{"id":979,"date":"2018-02-25T23:33:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T23:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/?p=979"},"modified":"2018-02-25T23:33:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T23:33:08","slug":"minutes-february-21-2018-fhca-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/?p=979","title":{"rendered":"Minutes, February 21, 2018 FHCA meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u>FRASER HEIGHTS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MINUTES<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>February 21 2018<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>President\u2019s report<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Web site \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fhca.ca\">fhca.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ed MacIntosh, president<\/li>\n<li>FHCA is a volunteer non-profit organization \u2013 we volunteer our time to represent the community dealing with issues that affect our community such as safety, traffic, development<\/li>\n<li>The FHCA meets four times a year to discuss issues that affect our community<\/li>\n<li>FHCA helps shape policy and issues that involve our community<\/li>\n<li>If you have problems in our community, please send your information to us and we will look into these issues (go to Contact Us on the fhca.ca website or send email to directors@fhca.ca). This is our primary site to collect comments from residents about community issues so we know about them and can send them on to the City.<\/li>\n<li>Membership is free. If you are not currently on the email list, go to our website and sign up (on the right side of website page \u2013 click on become a member).\u00a0 You will receive four notifications and four reminders of the upcoming meetings per year.\u00a0 There may also be notifications of open houses or events affecting FH residents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Senior Chinese Dancers <\/strong>from Fraser Heights (the minimum age was 55 and the average age was 70 years old) entertained us with 3 graceful, elegant and colourful dances at the beginning of our meeting to celebrate the Chinese New Year.\u00a0 They will also be a part of the Celebration of Chinese Lantern Festival at Fraser Heights High School on March 9 in the cafeteria from 6:30 to 9 p.m.\u00a0 All are invited (see invitation on the fhca.ca website)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Treasurer\u2019s report:\u00a0 <\/strong>Financial statement \u2013 total account balance is $2201.18<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>RCMP update on safety and security \u2013 District #2 Commander for Guildford\/Fleetwood, Sgt Mike Spencer, was in attendance tonight (Community Response Unit).\u00a0 <\/strong>He is at 10395-148 St. The best way to reach him is through his email address: <a href=\"mailto:mike.spencer@rcmp-grc.gc.ca\">mike.spencer@rcmp-grc.gc.ca<\/a>. but voice messages can be left for him at phone # 778-593-3396 if something of concern is taking place in the community that you want RCMP to deal with and is not urgent.\u00a0 If urgent, dial 911.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Break-ins in Fraser Heights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Number of auto thefts has been down over the last month. A group of 6 or 7 men, who committed many of these thefts, are now in jail but they will eventually get out so do not let your guard down. \u00a0Do not leave your vehicles running in this cold weather with key in ignition and doors unlocked as it is an open invitation for someone to steal your vehicle.\u00a0 If your car needs a fob to start it, the thieves have been known to take the cars and leave them running (in one case, a vehicle was running for 1 \u00bd days).\u00a0 The vehicles don\u2019t need the fob nearby to keep running but once the vehicle is turned off, it cannot be restarted without a fob. \u00a0Note that the criminals use these vehicles to commit other crimes.<\/li>\n<li>Number of residential break &amp; enters has risen substantially and it appears Fraser Heights is being targeted. A very large organized group, who have been difficult to catch, is responsible for most of the B&amp;Es.\u00a0 Normally, B&amp;Es happen during day but this group works in evening hours.\u00a0 They scout around the area to discover which homes are empty or have people home.<\/li>\n<li>A flyer was sent to many homes\/mailboxes of residents to get information to the public (not all residents have received the flyer yet) about this problem and what to do.<\/li>\n<li>The RCMP property crime team is diligently working in FH now. Many residents have very good HD video surveillance systems and have provided videos to police that have helped identify the culprits.\u00a0 If you have video surveillance at your house, it would be helpful to register this information at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.surrey.ca\/iris\">surrey.ca\/iris<\/a> so that the police can contact you if a crime is committed in your area.\u00a0 These videos are very important to the police to aid the capture and identification of the criminals.\u00a0 If you want more information, please contact <a href=\"mailto:cctvregistry@surrey.ca\">cctvregistry@surrey.ca<\/a>.\u00a0 Make sure you preserve video footage because the system eventually records over itself.\u00a0 If you think you have video footage of a crime or suspects, put it on USB and save it.\u00a0 Many systems only tape when there is movement so you should not have hours to view if you are looking for suspects or criminal activity.<\/li>\n<li>The Vancouver Police Department also made arrests of group members that were operating in Vancouver. There are still more of them operating in Metro Vancouver \u2013 if they can be identified, they are held and then go to court which will put them off the streets for a while.<\/li>\n<li>There are covert police teams doing surveillance in FH<\/li>\n<li>The mode of operation &#8211; the offenders, usually 3 to 4 men from ages 18 to the 30s, can be of mixed races, wear dark clothing and have longer hair and facial hair but some don\u2019t fit the profile as one had white shoes and light clothing. They arrive in a vehicle which they park away from the houses being targeted and may leave a driver in the vehicle while they walk down the street checking out the houses.\u00a0 They knock on residents\u2019 doors and if residents answer, they act confused and ask for a random person then say they must have the wrong house and leave.\u00a0 They try to determine if someone is home and if movement is seen in the home, they take off to another house in the area. \u00a0If they see police, they usually keep on walking.<\/li>\n<li>Once the crime is committed, they may call the driver to pick them up. If you see someone sitting in a car or men out on foot, please contact the police!\u00a0 Make a note of car make\/model and licence plate number and a description of the people to give to the police.<\/li>\n<li>From watching the neighbourhood, thieves know the homes they are picking on and where to go once inside the house.<\/li>\n<li>They will do a walk around your house and disable your motion sensor lights. Make sure those lights are out of reach so they can\u2019t be disabled or the wires snipped.\u00a0 Many homes have cameras within reach that are easily disabled.<\/li>\n<li>Make your home look occupied &#8211; leave your TV\/stereo on as if someone is in the house. These men do not want to be detected and will move on if they feel someone is home.\u00a0 If all residents make their homes look occupied, thieves will move on and they likely will not come back here.<\/li>\n<li>Talk to your neighbours \u2013 don\u2019t discount any suspicious activity and make sure to call the police. Trust your instincts.\u00a0 If in doubt, call the police \u2013 police will show up.\u00a0 Your call may stop the thieves\u2019 activity for that night and if this happens often, they will move on.\u00a0 Remember, the police will check out the people\/vehicles (take pictures of licence plates) that you report.\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t sure, let the police be the ones to determine who these people are and what they are doing.<\/li>\n<li>It can be concerning if residents have left their children alone in the house and the thieves enter the house. Teach your children to call 911 if they suspect someone is casing your home or the neighbours\u2019 homes.<\/li>\n<li>Police have priorities 1 through 4. If a life is in danger, it is priority 1, property crimes are priority 2, and anything else is 3 or 4.\u00a0 If you see something happening, immediately call the police so they can get to the scene and then call your neighbours.\u00a0 Do not email this information as police presence is needed immediately, not when someone reads the email which could be too late.<\/li>\n<li>These men will operate in a small area one night then leave. The next night or week will hit another area so there are pockets all over FH that have been targeted.<\/li>\n<li>FH is close to #1 Highway and SFPR so it is easy to escape from but if police have enough warning, they can block our 3 exits and catch the criminals as they try to leave.<\/li>\n<li>These crimes are not usually considered to be a priority one (not life and death). If these thieves think they are safely in a home and are confronted by someone at home, they might fight or flee.\u00a0 Since some of these men may be high on something, their behaviour could be irrational and it is not known how they might behave if confronted but generally, they have not resorted to violence<\/li>\n<li>Alarms are a deterrent but these men may disable cameras and alarms by cutting wires and destroy the surveillance footage. Once inside the home, they know they have a set amount of time to get in and out.\u00a0 Point of entry is usually through the back door \u2013 they like to be quiet and so will pry out the sliding door \u2013 it is quiet and easy to do and does little damage.\u00a0 You may notice small pry marks on your back door if you were targeted.\u00a0 They gently close door on way out so neighbours don\u2019t see any secondary evidence of a break in (no broken glass or damage).\u00a0 Once inside house, they won\u2019t give up until they find what they are looking for.\u00a0 In one case, they even had time to take a wall safe out of the wall and drag it onto the lawn.\u00a0 The quieter they are, the more time they will have to spend inside the house looking for valuables.<\/li>\n<li>Secure your sliding doors by putting a screw through the middle column. These security kits can be bought at hardware stores.\u00a0 The screw goes in most of way through the doors or windows it is installed on.\u00a0 If you put a hockey stick or wooden\/metal dowel in the track, fasten it to the bottom of the track.<\/li>\n<li>Communication with neighbours is important! Even if you are going out just for a few hours or the evening, let trusted neighbours know you\u2019ll be out so they can watch your house.\u00a0 A big dog might deter a person from entering but a small dog probably won\u2019t \u2013 they\u2019ll bark and let people know someone is there but if thieves want in, they\u2019ll throw food at the dog to keep it busy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MP report by Ken Hardie (MP for Surrey &#8211; Fleetwood\/Port Kells):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is a federal program dedicated to fighting the guns\/crime problems in Canada. The gov\u2019t is aware of an acute problem in the Metro Vancouver area.<\/li>\n<li>On March 7<sup>th<\/sup>, interested parties, (such as City mayors, including Surrey\u2019s mayor Linda Hepner) in the guns\/violence program, will be in Ottawa to get an idea of what this program should look like.<\/li>\n<li>Focus of meeting in Ottawa \u2013 to use federal gov\u2019t funding for crime prevention and target hardening which may look different in various communities. Guys who had been in gangs came up with a documentary on the gang life.\u00a0 A community approach is needed on how to deal with children\/adults heading into or are part of a criminal life.<\/li>\n<li>Good book to read \u201cBroken Windows Theory\u201d by James Q Wilson and George Kelling (1982). This book had an enormous impact on New York City police policy.\u00a0 The premise was, if there was a house in the community with broken windows that had not been fixed, it showed nobody cared so the criminals started to test the limits.\u00a0 By cleaning up the community, removing graffiti, fixing street lights, mowing lawns, etc., the crime rate dropped significantly.<\/li>\n<li>Resident complained that the Bylaws department appeared to be run by non-residents of Surrey and they don\u2019t tend to go after vehicles parked on street that might be part of a B&amp;E or are stolen. These vehicles can sit there for weeks with no response.\u00a0 Please note, call the RCMP non-emergency line about these vehicles as police will take care of the problem in a timely manner.<\/li>\n<li>Kinder Morgan line \u2013 issues have been arising about the proposed route. Ken met with Kinder Morgan CEO, Ian Anderson, last week in regards to this.<\/li>\n<li>Construction impact on residents \u2013 the issues as to where to put the line and the timeframe of the construction activities were discussed. Ken will be attending the hearings in Burnaby in regards to the portion going through our community, especially Fraser Heights.<\/li>\n<li>Kinder Morgan wants their construction to have minimal disruption on the community<\/li>\n<li>A Resident asked why we were not refining the oil from the pipeline here in order to create jobs? The Prairies ship their oil to the Gulf of Mexico rather than send it to eastern Canada as they say it is it is more economical to refine in warmer climates.\u00a0 There has been no application to build pipelines to feed refineries in the east.<\/li>\n<li>There are still major refineries in Alberta. We had 2 or 3 in Metro Vancouver but now there is only one left.\u00a0 The refineries that work well are large ones.\u00a0 Canada is not a large enough market to refine the product close to where it is extracted.<\/li>\n<li>The highest gasoline prices in Canada are found in Metro Vancouver due to all the taxes added on to the price. Abbotsford\u2019s gas should be about 25 cents a litre cheaper as the tax rate is lower (the gasoline companies in the Fraser Valley may take a bigger profit and not reduce the price by 25 cents.<\/li>\n<li>A resident was concerned about the summer student program that appeared to exclude churches and places of religion from getting grants to hire students. Ken has been in touch with most of the churches in the area to clear up this matter.<\/li>\n<li>It originally sounded like Trudeau had said the churches had to agree with gay marriages\/abortion and the whole LGBTQ community in order to get funding to hire students for the Canada summer job program. This was put in place to ensure public funding wasn\u2019t going to groups working against women\u2019s right to choose and the other groups.\u00a0 The core mandate of organization must not restrict women\u2019s rights or LGBTQ.\u00a0 Ken said every church in Surrey had nothing in their mandate that said the purpose of that organization was to work against those rights and LGBTQ.\u00a0 The Gov\u2019t looked at the mission and vision statements across Canada and found nothing that would prevent them from getting funding.\u00a0 Initially, a lot of churches interpreted core mandate as core values but these are not same.<\/li>\n<li>Between now and next year, this will be reworded or removed or all the faith based groups will meet so the meaning of core-based mandate is clear. Lots of churches applied for funding but had refused to check off the attestation.\u00a0 Ken said, if you are not working against your values then this has nothing to do with issues in question and the attestation can be signed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Trans Mountain (TM) pipeline update, NEB Hearing March 17, 2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Select FHCA directors will be attending the Trans Mountain Hearing on Saturday, March 17 \u2013 our position is simple \u2013 instead of coming up through the community and behind the backyards of houses along 113<sup>th<\/sup> Ave, we want the pipeline clustered with the railway and SFPR. Timing and type of construction were the other issues.<\/li>\n<li>Although there had been several presentations, many residents did not become concerned or involved until Kinder Morgan started drilling bore holes behind their backyards.<\/li>\n<li>Kinder Morgan has stated that at no place will the pipeline be above ground but there is still the matter of where it goes and how deep it is laid.<\/li>\n<li>There is a lot of room by railway, the Golden Ears Connector and the SFPR to lay this pipeline alongside it or under it as the pipeline will be down deep in the ground.<\/li>\n<li>Their position has been that they didn\u2019t want to damage the shrew population and ecosystems but they did not appear to be concerned about affecting the nearby residents by removing most or all of the trees behind their houses. \u00a0These residents have already had part of the hillside stripped to build the SFPR which has increased the noise by the SFPR and intermodal yard.\u00a0 Few to none of the trees will be replaced as only grasses can be planted on a large swath along\/beside the pipeline.\u00a0 Lack of trees and vegetation will increase the noise level once again.\u00a0 There has been no consultation with intermodal yard or SFPR.\u00a0 They need to deaden sound as much as possible rather than strip more trees between the houses and the river.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MLA Constituency report by Deanna Fasciani (email Deanna.Fasciani@leg.bc.ca) \u2013 constituency assistant for Garry Begg who was not able to come (he was in Victoria for meetings):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gary was in Victoria today but will be back for the May 9<sup>th<\/sup><\/li>\n<li>The budget came out this past Tuesday. If you have feedback on this budget, call or email their office.\u00a0 He is having community drop in sessions on Mar 16, 23 or you can make apt to meet with him privately.<\/li>\n<li>Telephone Town Hall \u2013 this deals with issues in our community. The date for this will be on website.\u00a0 At this point in time, only a landline can be used to call into the Town Hall but they are working to make it mobile friendly so those with only mobile phones can also call in.<\/li>\n<li>Electoral referendum. gov.bc.ca\/howwevote \u2013 go to this website and do the survey to let the gov\u2019t know how constituencies should be set up and how you feel votes should be counted.\u00a0 Results will go to attorney general.\u00a0 If you require a paper version (pdf copy), you can request this online or phone Deanna and she\u2019ll send it to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>The last meeting of the FHCA for the 2017\/2018 year will be:<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>May 9, 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FRASER HEIGHTS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MINUTES February 21 2018 &nbsp; President\u2019s report Web site \u2013 fhca.ca Ed MacIntosh, president FHCA is a volunteer non-profit organization \u2013 we volunteer our time to represent the community dealing with issues that affect our community &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/?p=979\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhca.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}