Margaret Kunst
Running for council in Langley Township
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Business owner and director of non-profit, 51
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• Have you held office in past? If so, please specify: No
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Candidate provided bio: I was born and raised in Langley and fortunate to live in four of Langley’s communities. My husband and I raised four kids and live in Brookswood. We operated our business, Farwest Sawdust & Shavings Ltd., for 20 years.
My experience includes volunteering on various committees and boards and being active in Langley’s sports and recreation community: Langley minor hockey, Langley women’s hockey, Langley mixed slo-pitch, and working part-time as a tour guide in Vancouver.
Currently I sit on Langley’s immigration refugee advisory committee and Township of Langley’s housing coordination committee.
In 2008 I volunteered to help settle 50 families who arrived as refugees, working specifically with youth make positive connections in the community.
Currently I work as the operations director for PuCKS Powerplay Foundation. I’m privileged to work with a variety of people and organizations to help kids reach their academic goals, play sports, gain work experience and find employment.
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Website: mkunst.ca
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Facebook: @MargKunst
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Phone: 604-533-7106
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• Who is your favourite superhero, and why? Superman – He is always there to help people. He does it anonymously and doesn’t want to be exposed for his heroism.
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There are 23 candidates running for eight Langley Township council seats. The following are questions asked of each candidate hopeful. They were directed to provide a minimum of a Yes, No, or Don’t Know answer, and given an option to expand on one answer in print (to a maximum of 100 words per question). They could expand on all questions online, if they wished to do so. The following are their replies.
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Questions and Answers:
1. What neighbourhood of Langley do you live in?
Answer: Brookswood
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2. How many years have you lived in Langley?
Answer: 51 years
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3. How many Langley Township council meetings have you attended in the past year?
Answer: I have gone to all the meetings except for two this past year.
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4: Should the municipality be directly funding social housing to reduce homelessness?
Answer: Don’t know. I think the municipality needs to play a role to support but this should be a shared responsibility.
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5. Do you support elevated rail over light rapid transit from Surrey to Langley?
Answer: Yes. But we need the density to support bringing elevated rail which is something we need to plan for in the future.
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6. Should the municipality fund an arts centre?
Answer: Yes.
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7. Would you vote to raise taxes to hire more police?
Answer: Yes.
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8. Does Langley need a new or second hospital to serve the growing population?
Answer: Yes.
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9. Does Willoughby need its own dedicated library?
Answer: Yes.
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10. Is there enough effort being made to preserve farmland?
Answer: Don’t know.
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11. Should Langley allow construction of residential towers?
Answer: Yes.
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12. Should Langley have its own municipal police force, replacing the RCMP?
Answer: No.
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13. Do you think residential property taxes are too high?
Answer: No.
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14. Do you support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline?
Answer: Yes.
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15. Should the municipality offer tax breaks, incentives, or rebates to companies looking to set up shop here?
Answer: Yes.
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16. Is Langley being pushed to grow too fast?
Answer: Don’t know.
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17. Do you support redevelopment of Fort Langley’s downtown?
Answer: yes.
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18. Should development of Brookswood be phased in?
Answer: Don’t know.
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19. Should the Township set a deadline to finish widening 208th Street in Willoughby?
Answer: Yes.
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20. Should there be a limit to the number of consecutive terms a member of council can serve?
Answer: Yes.