Virtually everyone running for a spot on City of North Vancouver council agrees. The North Shore is in dire need of transit improvements and it's tough for students to find an affordable place to live.
But how they'd go about fixing those problems isn't so cut and dried .
Council and mayoral prospects were invited to offer their solutions to the perennial problems at an all-candidates meeting at Capiliano University on Tuesday.
The Capilano Students' Union organized the meeting after a series of roundtables pointed to transit and affordable housing as the top issues facing students.
Candidates were asked to state their plan for improving the transit system and whether they'd commit to supporting next year's referendum on what new sources of revenue will fund the improvements in the Mayors' Council vision. For the North Shore, that vision includes a third SeaBus, a 30-per-cent increase in bus service and B-line buses connecting CapU with Metrotown, Lynn Valley with downtown and Phibbs Exchange with Dundarave.
Candidates' responses ranged from an emphatic "yes" to a more leery "qualified yes."
Mayoral challengers Kerry Morris and George Pringle, and council candidates Rod Clark and Amanda Nichol all said they'd have to see the referendum question and how it would impact taxpayers before committing to supporting it.
"The fact is in our society there are people better able to carry the load than others," Morris said, noting teens and seniors have the least disposable income. "If the nature of the question applies that $7.5 billion taxation scheme evenly across all demographics, then I will have a problem with it."
Incumbent Mayor Darrell Mussatto pledged he'd be a strong advocate for the yes vote and implementing the transit priorities he fought to include in the mayors' vision.
"We have to have that public transportation for you because we cannot build ourselves out of gridlock. The more roads you build, the faster they get filled up and it doesn't solve the problem," he said.
Incumbent councillor Don Bell said he couldn't imagine the mayors coming up with a question and funding formula that wouldn't have a good chance of passing.
"Whatever it is, it would be better than what we have now," he said, adding that transit should be priced low enough to actually entice people out of their cars.
Tony Valente characterized the referendum - and the risk that it may not pass -as a threat to the livability of the region.
"We have a role to play to see that it passes," he said, adding that better traffic planning, and an all-ages and abilities bike network are also needed.
But former councillor Bill Bell said the North Shore still experiences the same transit problems it had when he was president of the Capilano Students' Union in 1975.
"You have to ask, who is going go to bat for you? Who is going to be the best spokesperson?" he said.
Incumbents Craig Keating and Linda Buchanan and challengers Holly Back, Iani Makris, Via Fearnley and Kathy McGrenera also pledged their support for the referendum.
Though the affordable housing question was specifically about housing for students, the discussion quickly became about the lack of affordable housing in North Vancouver in general.
Much like transit, affordable housing isn't something directly under council's control but there was plenty of opinion on what ought to be done to ensure Cap students don't have to sleep in their cars, as some do.
"It's a supply and demand problem. We have a high demand and a low supply. We have to increase the supply," Mussatto said, noting that goes beyond new condos but also includes coach houses and secondary suites in single-family homes and duplexes, which council introduced under his watch.
But council has had the counterproductive effect of "overstimulating" the market by granting so many condo rezonings, Morris charged, putting existing cheaper homes at risk "We are attacking it by redeveloping a lot of the most affordable units we have for rent in the City of North Vancouver," he said. "They build new condominium towers that you cannot afford."
Clark agreed and said basement suites like the one he lives in are the best affordable option for young people and that a "low and slow" approach to development was the way forward.
Nichol said she would support resale price restrictions, more partnerships with nonprofits to build student housing, and using incentives to get more non-market housing from developers.
Keating said the city needs to make sure its zoning bylaws aren't making it harder for people to create and rent secondary units.
"There are thousands of empty bedrooms in our community right now," he said. "We need to encourage people to turn those to useful purposes."
McGrenera, Back and Buchanan also encouraged protecting existing rental stock and more secondary suites in single-family neighbourhoods.
Valente and Makris both added that it was time for the federal government to return to offering incentives for affordable housing as it used to do in the 1960s and '70s.
Dorothy Bell managed to answer both questions by saying affordability and transit woes are to be blamed on previous councils approving too much development.
"You've heard of big oil? Well this is big development money and that's who's funding this campaign," she said.
