Mayoral hopeful Auli Parviainen came out swinging inside a packed Brennan Park community hall during the all candidates forum on Monday (Nov. 7) night.Parviainen particularly hit hard after complaints levied by Mike Goodman of the Paradise Trails development on difficulties the group has faced dealing with the current council."I think it's offensive not to have some sort of time limit in place," she said, when asked about time lengths in council decision-making. "It's appalling and we need to implement a level of accountability for council. I'm astounded we have to talk about this."Coun. Rob Kirkham disagreed, saying that it's difficult to have guaranteed time frames for each individual proposal. Kirkham said that the last council accomplished a great deal and that the election is all about leadership."I believe I bring leadership skills and have been involved in this community for so many years," he said. "The big key is enhancing community involvement. I plan to reach out to different community groups and organizations and I'm committed to this community."Parviainen was also critical of the current transit system in Squamish."We need to make an investment in transit," she said. "This council has had three years to address these issues and they've done very little."Candidate Ron Bahm said he's looking to attract the people that don't vote and promised to be an honest and hard working mayor."I ran nine years ago and nothing happened," he said. "Still nothing has changed, Squamish is broken and no one realizes the state we're in. We've heard enough promises, we should be in the promised land by now."Kirkham said he thinks Squamish is on the right path and pointed to the development of the Oceanfront as an important issue."The economy and employment in Squamish has room to improve," he said. "But the Oceanfront plan is a reflection of what you want. It's time for action, it's time to move this plan ahead and get the project moving."Parviainen disagreed, saying that Squamish is looked at as difficult to deal with."Our reputation is not great," she said. "Investors don't like us and don't want to invest here. We need to think about change and be choreographers of our own dance not following someone else's."For more on this story, check the print edition of The Chief on Friday.
