Harold Steves

Harold Steves, (born May 29, 1937) is a Canadian politician. Steves is a long term city councillor on Richmond, British Columbia City Council, first elected in 1969 and re-elected in 1977,^[1] after serving one term as the New Democratic Party of British Columbia MLA from 1973-1975.

Personal life

The Steves family is one of Richmond's first founding families, after which the community of Steveston is named. Manoah and Martha Steves were the first settlers in the area, arriving in 1877. They imported the first purebred Holstein cattle into BC, established a dairy to provide milk for the fledgling City of Vancouver and were Western Canada's first seedsmen. Born of Maude and Harold Sr., Harold and wife Kathy reside in the old Steves farmhouse, built in 1917, on what is now an 11-acre (45,000 m²) cattle farm surrounded by residential development. Steves is a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a BSc in Agriculture.

Political life

In the mid-1960s Steves drafted the initial resolutions to NDP conventions to establish an Agricultural Land Bank system in British Columbia. As an MLA he was active in the establishment of the "Agricultural Land Reserve" under the Dave Barrett NDP Government and for the following decades, one of its strongest defenders. He is active in the Farmland Defence League.

Steves is the vice chair of planning and agriculture for Metro Vancouver and is promoting farmland preservation, urban agriculture and food security for the region. He represents Richmond as second director on the board of directors of Metro Vancouver. He was the Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee rep at the treaty table for the Tsawwassen First Nation treaty negotiations. Steves is also a director of the BC Groundfish Development Authority.

Steves is chair of the Parks and Recreation & Cultural Services Committee of Richmond Council. He is also a member of the Finance; General Purposes; Planning and the Public Works & Transportation Committees of council. Steves is a council representative to the following advisory committees, organizations and community associations: the Agricultural Advisory Committee; the Olympic Oval Advisory Committee alternate; the Richmond Farmers' Institute; the Sea Island Community Association; the Steveston Harbour Authority Board and the Britannia Heritage Shipyard Society. He is also a director of the Richmond Athletic Commission established to regulate professional boxing in Richmond.

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