Langley City residents not only dollars and cents or their quality of life, but, tragically for some people, their lives. Reform only works when it comes from the community. A Citizens’ Assembly brings together people from the community, representing diverse viewpoints and lived experiences.

A Citizens’ Assembly convenes, supported by experts and facilitators, to deliberate on a given set of challenges and provide a set of recommendations. The Assembly drives the outcomes of these recommendations. At a high level, Assembly will evaluate current pressures and top calls for service in Langley City for the police service, fire-rescue service, BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), bylaw department, parks department, and engineering department through the lens of community safety.

The Assembly will determine which services or City department can fulfil these calls for service in the most timely, nimble, and resource-effective manner to maximize positive outcomes. Where there is a gap in capacity, the Assembly will also look at which service or department the City controls or influences can most effectively close the gap in the ability to execute.

For example, the fire service may be in the best position to help stabilize people during a medical event and partner with health care professionals to ensure people are attached to the care they need.

The bylaw department, working with health care and housing professionals, could be in the best position to attach people experiencing homelessness to housing and healthcare.

A new City Park and Trail Ranger service might be the best to help keep our parks safe and clean.

These are just ideas, and the Assembly will think outside the box.

The Assembly will also look at the upstream reasons for the top calls for service and generate an action plan for the City to complete in partnership with First Nations, the federal government, province, school board, other local governments, and our non-profit sector.

For example, the Assembly might determine that universal access to after-school programs will reduce tagging of City infrastructure, and recommend future advocacy of provincial funding for said programs.

For more information, please visit: https://www.nathanpachal.com/2022/09/improving-community-safety.html

Street Sweeps

I will work to make sure the City gets the basics right
I will support getting the basics rights.

Upstream Causes of Crime

Create a Citizens Assembly on Community Safety. Implement their plan.

Based on Langley City’s Community Survey, in 2004, 82% of residents felt safe and secure. Over the past two decades, this number has been steadily dropping. As of 2019, only 67% of Langley City’s residents felt safe and secure. This is despite the City’s protective services budget more than doubling over the past 18 years.

In 2004, the City budgeted 39% of property tax for the police and $8.5 million on protective services overall. In 2022, the City budgeted 45% of property tax for the police and $20.5 million on protective services overall.

The top concerns in our City remain poverty, homelessness, and the perception of crime.

The status quo, how we are responding to these concerns, is not working and is costing Langley City residents not only dollars and cents or their quality of life, but, tragically for some people, their lives. Reform only works when it comes from the community. A Citizens’ Assembly brings together people from the community, representing diverse viewpoints and lived experiences.

A Citizens’ Assembly convenes, supported by experts and facilitators, to deliberate on a given set of challenges and provide a set of recommendations. The Assembly drives the outcomes of these recommendations. At a high level, Assembly will evaluate current pressures and top calls for service in Langley City for the police service, fire-rescue service, BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), bylaw department, parks department, and engineering department through the lens of community safety.

The Assembly will determine which services or City department can fulfil these calls for service in the most timely, nimble, and resource-effective manner to maximize positive outcomes. Where there is a gap in capacity, the Assembly will also look at which service or department the City controls or influences can most effectively close the gap in the ability to execute.

For example, the fire service may be in the best position to help stabilize people during a medical event and partner with health care professionals to ensure people are attached to the care they need.

The bylaw department, working with health care and housing professionals, could be in the best position to attach people experiencing homelessness to housing and healthcare.

A new City Park and Trail Ranger service might be the best to help keep our parks safe and clean.

These are just ideas, and the Assembly will think outside the box.

The Assembly will also look at the upstream reasons for the top calls for service and generate an action plan for the City to complete in partnership with First Nations, the federal government, province, school board, other local governments, and our non-profit sector.

For example, the Assembly might determine that universal access to after-school programs will reduce tagging of City infrastructure, and recommend future advocacy of provincial funding for said programs.

For more information, please visit: https://www.nathanpachal.com/2022/09/improving-community-safety.html

Public Spaces & Services

Green Space

Increase and enhance our urban tree canopy
Support funding to enhance our parks and park programming
Build new parks and greenways in northwest area of Langley City as SkyTrain and redevelopment occurs
Improve washroom facilities in parks

Public Washrooms

Support making our washrooms the cleanest and best maintained in Metro Vancouver

Sidewalks & Bike Paths

Support investing in sidewalks and bike paths

Zoning

Support updating the zoning bylaws which has been significantly updated in 20+ years.

Reconciliation & Indigenous Nations

Places Names, Statues, & Other Commemorations

Together will other member of Council, I will work to build relationships with Katzie, Kwantlen, Matsqui, and Semiahmoo First Nations

Residential Schools

Continue Journey of Reconciliation in Langley City

I worked with other members of Langley City Council to pass the following motion:

WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s summary report, “Honouring the Truth, Reconciling the Future,” was released to the public on June 2nd, 2015;

WHEREAS as directed by the commission report; calls for federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People as the framework for reconciliation;

WHEREAS the City of Langley is a colonial institution;

WHEREAS the work of reconciliation must start within colonial institutions;

WHEREAS the City of Langley owns the act of reconciliation;

WHEREAS local governments must begin the journey with Indigenous Nations by learning the truth of Canada’s cultural genocide of Indigenous People before reconciliation can be achieved;

WHEREAS City of Langley Council has the opportunity to move the City in a good way by gaining perspectives and understanding of Indigenous Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers of ethics, concepts, and practices of reconciliation;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Langley create a Request for Proposal for developing an educational program about Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous Cultural Protocols, Knowledge Systems, and Empathy and Safety work by qualified Indigenous Cultural presenters, practitioners or educators;

THAT the City of Langley submit a successful Request for Proposal for Council to tender;

THAT Council consider funding the tender as part of the 2022 budget process;

THAT the educational program be delivered to Council and Senior Staff as soon as possible;

THAT the educational program be delivered to Council and Senior Staff within six months of any Council inauguration;

THAT the City of Langley take immediate action by acknowledging Orange Shirt Day by placing an Every Child Matters Banner across the two Fraser Highway gateways to the Downtown for the week of September 27th, 2021;

THAT up to $2,500 be expended from the Enterprise Fund for the Every Child Matters Banner; and,

THAT the Every Child Matters Banner be stored by the City for future use as directed by Council.

Transit & Getting Around

Active Transportation

Increase the amount of sidewalks in our community
Continue to implement safer crosswalks
Work towards implementing a Grade Crescent Greenway
Support an Old Yale Road Walking Corridor
Work towards implementing a Michaud Crescent Greenway
Implement a trail bridge in the Brydon Crescent area

Electric Bikes & Scooters

Support end of trip facilities and charging

New Transit Projects

Continue to support SkyTrain to Langley City
Support Bus Rapid Transit

Parking

Support a parking study for community
Support planning for a parkade in Downtown Langley

Private Vehicles

Support public EV charging

Sidewalks & Bike Paths

Support investing in sidewalks and bike paths

Biography

submitted to Langley City's elections office by the candidate

Whether through my blog; by working with various community organizations such as South Fraser OnTrax or the HUB: Cycling Langley Committee (which I co-founded); or by serving on Langley City’s Parks and Environmental Advisory Committee, Crime Prevention Task Group, and Hunter Park Task Force, I have worked hard to bring forward awareness around intersecting components of sustainable, safe, and accessible community design for more than a decade.

Over those years I have written thousands of blog posts, served on the Abbotsford Inter-regional Transportation Select Committee, hosted sustainability workshops, and have helped bring world-renowned speakers to the community, such as Walkable Communities’ Dan Burden, the Victoria Policy Institute’s Todd Litman, and Oregon Metro Councillor Carlotta Collette. I have appeared in print, radio, and television talking about land-use and transportation issues in our region. I have been a regular guest on CBC Radio’s Early Edition and also Global’s BC1 and newscasts.

As a strong supporter of agricultural and green spaces, I authored a report on the Agricultural Land Reserve entitled “Decade of Exclusions? A Snapshot of the Agricultural Land Reserve from 2000-2009 in the South of Fraser.

I also believe that we need a diverse transportation system that allows people to take transit, cycle, walk, or drive throughout the entire region. I co-authored a report —“Leap Ahead: A transit plan for Metro Vancouver”— to bring awareness to the importance of accessible transit networks.

In 2010, I completed the SFU & City of Surrey Transportation Lecture Program and presented on “Complete Streets”.

I previously worked for Rogers Media for over a decade supporting their television operations in Metro Vancouver. I currently work at PNI Digital Media managing a team that supports a large e-commerce platform. I am responsible for delivering complex multi-million dollar projects on-time and under-budget.

Reason for running

submitted by the candidate or their team

I was elected to Langley City Council in 2016. Over two terms, I have been a tireless advocate for safe streets and parks, better transport, and housing options for all – as Mayor, I will work with others to make a SAFER LANGLEY CITY WHERE PEOPLE CAN PROSPER.

WORKING TOGETHER

I will be a facilitator on City Council, working with other councillors, our provincial and federal governments to increase affordable housing and reduce homelessness.

SAFER COMMUNITIES

I will work with residents and law enforcement to implement proven crime reduction strategies that protect individual safety and prevents property damage.

GETTING THE BASICS RIGHT

I will work with others to ensure that potholes and uneven sidewalks are repaired promptly and make our parks and public washrooms the best maintained and cleanest in Metro Vancouver.

nathanpachal.com www.nathanpachal.com