Age/occupation: 56, bus driver with Coast Mountain Bus Company
There are not many people running in the Coquitlam civic election who can claim they ride public transit more often than Brent Asmundson.
For his day job, the four-term incumbent councillor drives a TransLink bus and said that he learns a lot about what is going on in the community from talking to his passengers. While he spends most of his time on the road, he has become all too familiar with the traffic snarls and construction slow downs that have come with the building of the Evergreen Line.
Asmundson has long been an advocate for rapid transit to the Tri-Cities and said he has done work as a councillor to mitigate the impacts on business and residents during this "period of change."
"Construction is going to happen," he said. "We are making strides trying to keep traffic going. It is something that I have been passionate about."
He points to several accomplishments during the last term, including plans to build Lincoln Station in the City Centre area and resolving the Bailey Bridge dispute with New Westminster.
When it comes to budgeting, Asmundson said he is aware of the reality that city expenses continue to climb and that services cannot be maintained without annual property tax increases.
But he said he is comfortable with rates rising as long as the city is running as efficiently as possible. Cutting taxes would be nice in the short term, he added, but would not be sustainable beyond a few years.
