West Vancouver voters have had their last chance to see all their would-be municipal leaders pitch platforms and think on their feet. Housing and small business concerns like staffing and parking were the hot topics at Wednesday night’s all-candidates meeting hosted by the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce.
In the most expensive municipality in Canada, Ambleside merchant David Jones said it’s time for the district to consider building workforce housing – below-market rentals and strata buildings on district-owned land.
“So we can staff our people close to home. This is everybody – firefighters, police officers, people that work for the district to restaurant staff,” he said, noting the rental units could be a revenue generator for the district and take some of the 5,000 commuters who come to West Van each day off the road.
Jim Finkbeiner said he was in total agreement.
“We can’t solve it but we can help with subsidized rental accommodation,” he said, adding subsidized housing would have to be reserved for local employees and be subject to a means test. “I think all of the municipalities on the North Shore have got to collaborate on this. I think it’s a crisis.”
Carolanne Reynolds didn’t endorse the idea of workforce housing – except for first responders.
“I think we should have affordable housing for our emergency staff but how we could get it for people who have to live in Burnaby… we’re going to have to think about what we pay for what. That might mean we might have to have different sorts of businesses here,” she said.
Kate Manvell chose not to say how she’d find homes for West Vancouver’s workers, instead noting that attracting staff is difficult all over Metro Vancouver. Manvell said maintaining views, height restrictions and zoning should be higher priority.
“Attract younger families with affordable housing but not at the expense of our aging population,” she said.
When it comes to sourcing employees, Heather Mersey said the municipality should work with West Van high schools to entice more students into local jobs. For those commuting in, Mersey said she would like to see better transit and more options for renters, like secondary suites and coach houses.
On the matter of development as a whole, candidates asked if West Vancouver, which has a declining population, had been approving too much, not enough or the right amount.
Incumbent Peter Lambur had a less than concrete position, saying “It depends.”
The official community plan suggests possibly another 1,000 homes in Ambleside, which may be reasonable, Lambur said. But until the district goes through the local area plan process, there is no way of testing whether the neighbourhoods will accept new growth.
“Most of our community… is mature and fully developed so it’s much more sensitive to development than suburban areas. We have to respect that,” he said.
Andy Krawczyk said he looks forward to working on each of those local area plans to get more diversity in West Vancouver’s housing stock but also floated a more short-term solution.
“Housing mix is one of the crying, crying needs in West Vancouver and crying need for businesses,” he said. “What I would like to see and call for is immediately fast track any coach house, any secondary suite development that is being asked for.”
Marcus Wong said he was one of the last of his Sentinel Secondary class of 1999 cohort to still be living in West Van because of a lack of housing options and that seniors his parents’ age are also short on choice.
“In West Vancouver, we need to start building the types of housing that will attract the types of people we want but also allow the people in West Vancouver to stay in West Vancouver; otherwise, we’re going to be continuing to hollow out, businesses will continue to suffer and we’ll be in this never-ending cycle,” he said.
Incumbent Craig Cameron agreed it was about the type, not the quantity of development projects approved.
“We have a great deal of development going on in the district in the form of 4-, 5-, 6,000-square-foot houses and luxury condos. Ultimately, this is giving us more of what we’ve got and not what we need,” he said. “Developers will build what they can built to make money. What we need to do as a district is incentivize the type of development we want to see.”
Incumbent council members were given the opportunity to speak up about their greatest accomplishment and biggest regret over the last term. For Nora Gambioli, the biggest win was sewing together the hundreds of community meetings and thousands of pieces of public input into the new OCP, which aims to revitalize the municipality.
“That is a legacy that will be going on for 25 years. I really am happy and excited about that,” she said.
The low point, Gambioli said, was council failing to rein in monster homes after being shouted down by real estate agents, developers and builders.
Sharon Thompson, who currently works as a constituency assistant for the Liberal MLA in the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding, said individual organizations with lands available – like BC Ferries or private schools can also be asked to contribute to housing their employees. Thompson added she would be an asset on council because she knows how to leverage support from senior levels of government.
In addition to more diverse housing, past chamber president Gabrielle Loren said there is more that can be done inside municipal hall.
“We just had a tenant improvement done in our office and it took 10 weeks to get the building permit. To me, that is unacceptable for a small business owner,” she said. “When you’re looking at bringing economic development to West Vancouver, you have to be open for business.”
Mayoral contender Rosa Jafari said in order to revitalize the community, council should embrace post-modernism, and technology like robots and 3D printing.
Mayoral contenders Mark Sager and Mary-Ann Booth sparred on how the next mayor should deal with the incoming tax regime from the province. Sager introduced himself not as the candidate who would solve transportation problems but as the candidate who would take the fight to the provincial NDP on the new school tax and speculation taxes that will hit high-end property owners in West Vancouver and bite into the municipality’s tax base.
Booth said she and Gambioli had already met the finance minister and urged her to spread the school tax out more fairly around the province and to ensure that some of the money comes back to the community in the form of affordable housing dollars.
Sager, however, criticized Booth as “wrong and naïve” to take the meeting without the support of council.
“Two members of council do not go and meet with the minister of finance on their own. That requires council resolution. It requires a plan. It requires the support of the community. It is irresponsible.” he said. “This is serious business, ladies and gentleman.”
Booth shot back.
“They were all invited. They knew what we were going to do. They were briefed on the options we were going to present. …You know what? I wasn’t mayor either when I attended the meeting. I wasn't going to wait. It’s that important to me.”
Christine Cassidy, another current council member seeking the top job, expressed little hope the tax could be staved off. The next mayor will have to focus on repatriating as much of the $50 million the tax is expected to draw from West Vancouverites as possible, she said.
“Once the NDP government was elected, you had to know they were going to hit our pocket books, quite simply. You’ve never seen an investment advisor yet or anybody who invests in the stock market whoever votes NDP,” she said. “We do need to go in and negotiate long and we need to negotiate hard.”
