- About Joy
- Priorities
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- Statements
- 2022
- Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson named SFU’s first Vice-President, People, Equity and Inclusion
- Chris (Syeta’xtn) Lewis joins SFU in advisory role on Indigenous Initiatives and Reconciliation
- A World of Difference: How universities must evolve in a post-COVID world
- Russian invasion of Ukraine
- SFU: What's Next?
- Celebrating National Indigenous Peoples day
- Please join us for the annual appreciation BBQ
- SFU begins process to become Living Wage Employer
- Staying engaged in an increasingly polarized world
- SFU: What's Next? - Message from the President to Faculty and Staff
- SFU: What's Next? - Message from the President to students
- Search Announcement: Provost and Vice-President Academic
- Statement from the VP, PEI: Addressing Racism and Hate at SFU
- 2021
- Welcome new SFU students
- UPDATED Jan. 6: My response to Dec. 11 event in SFU dining hall
- Celebrating Black History Month
- The University’s Role and Contributions to a Just Recovery Over the Next Decade
- Inspired by meetings with SFU Faculty and Staff
- Looking forward to Summer and Fall
- Opinion: This is why SFU is backing the Burnaby Mountain gondola
- External Review of December 11, 2020 Event
- Facing the future with hope
- President's statement on TransMountain Expansion Project and support for a fire hall on Burnaby mountain
- The road ahead
- Stronger Together: SFU, the pandemic and lessons for a better future
- SFU to observe moment of silence at 2:15 PM today
- Taking action: Reconciliation at SFU
- Join SFU President Joy Johnson for a tour of Burnaby campus
- Message from the President: Residential school findings
- Dr. June Francis appointed Special Advisor to the President on Anti-Racism
- My response to the open letter from SFU faculty and staff
- Resources and ways to support scholars in Afghanistan
- BC Vaccine Card
- Masks required on all SFU campuses, vaccine card required for residence, athletics, dining, events and others
- Vaccine declaration and follow-up screening at SFU
- Return to campus planning updates
- Welcome Back
- Work to review contract vs. in-house cleaning and food services
- National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- SFU and SFSS united in commitment to climate action
- Inclusion benefits us all
- Moving forward with kindness
- SFU commits to full divestment from fossil fuels
- Safety on SFU's campuses
- Thank you!
- Temporary shift to remote learning January 10 – 23, 2022
- 2020
- Statement on academic freedom
- Welcome back faculty and staff
- Welcome back students
- Statement on scholar strike
- Reflections on my first 30 days
- Taking care of ourselves, taking care of each other
- Equity, diversity and inclusion commitments
- Statement on SFU's Athletics Team Name Change
- Finding connection in times of adversity
- Wishing you a safe and restful holiday break
- Op-ed: SFU helping drive social, economic innovation in time of crisis
- 2022
- President’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award
Opinion: This is why SFU is backing the Burnaby Mountain gondola
Op-ed published in the Burnaby Now on March 3, 2021
Public transit makes life better for the whole community.
Transit connects people to work, to school and to each other. It moves more people, more quickly than cars. It reduces congestion, sprawl and air pollution. It saves commuters and taxpayers money and offers big economic returns. Indeed, the quality of our public transit system is a good barometer for the health and well-being of our society.
It is therefore not surprising that Canadians who live in major urban centres like Burnaby support improvements to public transit. People know that the investments we make today will pay dividends for our quality of life and economy for many years to come.
Currently, the City of Burnaby is considering a TransLink proposal that exemplifies these public and economic benefits – a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and safe transit solution that will move more people, more quickly and reliably along one the Lower Mainland’s busiest and fastest-growing transit corridors.
The project is the Burnaby Mountain Gondola. And it has the support of people, businesses, and organizations from across our community who say that after years of study and consultation, the time has come for the Gondola to move forward.
There are many reasons why people support the project. By eliminating 50,000 hours of diesel bus operations, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,700 tons a year. That’s the equivalent of taking 1,500 cars off the road. It will cost significantly less to operate than the current fleet of buses, saving taxpayers millions of dollars. And the gondola will be a safe and more reliable option for the thousands of commuters who travel up and down Burnaby Mountain every day.
For Simon Fraser University, the project is also critical to our future in Burnaby. For more than 55 years, SFU and Burnaby have grown together. Today, SFU’s Burnaby campus injects billions of dollars into the local economy, provides education and training to Burnaby families, employs thousands of Burnaby residents, and is deeply embedded in community life.
As SFU’s new president, I want our main campus to grow and thrive for everyone’s benefit. But it can’t happen unless we make it easier for students, staff and residents to travel to and from Burnaby Mountain.
For a major Canadian university like SFU, public transit is an indispensable ingredient for long-term success. Our students have some of the longest commute times in Canada. And right now at SFU Burnaby, that ingredient is missing.
The TransLink public consultation process confirmed very high levels of support for the project in Burnaby and across the Lower Mainland. It also identified important questions and concerns that TransLink is working with the community to address, in particular the residents of Forest Grove who are directly impacted. In the coming weeks, Burnaby City Council will continue to hear from communities and from TransLink on efforts to address concerns such as safety, privacy and noise, before it makes a decision to support the project moving forward to the Mayors’ Council and TransLink board for final approval in its investment plan.
It is critical that the community make its voice heard as these decisions are made by letting Burnaby council know how important the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is to SFU’s future in Burnaby and to everyone who calls this city home.
In that effort, I am very encouraged and inspired by the hard work and commitment of students, local businesses, citizens, and indigenous residents, environmentalists, trade unions, and so many others who support the gondola and are coming together to help make it happen. Because at the end of the day we all want what’s best for our community: a strong economy, an inclusive society and a clean environment.
The Burnaby Mountain Gondola is key to building that better future.