1. How should North Cowichan approach new development in the municipality?
To manage growth and development in the community we need to support development on an as-needed basis in the here and now.
However, at the same time we need to take into consideration how much development the current infrastructure will support.
If elected, I will work on a plan with council to get more provincial funding to help develop our current infrastructure so that we can support more new development applications.
2. What should North Cowichan do to address climate change?
We need to look at ways to work towards a greener North Cowichan where we will burn less fossil fuels.
This will start through environmental initiatives.
Fossil-fuel burning is in part based on human actions.
As a community, we need to look at better ways to sustain the environment and reduce fossil fuels, such as taking more energy-efficient measures in the community will help with this.
For example, we should look at converting some of the municipal buildings to solar power and get more electric-vehicle parking in the community, such as charging stations, and we must look at methods and actions that we can take to lower our carbon footprint.
Increasing transit service frequency will also help with this.
Also, in new development, I would like to see the use of a 10-minute walk plan, where, in the case of new affordable-housing buildings being developed, we should keep the main floors of these buildings free for small essential businesses, such as pharmacies and small grocery stores, because this will encourage people to drive less which will lower our carbon footprint.
3. How should North Cowichan be dealing with social issues, particularly the social disorder in the highway corridor area?
Through open town halls, I would like to meet with local stakeholders and business owners to see what their recommendations are to deal with the social issues in this area.
I would also like to meet with the district director of social planning as he has done some work in this area already.
We should look at getting more resources from the province to open more treatment centres and shelters to assist with drug-user rehabilitation.
We should also look at in the here and now, hiring mobile outreach workers to walk around areas of the district to assist with helping drug users towards the path of rehabilitation and also have mobile outreach workers pass around free Naloxone kits to help revive drug users from overdosing and they also assist with reducing brain damage.
We can also start by creating a non-profit organization through the municipality to expand real-time overdose outreach services through volunteers.
4. What should North Cowichan do to see more affordable housing provided in the municipality?
We should look at affordable housing options like the Tin Town option that Victoria set up with steel-box housing to get people off the streets into proper more affordable housing.
We could also look at maybe purchasing older motels and using them as housing with treatment centres on the lower levels in some of these buildings.
The City of Victoria also took this approach and purchased many of the older motels and turned them into affordable housing, which also provides drug rehabilitation services.
The district should also reach out to the higher levels of government, such as the provincial government, for funding to build more affordable housing in the area based on the current need.
5. What would you like to see done to keep property tax increases as low as possible?
If elected I would work with council to focus on the most essential services and make cuts in areas that are not as urgent.
By carefully managing the district’s budget, we can reduce the need for large tax hikes.
We can also reduce reliance on property taxes by exploring alternative funding sources.
If we can diversify revenue streams, the pressure on property tax rates can be alleviated.
I would like to see a long-term financial plan established to avoid reliance on large tax increases when the district faces financial challenges.
This helps in smoothing out tax rate changes over time.
We can also look at areas where we can charge fees on community services, such as making an increase to the amount of paid parking and reduce free parking wherever possible, as this would also help give money back to the community.
