From four corners: Victoria and Saanich mayoral candidates talk to Nexus about issues that matter to students

The end of a three-year reign is upon us. A municipal election on November 19 brings the opportunity for new blood, or at least the opportunity for more awareness around the backyards that we all play in.

Talking with students about municipal politics proved to be challenging despite only a mild learning curve. Nexus spent a couple of days informally polling students on campus about what municipal issues affect them.

Most students are focused on their studies to a point of tunnel vision: a study-heavy narrow outlook that includes food, tests, transportation, and making rent. But some recurring issues did arise: transit, compost, homelessness, and general living affordability.

The Capital Region is made up of 13 municipalities, each with their own mayor. Victoria and Saanich are two key municipalities within Greater Victoria, and are the most closely related to Camosun.

We sat down with the mayoral candidates for Victoria and Saanich and picked their brains for a while. Here’s a look at how the candidates running for office in the Camosun zones can affect the average student.

Saanich candidates: Frank Leonard and David Cubberley

Frank Leonard—current mayor
What are a few measurable things you would like to achieve in the next term?
We will have a revolution in transportation, transit planning, and governance. Not just tinker with more routes, more hours. We should reach our sustainability goals, from climate change to replacement of infrastructure. Let’s keep up the healthy and active community and make it an affordable community, too.

What do you want to see happen for transit?
We need regional governance of transit by local officials. Right now transit is run by a crown corporation, with input from seven people appointed by cabinet. I’m not happy that they’re spending millions on things that aren’t increasing service. I think we can get more miles, more services out of what we have now. A proposal was put to the regional boards and was unanimously supported, so we sent it to the provincial government. Maybe by the election we’ll have an answer. I think we need big change in what’s going on.

Do you want to implement a compost system of sorts?
I really want to collect kitchen waste in the system. We’ll have a pilot in Saanich next year, most likely in the Cedar Hill area. Our own crews can collect kitchen waste as well as garbage. We’re just going to work out the details and certainly within the next term of office, I want it in place municipal-wide. As far as processing it, I would suspect we will either have the CRD do it via a standalone plan, or we would let the private sector farmer pull it out. That hasn’t been decided.

In what ways do you engage with the public?
Every aspect of our municipality has community consultation as part of their mandate. It’s part of our culture here. We’re an inclusive municipality. Every chance I get, I go to a community meeting. I answer most of my own email and I’m doing social media as best as I can. I’m doing it myself. My Facebook and Twitter are keeping me busy.

What will you lobbying senior government for?
Probably transportation, transportation, transportation. It’s a big issue, right up there with alternatives to single-occupancy cars, and public safety issues on the roads.

David Cubberley
What do you want to see done by the end of your potential three-year term?
I want to see curbside collection of organics. I also want to see the region put together an integrated transportation plan for the region. Then I want to see us approach the provincial government with a coordinated ask for money.

How about public transportation? What will you do in that vein?
In significant ways I want to improve conditions for transit, walking, and cycling. I also want to get on with the planning process for the Saanich we need to build in order to be more sustainable. We must involve the community to resolve the issues out there. We need to know where we’re going with transit and what kind of rapid transit system we can put in place over time.

Do you plan to introduce compost systems?
I’m very interested in compost. This is something that should be happening now. We would have to have a regional composting facility and system of our own. It could be supplied by the private sector or it could be done by the CRD. It should be a regional program. I think we’d have really high participation. I personally feel strongly that we have to pay more attention to this. All the waste from the region is going to a landfill in Saanich but 30 percent of the waste stream is organic material. We’ve got one hole in the ground now. Let’s manage it so we reduce the amount of material going to it and extend its life indefinitely. The easiest way to do that it is to get organics out of it.

In what ways will you engage the public?
I’d like to engage more with the public. We really need to plan and engage the community in the future of Saanich. I want there to be a chance for people to look at things and involve themselves in the imagineering of a new kind of community. We will engage the professionals, and ask the citizens open-ended questions about what could happen here. You can identify from the people what isn’t working and move forward.

What are you going to lobby senior government for?
Everything. Bring us the dough. I mean, come on, 92 cents on the dollar leaves eight cents for the municipalities. The federal and provincial governments make a ton of money off of tourism and everything else, but the residential property taxpayers deal with all the waste, congestion, and so on. Their sources of revenue grow with the economy. Property tax doesn’t grow with the economy. We’re stuck in this little corner. Canada is probably the only jurisdiction in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that has cities cooped up on such a small revenue base. So I intend to argue for money. Send the cheques! I’m optimistic about that kind of thing.

Victoria candidates: Dean Fortin and Paul Brown

Dean Fortin—current mayor
What are you doing and what more will you do about composting?
We’ve essentially said that we are going to have curbside organics starting January, 2013. We’ll start at the residential area; it’s more difficult to deal with the apartment buildings and large condos and stuff. It doesn’t mean that we won’t do it; it will just take longer to figure out how.

What about transit?
We have to look for an opportunity to increase service on the runs that need them. Frankly, I think we can do that without increasing costs by doing a service rationalization. There are a whole lot of routes that are really underutilized so we can move that around.

It’s not very affordable to live in this city. Can you speak to that?
The city can address issues around housing and affordability. Traditionally it’s a provincial area, but we can do it directly through zoning. Over the last three years we’ve created close to 800 units of market rentals and low-end market rentals. We’ve moved the vacancy rate from 0.4 to 1.4 over the last three years. I want to get to four. Four is basically what’s described as a healthy model. I’ve introduced a short-term incentive for creating rentals. Over the next three years, if developers build rental, they’ll get a break.

What are your thoughts on safe injection sites?
Harm reduction is one of our major priorities and we continue to work on developing the Greater Victoria model. I think that rather than a needle exchange we need safe consumption sites. The biggest concern is the outdoor public use of drugs. So get it in. Saves lives, get inside. There will be wraparound services that come with this: education services, harm reduction and counselling. I don’t think one site is enough. You need two sites. You need to distribute it around. Fundamentally, it’s the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s responsibility to fund it, but we have a role to play as the city, as service providers. We’ve started working on it. It’s a high priority.

What will happen to address homelessness?
Some of my proudest accomplishments have been around housing and the hard to house, and I want to keep that going. Over the past three years, we’ve been working not only to house the homeless, which is a big issue, but also to create affordable rental, affordable public housing. The city can address issues around housing and affordability, if we choose. Traditionally it’s a provincial area, but we can do it directly through zoning and rezoning; what we allow to be built, height, density, in what location. In my term we’ve brought in incentives through creation of rentals, market rentals, lower end market rentals.

Paul Brown
What will you do or provide in terms of compost?
We’ve got to be more aggressive in terms of diverting waste from the dump. The city should be making those services available so that everybody is doing it. The city should be funding it but it’s the small entrepreneurs who started up the existing composting businesses. Let’s let them do it and contract with them. Let’s make certain that everybody has that opportunity, particularly in apartments.

What will you do about transit and transportation?
First of all, you need to get the rest of the municipalities on board to establish a regional transportation authority and strategy. Developers and homeowners know that one of the greatest impediments to the value of their properties is the ability to commute into Victoria. I’m not saying Light Rail Transit is not the way to go, maybe it is. But we need a bigger picture. The transportation system in Victoria is outstanding. Once you get outside of Victoria, that’s where it starts to break down.

What can be done to make Victoria a more affordable city to live in?
I believe there are some very practical ways to bring affordable housing to this city. It means converting existing multi-unit buildings, small apartment buildings, or larger homes into family housing. It distresses me to no end when there’s a lack of rental accommodation in the downtown area.

Do you support a safe injection site in Victoria?
Evidence shows without doubt it makes a difference in terms of health care costs, policing costs, and helping these people off the street. It also makes financial sense. Even the Supreme Court has said it’s okay. So come on, let’s do it.

This is something that Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) and the province needs to operate. This is not a business that we understand. This is not a business the city should be involved in. VIHA and the provincial government understand how to run homeless shelters and needle exchanges. We need to support it.

Let’s talk about Victoria’s homeless population.
We’ve gotten into a business that we do not understand and made some very significant mistakes. The city purchased two Traveller’s Inns. Their initial budget for one of them has mushroomed. They didn’t understand what it takes to upgrade something. This city has a propensity to go out and budget in an ineffective way.

What goals are you setting for your potential three-year term?
First of all we’ve got to move to a more shared services model with other jurisdictions. Garbage is the first one.
Secondly, I’m going to get control of wages and salaries. I’ll take my own reduction. The little things add up. I’m also going to observe some very tight budgeting controls. Thirdly, we’ve got to revitalize downtown. I want to see more young people living downtown.

Voting time
The municipal election takes place Saturday, November 19, 2011. There are 13 municipalities: Saanich, Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, View Royal, Colwood, Highlands, Langford, Metchosin, Sooke, Central Saanich, North Saanich, and Sidney.

Victoria candidate information
Paul Brown—openvictoria.com, Twitter: @PaulforVictoria
Dean Fortin—victoria.ca/cityhall/mayor_mayor_prfile.shtml, Twitter: @DeanFortin

Saanich candidate information
David Cubberley—davidcubberley.ca, Twitter: @davidcubberley
Frank Leonard—saanich.ca/living/mayor/council/leonard.html, Twitter: @frank_leonard

Shortly before press time, the following additional nominations were announced for mayoral candidacy in the Victoria and Saanich municipalities (nominations closed October 14): Steve Filipovic for Victoria (stevefilipovic.ca; Twitter: @StevenFilipovic) and David Shebib (Twitter: @garbageguru1) for both Victoria and Saanich.

Voting eligibility

Anyone who has lived in BC for at least six months is eligible to vote in the municipal election. Students who have come from elsewhere in the province to study in Greater Victoria must decide if they want to vote here or in their home municipality.

How to vote
Go to any voting location on November 19 with 2 pieces of government-issued ID and proof of address, such as a utility bill in your name. You can quickly register on the day if you bring those items.

Other resources
Check out municipalelections.com, victoria2011.com (municipal hub), and votevictoriabc.blogspot.com (Victoria elections blog).