December 1, 2022: Councillors Daniel Fontaine of New Westminster and Linda Annis of Surrey want to bring Lower Mainland municipalities, the provincial government, transit operators, and road maintenance contractors together for a regional snow summit that would work to prevent a repeat of the transportation chaos that brought the region to a standstill on Tuesday evening.
“The snow that hit us on Tuesday wasn’t a surprise,” noted Fontaine. “But the impact was a complete shutdown that closed roads and bridges and really brought much of the Lower Mainland to a complete halt. I think it’s important to know why, and to work on a regional plan that does better next time. This has to be a combined effort of the province and local municipalities across the Lower Mainland.”
Annis, said she left a downtown Vancouver meeting at 7:15 PM on Tuesday, and did not get home to South Surrey until 4:45 AM.
“A few inches of snow should not shut down the entire region, but it became clear on Tuesday afternoon when the snow started to fall that things were only going to get worse,” said Annis. “The gridlock spread so quickly and suddenly that we were all trapped in our cars for hours as the weather and traffic got worse. How do other regions across Canada and the United States that get much more snow than us keep going, and what can we learn going forward? We have to get better at this and we have to do it together.”
Fontaine and Annis said while the snow summit should be candid about what happened and what went wrong, the focus should be on learning how we can be better prepared. The two councillors have suggested the regional snow summit be chaired by Metro Vancouver chair, Mayor George Harvie of Delta, and Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
“Metro Vancouver has a population of 2.6 million, and covers nearly 3,000 km,” added Fontaine. “The region is British Columbia’s biggest economic engine, and keeping it moving, even in bad weather has to be a priority for all of us.”