I’m a real fan of our Municipal Elections and this one was the best yet. The quality of the people running was exceptional, the issues were well defined and the electorate spoke in no uncertain terms. Bob Turner won the mayor’s chair by a landslide and David Hocking whose campaign was closely linked to Bob’s, topped the polls for council; not far behind were Peter Frinton and Lisa Shatzky. All of the above stated clearly in their campaign literature that they were in favour of redesigning Government Road to accommodate ferry marshalling and against ferry marshalling in the park. That’s pretty definitive. I think it’s fair to say that the loop road is now off council’s agenda. So what will be the priorities for the next three years and what will be the tone of council?
Looking back we see a relatively dysfunctional system. People would come before council with proposals and council would send the proposals to staff for further work. Before long there were more proposals than staff could possibly deal with. So they hired more staff and the bureaucracy grew but the number of issues that got referred to staff grew even faster. The next council will have to come to grips with this. When somebody comes before council with a great idea, or an important question or a legitimate grievance, council is going need to have the guts to say “Sorry, we don’t have staff available to deal with that.” Or conversely they will have to say to staff not only “We have decided that this issue is a priority and we are instructing you to deal with it”; they will also have to say sometimes “Quit spending so much time on that. It’s not a priority.”
What will be on the agenda, whether council wants it or not, is going to be a battle with BC Ferries. To say that we are being jerked around is the most polite way that you can describe how we are being treated. Eventually we are going to have to assert ourselves or we are going to find that we are simply a cash machine for a monopolistic corporation that has no inclination to reduce profits by improving infrastructure.
On a brighter note there is the Surplus Lands. There is great opportunity here to rationalize the Snug Cove Plan, get started on community facilities, work towards affordable housing and still retain a land bank for parks and future community needs.
Of course the most interesting issue is going to be Cape Roger Curtis. The new members of council know this file extremely well and have some very definite ideas. Watching the horse-trading between them and the developer should be excellent theatre.
On the more mundane side there is the issue of roads. They are falling apart and the worse they get the more it will cost to fix them. While some people consider lousy roads the price you have to pay to slow down traffic the truth is that they’re dangerous. On rainy nights when the ferry traffic is heading one way and you have the misfortune of heading the other way you just pray that there’s no poor fool out jogging or walking his dog. If this file is left for another three years with no action it will be a major issue in the 2008 election.
Another niggling issue that previous councils have been unable to deal with is parking in Snug Cove. Now that we own the property directly below the old gas station and the piece north of the cottage on Cardena we really have no excuse for not providing adequate public parking. It would be inexpensive and the property could be put to other uses later but it would require cutting down trees. I wonder if the new council has the courage to do it?
Getting back to the grander issues, sustainability is today’s mantra. That means that we should be shopping where we live, travelling less and supporting the businesses in our community more. We have now reached a population where numerous businesses would be viable on Bowen if only they had some place to set up shop. The Surplus Lands integrated into a real Snug Cove Plan can help to create a real, sustainable local economy.
This is only the third term that we have had a Municipal Council. The first term was taken up with getting things started. The second term was cursed with high expectations and no resources. This term presents real opportunity for getting things done. We wish our new council well.
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