Faye Isaac wants to make some noise about transportation so that Maple Ridge’s voice is heard along with the rest of the voices in Metro Vancouver.
“It’s our time,” Isaac says. “Coquitlam is getting the Evergreen SkyTrain, what are we getting? We’re paying for it, but the Evergreen is not coming to Maple Ridge.
“We have to stand up and shout.”
Isaac, who was on council from 1999 to 2005, wants more track time for the West Coast Express train so it can offer a more frequent service instead of only the five rush-hour runs each day. She wants reliable bus service within Maple Ridge so people can count on it to get around and a RapidBus connection to the SkyTrain line in Coquitlam.
A RapidBus link is one possible option that’s been outlined in the mayor’s vision for TransLink created earlier this year.
Isaac isn’t critical about the last nine years of council after losing her seat in the 2005 election. Mayor Ernie Daykin, “has served his community well. He’s at all the functions. He represents this community well.”
She’s also served with the community heritage commission, the Maple Ridge Historical Society and helped with the Ghost Ridge haunted house, the Christmas hamper program and Country Fest.
In her profile description on the City of Maple Ridge’s website, Isaac says Maple Ridge is on “the cusp of great opportunities.”
“I want to assist the community in building an employment base – and shopping,” she added Friday.
Any new shopping should go “where ever it will serve the community best.”
She also wants to preserve Maple Ridge’s agricultural land and continue the efforts at improving the downtown.
“Building a strong economy with jobs for now and the future is a high priority,” she says in her profile.
But if there’s limited shopping and employment here, at least there should be a good transportation system so people can get to their jobs outside the community, she added.