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FALL RIVER:<\/strong> The MLA for Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank said he takes an interest in everyone and everything that is going on in the community he represents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brian Wong was speaking to The Laker News about highlights of 2022 and what some of his priorities and goals are for the year ahead in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe try to respond to every email, every phone call and people that drop in,\u201d said Wong. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some controversy. There\u2019s some controversial things that happen in the community all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the provincial perspective I try to get as much information out to people as possible, even though it\u2019s sometimes not the answer or decision they want to hear. I\u2019m a pretty straight shooter and I care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the big things that drove Wong, the Minister of Advanced Education, to run was the Turf Field project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that is important for the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI have always said we have a growing community. We have a community that is mixed with people who have lived out here 50, 60 years and we have new people moving in. We\u2019re continually growing. But we have no municipal services. No municipal facility. We pay our taxes and other than they pick up our garbage, recycling, and they plow, we don\u2019t have anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat Turf Field project is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong is hoping that will come to fruition sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve worked very hard with our government to get the funding through, and working with MP Darrell Samson on it hoping it gets pushed through there too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the other things is the Beaver Bank connector, which has been on the books for upwards of 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is also a growing community,\u201d he said. \u201cSomehow it got taken off the books in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was me that took the initiative and got the community leaders together to talk about this. We\u2019re starting to have conversations now about getting things moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt affects us all. No matter if you\u2019re in Waverley, Fall River, or Wellington, the way that traffic flows around this area affects everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Getting the Beaver Bank Connector on peoples radar is a big thing for me,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”194″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said most good things that happen in the riding are happening because of good people and community organizations, such as Cheema he said. He was happy to support their expansion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong said when volunteers and leaders come to them and they need help one of the things they do is do everything they possibly can to help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed working with the trails association and SWEPS, and people that are true leaders that make this community what it is,\u201d said Wong. \u201cIn going forward I want to continue that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has been visiting local schools, and does so as being a community resource and to learn, nothing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”169″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”126″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n RESIDENTS CONCERNS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n He was asked how he takes concerns from the community to those who can get answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we have a Cabinet meeting or Caucus, we have direct access to the Ministers that maybe in charge of whatever problem it is, we can talk to the ministers directly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong was asked about ensuring there is affordable housing available for residents in the riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things is housing supply,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some big things happening out here, that are on the books that are probably going to happen,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think what we truly have to do is try and balance the type of development that\u2019s going on that fits in the community.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He said he can listen and balance what he hears and learns, and trying to do what\u2019s best for the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong has spoken with Tom Mills from SWEPS about environmental concerns quite a bit, and has learned a lot from the experts as he called SWEPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”7″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong was asked what his top three priorities for 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really want to see the Aerotech Connector progress as quickly as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people that live in that area, there are always concerns. There are things that happen, flooding and water runoff, that we have to be on top off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we get contacted about that we immediately contact Public Works who then inquire with the contractor on what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They then try to mitigate concerns, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The continuation of the Beaver Bank bypass conversations is another thing Wong will be doing this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said they are also keeping an eye on any development out in the Fall River area to ensure that it fits in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough when you see a big development coming in and your family owned a property near it for 40 years, and now there\u2019s this big change,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThat is difficult, but we are a growing community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The province has committed to doubling the population in N.S. by 2060, so he thinks people need to be accepting that change is going to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe do need the infrastructure to support it,\u201d he said. \u2018That is one of the things I will always push for. If we\u2019re going to have development, we need the infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”71″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”148″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong was asked about getting transit to the area, and seeing if there was a way for the province to work with HRM to get transit into Fall River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of my big frustrations is the lack of transit that we have. Again, transit is municipal, and not saying there can\u2019t be a piece of provincial work there,\u201d he said. \u201cI know former councillors have tried to get bus routes down here, to Sobeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense to me that we can\u2019t connect a bus route that can come down into Fall River or goes up through Fall River Road, Windsor Junction, Cobequid Road. The population is here for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”93″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”188″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”192″] [adrotate banner=”105″] FALL RIVER: The MLA for Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank said he takes an interest in everyone and everything that is going on in the community he represents. Brian Wong was speaking to The Laker News about highlights of 2022 and what some of his priorities and goals are for the year ahead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[2803,212,10,4709,2245,4710,2,50,48,337,16],"class_list":["post-34839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-advanced-education-minister-brian-wong","tag-aerotech-connector","tag-beaver-bank","tag-beaver-bank-connector","tag-brian-wong","tag-bus-route","tag-fall-river","tag-halifax","tag-n-s","tag-turf-field","tag-waverley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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