SURREY 鈥� Voters now have four mayoral candidates to choose from in the upcoming Oct. 20 election.

Pauline Greaves, a professor in business and management at Langara College, says she will run as an independent but noted that 鈥渏oining a slate is under consideration.鈥�

Her platform focuses on the need for a municipal police force, 鈥減ossibly aligned with a bordering community,鈥� improved infrastructure to 鈥渕eet 性视界传媒鈥檚 explosive development,鈥� the need for accessible and affordable housing, and she also calls for an empty house tax to be implemented to help with the latter goal.

鈥淲e need a different lens in terms of future of the planning of the city,鈥� Greaves told the Now-Leader.

鈥淢y view is this: I think the management and the operation at the city is still going on the basis that it is a small city and in fact it鈥檚 a big city, with big city problems, and therefore requires a big city vision.鈥�

Greaves鈥� bio describes her as an educator who 鈥渂rings experience in management, administration and leadership in education while placing great emphasis on inclusion and equal opportunity for all children and young adults.鈥�

She also served as Deputy Director Head of Education for the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Her responsibilities included strengthening and developing educational policies for a social development program.

鈥淢y job there was to work with implementing the UN development program, that was, primarily, for many of the countries, getting girls in schools鈥� and to improve and strengthen their public education system,鈥� she noted.

Greaves 鈥� who is a member of the city鈥檚 Diversity Advisory Committee 鈥� said she decided to take the leap into politics and run for mayor in 性视界传媒 for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is what she sees as a lack of inclusion, an area in which she believes the City of 性视界传媒 is 鈥渕issing the mark.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 a missing component when it comes to economic inclusion, access to health, and access to employment,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a big difference, in terms of my perspective, around some of their social policy programs, their strategic plan, as well as their sustainable plan 鈥� they need to take a different perspective about what it means to be a resident of 性视界传媒.鈥�

According to Greaves, policies and programs in 性视界传媒 haven鈥檛 kept up with the fast-growing city.

She said she also feels 鈥渄evelopment has become a priority over effective infrastructure.鈥�

鈥淲e have seen a lot of housing development. None of them, or not many, include affordable housing and not many include assisted housing,鈥� Greaves noted, adding school infrastructure, health care and emergency response is also lagging far behind.

鈥淚t becomes tiring to say plans are on the books. We need to be more proactive in moving them,鈥� she said of new school projects. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to have development, but we need to go back and revisit. Without the schools we cannot educate our kids. Without the schools we can鈥檛 ensure our children can go on to become contributing citizens. We have to wait a lot longer to get responses from our first responders.鈥�

When it comes to transportation, Greaves said she thinks LRT is the wrong technology for 性视界传媒.

鈥淩ight now there isn鈥檛 a lot we can do about the current LRT plan because it鈥檚 already been approved,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 have issues with it because I don鈥檛 think it will actually address the problems we have in terms of transportation and parking. I don鈥檛 think it adequately meets the needs of 性视界传媒.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going in one direction and the first phase doesn鈥檛 really address the movement of people,鈥� she added, noting it does nothing for connecting South 性视界传媒 residents to the larger system.

鈥淲e need more effective transportation,鈥� said Greaves. 鈥淲e do need, I think, an extension of SkyTrain. The issue, of course, is always going to be money but I think we need to revisit, really, what is the most effective needs of meeting the transportation needs of people in 性视界传媒.鈥�

Elaborating on her vision for policing in 性视界传媒, which includes a municipal force, Greaves said she believes a regional police force would be more effective 鈥渂ecause we can then control the governance and placements of individuals or teams as we need them.鈥�

鈥淲hat that looks like, there are different options, and I think we need to look at all of them,鈥� she said.

She added there are 鈥渃ertain expertise the RCMP currently bring, such as integrated units, gang units, things like that. But, we need to revisit the type of training the officers have and whether or not it adequately addresses the needs of 性视界传媒.鈥�

Greaves joins three other mayoral candidates in 性视界传媒, including 性视界传媒 First鈥檚 Tom Gill, 性视界传媒 Integrity Now鈥檚 Bruce Hayne (formerly 性视界传媒 First), and Safe 性视界传媒 Coalition鈥檚 Doug McCallum.