Teresa Townsley for Township Council

Our community is at a crossroads. Costs are climbing for every household here, the pressures being downloaded onto municipalities are getting heavier, and I do not think we are ready for what is coming.

I am a decision maker by nature. I am the person friends and family call in a crisis, and I would rather be at the table working on a problem than watching it from the sidelines. Residents deserve a Council that plans for the future instead of the next election, and that treats the money they send us as the hard-earned money it is.

My husband and I moved here in 2010 with our two children and an assortment of horses, dogs, cats and chickens, and we have been on our farm in South Langley ever since. In 2016, I opened Festina Lente Estate Winery on that same land and grew it into an agritourism destination, one expansion at a time.

Langley is where I returned to my roots in the agricultural community, and where I have become part of the community through volunteering: helping found the Langley Farmers Institute, serving on the Tourism Langley board, directing a parish choir, and rescuing horses who needed somewhere safe to land.

So when a decision comes forward about farmland, water or a rural road, I am not reading about it in a staff report. I live with the result.

Seven things I’ll push for at the Council table:

• Every dollar accounted for. We cannot keep raising taxes. I’ll go through the budget line by line, test spending decisions against what households are already carrying, and prepare for the costs other levels of government pass on to us before they arrive rather than after.
• Emergency services that answer. A “no call too small” standard for police and fire, with the resources and staffing to bring critical response times down.
• Food security, farmland and water. Farming and the environment are inseparable. Protecting the Agricultural Land Reserve, keeping farms viable, and looking after the land and water our food supply depends on. I will also push to have horse boarding and keeping recognized as a legitimate farming activity and animal welfare issue.
• Planning with intent. Planning for the future, not for the next election. Public space, sidewalks and infrastructure treated as a priority in any development instead of something added later.
• A Township residents can navigate. Getting an answer from the planning department should not require hiring a consultant. A case manager as a single point of contact would carry residents and small businesses through the process and advocate for their success.
• Decisions made in the open. More of Council’s discussion held in regular chambers where residents can hear it, with closed sessions kept to the land, labour and legal matters that genuinely require them.
• Healthy, affordable communities. Low or no cost access to public facilities for young people, and services that keep pace with how many people now live here.

I’ll bring experience in health care, governance, and agri-business to the Council table.

In health care, I worked emergency and trauma nursing at Surrey Memorial and St. Paul’s, trained as one of BC’s first Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners with expert witness certification, and worked as an emergency research nurse, building the nursing research program at Surrey Memorial and at St. Paul’s and organizing Surrey’s first nursing research conference.

In governance, I served as Vice-Chair of the Delta Board of Education, where I was a signing officer on a $122 million operating budget, and on the Delta Police Board, which handles the public complaints process and budget direction for the department and I represented Delta Nationally at the Canadian Association of Police Boards.

In business and agriculture, I built Festina Lente Farm and Estate Winery from nothing on five acres in South Langley, co-founded the Langley Farmers Institute, served six years as Vice-Chair of Tourism Langley representing the food and beverage sector, and sat on the Township’s Agricultural Advisory and Economic Enhancement Committee. I am also Vice-Chair of the New Wave Wine Society, which advocates for member wineries across the province.

That every dollar has to come from somewhere, and that process has a cost too. I built the winery from the ground up, which meant I handled the permits, the planning and the paperwork myself. I know exactly how cumbersome, expensive and intimidating that process can be, and how many good local businesses never get started because of it.

It also taught me what a capital decision really looks like. In a business you cannot approve something and worry about the bill later. You look at what it costs to build, what it costs to run, and whether the revenue is genuinely there. I’ll ask those same three questions every time a project comes to Council.

Because we already agree on the fundamentals: responsible spending, transparent decision-making, orderly growth, and respect for the residents we serve. Working alongside people who share those commitments is more effective than working alone.

What does not change is how I vote. Every member of this team keeps their own view and vote on every item. I’ll read the full report, ask the hard questions, and vote the way I believe serves residents best.

When you have worked in a trauma room, you understand that minutes matter, and that the people who arrive first are carrying an enormous amount on behalf of the rest of us. Our police, ambulance and firefighters need the resources and staffing to answer every call, including the ones that look small at the time.

I want a “no call too small” standard in this Township and critical response times that keep coming down. Safety is also something you design in: lighting, road and intersection design, and emergency services that keep pace with how much this community has grown.

One that residents are proud of. Elected officials should set the highest standard of conduct, because the tone at that table becomes the tone of the whole community. Public servants serve the whole community, not a select few, and no one at the table is more important than the people who put them there.

The community most of us moved here for is a warm one, where people know each other and problems get worked out face to face. I would like local government to feel the same way.

It looks like residents being able to follow the reasoning. Closed sessions exist for good reasons, and land, labour and legal matters will always need to be handled that way. Everything else belongs in regular Council chambers, where people can hear the debate and see how their representatives arrived at a decision.

It also looks like reports released before the vote rather than after it, and a plain answer to a plain question about what something costs to build and what it will cost to run.

As one subject, not two. I am a farmer. Farming and the environment are inseparable, and supporting farms and farmers is how we keep food security close to home.

Festina Lente was among the first meaderies in BC to complete Environmental Farm Plan certification, and we produce bee to bottle, so I have been through what it takes to farm responsibly and pay for it at the same time. I am also a recipient of the Burns Bog “Spirit of the Cranes” award for excellence in environmental education. I was also instrumental in the drive to have Burns Bog declared Federally Protected in 2008.

Protecting the health of our land and water is not separate from protecting our farms. And as weather events become more severe, disaster planning and response will matter more than they ever have.

That public trust is the hardest thing to build and the easiest thing to lose. In Delta, I helped steward the district through a financial crisis and a restructuring that affected more than half the student population. We rebuilt confidence by holding public meetings, holding roundtable discussions with affected groups, explaining budget priorities plainly, and being straight with people about what the changes would mean, even when it was not the news they wanted.

The Police Board taught me the other half of governance: the public complaints process, budget direction, and the discipline required in a field where the stakes are personal for everyone involved. Both jobs come down to the same thing. Read the material, hear the people it affects, decide, and then be willing to explain the decision to anyone who asks.

Bring me the question and I will listen. Public servants serve the whole community and not a select few, and nobody should hesitate to raise a concern with their Council out of worry about how it will be received.

You will not always get the answer you were hoping for. But you are owed a real one, you are owed the reasoning behind it, and you are owed the respect of being treated as someone with a legitimate stake in the outcome.

I raise and care for animals, mostly. We have horses, dogs, a cat and chickens, and rescuing horses has been a passion of mine for years, which is its own education in patience and compassion. We keep bees, I grow heirloom vegetables, and I directed church choirs for close to thirty years, including founding a youth choir.

I am also an avid musician and singer. There is a special love in my heart for the electric bass guitar, but I also play violin, piano, drums and a few other instruments. I am also a composer and choral arranger.I play 70’s rock music twice weekly with people that we met locally.

I also write historical fiction and have one novel ready for submission and a second one on the way.

I also read constantly, a habit left over from studying English literature at Simon Fraser University. I believe that with the right book, you can learn almost anything.