"What we heard from you folks is that you did not want us to go down this path, so we're not."

Those were the recent words of Jay Teichroeb, Economic Development Manager for the City of Abbotsford and the one responsible for overseeing the department which spearheaded the Sumas Mountain Environmental Management Plan.

Jay was one of the managers speaking at the October 24th 2012 meeting held at Straiton Hall (for a full summary of the meeting, click here.

Our hat goes off to Jay, who had the courage to get up in front of about one hundred people and admit the City was wrong.

In fact, Jay's comments at the meeting were remarkably frank and, we believe, encouraging.

In a nutshell, what Jay basically said is that the SMEMP was a mistake; staff had originally been authorized by council to develop a "Green Community Plan" which was supposed to be a general document applying to the City as a whole. Instead, what ended up happening was a highly controversial plan which just targeted Sumas Mountain (the Sumas Mountain Environmental Management Plan) --- which did not reflect the original intent of council's request for a city-wide Green Community Plan.

(To hear what Jay actually said at the Straiton Hall meeting, click the links below).

Therefore, according to Jay, the SMEMP will NOT be presented to council, but rather a more general Green Community Plan will go to council which will NOT reference the SMEMP/SMEMS, nor will it include those dreadful maps of wildlife corridors, core areas, and buffers.

Here are some excerpts from the meeting, where Jay Teichroeb is speaking on behalf of the City of Abbotsford:

• Is the City abandoning the SMEMP, or is it keeping the SMEMP?
  Jay's response: "What we heard from you folks is that you did not want us to go down this path (the SMEMP), so we're not." Click here to listen.

• Why is the City dropping the SMEMP?
  Jay's response: "(the SMEMP was) stuck on corridors and cores on Sumas Mountain which undermine the whole intent" of what council had originally envisioned." Click here to listen.

• The SMEMP seemed to point the City's environmental focus entirely on Sumas Mountain. Is this still the case?
  Jay's response: "We want to develop policy which can be applied throughout the city and not specific to Sumas Mountain." Click here to listen.

• What about that controversial SMEMP map with all those corridors and core areas. Will the map be discarded?
  Jay's response: "That map that you're referring to (the SMEMP/SMEMS map) will not be part of this plan (the Green Community Plan)" Click here to listen.

• So does that mean the SMEMP is dead, officially?
  Jay's response: "Yah. (Jay then goes on to delineate the City's position on the SMEMP)" --- this is a good overview of the new direction the City says it is going to pursue" Click here to listen.

• Where should the City's environmental focus be directed in future?
  Jay's response: "We shouldn't be focused on trying to preserve areas with little environmental value." Click here to listen.

While we salute Jay for having the sense and forthrightness to reject the SMEMP and admit that the City had made a mistake, we still realize that there are folks at City Hall who may try to undermine what Jay has said. We can only imagine what is happening behind the scenes amongst the environmentalists at City Hall. We therefore need to keep up the pressure, and remind Council to keep the commitments made to us at the October 24th meeting.

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