As Election Day nears and Squamish residents consider candidates for local government, it is important that voters examine the records of those currently serving in the mayor’s office and on council.
Some of the duties of a councillor include engaging the public, carefully weighing issues, soliciting expert opinion, and hearing citizens' concerns. Unfortunately, most of our local decision makers failed miserably to fulfill those responsibilities when they gave the green light to the Kingswood development planned along the Upper Mamquam Blind Channel.
Of those running again, Mayor Rob Kirkham and Councillors Patricia Heintzman, Doug Race, Ted Prior, and Susan Chapelle all voted to approve Kingswood. They did so despite overwhelming opposition of the neighbourhoods most affected by the massive complex. Neither the mayor nor those councillors who supported this ill-conceived project even bothered to meet with Hospital Hill residents whose quality of life will be significantly eroded by the development. Mayor Kirkham and Councillors Heintzman, Race, Prior and Chapelle essentially turned their backs on an entire community. To his credit, Councillor Bryan Raiser was the lone voice against Kingswood. Councillor Raiser should be commended for his courage, wisdom, and commitment to good governance.
Kingswood will dramatically increase traffic along Lower Clarke and Clarke Drives, create bottlenecks at the Highway 99 light, destroy habitat critical to wildlife and endangered species, adversely impact the Blind Channel, and bring down property values of those living adjacent to the development. It is a boondoggle that should never have been approved.
Time to clean house in municipal hall and elect officials who care about their constituents. We need a mayor and council that will listen to those impacted by their decisions instead of catering to out-of-town developers wanting to make a buck on the backs of hard-working Squamish families. When Hospital Hill voters go the polls, we won’t forget those lawmakers who abandoned us during the Kingswood debate.
Brian Vincent
Squamish
