Name: Peter Tam
Age: (blank)
Occupation: (blank)
Q1. What have you personally achieved, or what initiative have you personally led in recent years that qualifies you to be elected or re-elected as a Maple Ridge councillor?
1: Achievements relevant to my ability to be a councillor: RCMP auxiliary constable; started the Ridge Meadows Job Fair; Rotary member, involved in raising hundred of thousand of dollars for local sport and art groups; engineering document management project manager for Nav Canada; supported and sponsored local hospital foundation, hospice society and the farmers market, as well as youth events such as Adstock and Breast Fest; conductor of the Ridge Meadows Symphony Orchestra; ran as MP candidate in last federal election; judged on the Juno Awards; board director for multiple societies and non-profit associations, such as Art Council and Mountain Festival; also volunteered for CEED Centre, ARMS, KEEPS, B.C. Disability Games, Rick Hansen foundation, Kayak club, family education centre, Haney Neighbourhood and Webster’s Corners; was area commissioner for Scouts.
Q2. Provide two examples of council’s actions over the past three years and explain why or why not you support them.
2. I do not support the 10 per cent property tax increase over the last past years. We are spending too much for infrastructure upgrades to accommodate urban sprawl. We should not pay for past and future residential development costs out of general revenues. There is a false sense that we are better off because of development. Development should stand on its own economic merits and should not be subsidized by the taxpayer.
I support the initiative to push forward in preparing the core for development and to provide incentives to business to come to Maple Ridge. But we will need to go further by focusing on creating a uniqueness about Maple Ridge (see my platform on building post secondary education) to be proactive establishing partnerships and relationships, and streamlining our core development process.
Q3. Do you support the 13-per-cent increase (over three years) in councillor’s salaries approved last summer? Why or why not? Explain what you would do if elected.
3. I am in favour of the pay increase only if councillors are committing to their job full-time, thus taking away the opportunity to engage in other businesses that could be a conflict of interest. I will have to resign from the RCMP when I am elected. Bottom line is, people should be paid for what they are worth, and public servants should be accountable to their time and the quality of work. Councillors should take a proactive role in engaging and communicating with the community, to get in to the trenches with all people in the community, as I and many other volunteers do.