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 in 2023.
“We try to respond to every email, every phone call and people that drop in,” said Wong. “We’ve had some controversy. There’s some controversial things that happen in the community all the time.
“From the provincial perspective I try to get as much information out to people as possible, even though it’s sometimes not the answer or decision they want to hear. I’m a pretty straight shooter and I care.”
One of the big things that drove Wong, the Minister of Advanced Education, to run was the Turf Field project.
“That’s one of the things that is important for the community,” he said. “I 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’re 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’t have anything.
“That Turf Field project is important.”
Wong is hoping that will come to fruition sooner rather than later.
“I’ve 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,” he said.
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One of the other things is the Beaver Bank connector, which has been on the books for upwards of 30 years.
“That is also a growing community,” he said. “Somehow it got taken off the books in the early 2000s.
“It was me that took the initiative and got the community leaders together to talk about this. We’re starting to have conversations now about getting things moving.
“It affects us all. No matter if you’re in Waverley, Fall River, or Wellington, the way that traffic flows around this area affects everybody.”
“Getting the Beaver Bank Connector on peoples radar is a big thing for me,” said Wong.
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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.
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.
“I’ve enjoyed working with the trails association and SWEPS, and people that are true leaders that make this community what it is,” said Wong. “In going forward I want to continue that.
He has been visiting local schools, and does so as being a community resource and to learn, nothing more.
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RESIDENTS CONCERNS
He was asked how he takes concerns from the community to those who can get answers.
“When 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,” he said.
Wong was asked about ensuring there is affordable housing available for residents in the riding.
“One of the things is housing supply,” he said. “There are some big things happening out here, that are on the books that are probably going to happen,” said Wong.
“I think what we truly have to do is try and balance the type of development that’s going on that fits in the community.
He said he can listen and balance what he hears and learns, and trying to do what’s best for the community.
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.
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Wong was asked what his top three priorities for 2023.
“I really want to see the Aerotech Connector progress as quickly as possible,” he said. “The 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.
“When we get contacted about that we immediately contact Public Works who then inquire with the contractor on what’s going on.”
They then try to mitigate concerns, he said.
The continuation of the Beaver Bank bypass conversations is another thing Wong will be doing this year.
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.
“It’s tough when you see a big development coming in and your family owned a property near it for 40 years, and now there’s this big change,” Wong said. “That is difficult, but we are a growing community.”
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.
“We do need the infrastructure to support it,” he said. ‘That is one of the things I will always push for. If we’re going to have development, we need the infrastructure.”
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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.
“One of my big frustrations is the lack of transit that we have. Again, transit is municipal, and not saying there can’t be a piece of provincial work there,” he said. “I know former councillors have tried to get bus routes down here, to Sobeys.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me that we can’t 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.”
