Barbara Junker talks to Brad Nickason from We’ve Got Issues about running for Port Moody City Council and about her vision for the City. Barbara and her husband have lived in Port Moody for 33 years and raised two children here. She served on City Council from 2014 to 2018 where she enjoyed listening to Port Moody residents and had a good relationship with City staff and colleagues. Volunteer work has always been part of Barbara’s life. Barbara brings consensus-building, negotiation, and respectful-workplace skills from her work as a Union representative.

Barbara doesn’t know why Council got so divisive last term, but feels Council needs to work together, even if they don’t agree. She would encourage bringing someone in to mediate.

Most of the issues with the Official Community Plan (OCP) including growth can be resolved by talking to the community. The issues are where and how to grow. It is important to develop complete neighbourhoods with commercial and retail businesses, green-spaces, and possible art-hubs. Barbara would not support a concrete wall of towers but supports developments like Newport Village with some towers in the back and residential, commercial areas where people can live and work with incentives to take transit.

Bike- and walk-ways are needed to encourage people to get out of their cars, as well as more connectivity over the rail-line and possibly shuttle-buses. Traffic needs to be addressed regionally and Barbara says the Master Transportation Plan needs to be implemented.

Areas like Moody Centre could be developed as neighbourhood hubs with restaurants, retail and arts spaces and connectivity to Rocky Point. There is a need for ‘anchor’ businesses and perhaps work-share spaces as opposed to office space. It’s important to work with developers’ community amenity contributions to ensure Port Moody gets what it needs.

Affordable (to buy) and adaptable units are critical. Barbara says we need to ask developers for things that would fit with the development. Other levels of government also need to be engaged. Port Moody also needs to attract businesses to create hubs. Port Moody has parks, transit (sky-train, West Coast Express), and population; we now need anchor businesses and services. Park-spaces (including Rocky Point) need to be expanded for community health.