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Election questionnaire: Jacquie Menezes

Find out where candidates stand on key policy issues by reading answers to our online survey
Jacquie Menezes
Election candidate Jacquie Menezes.

As part of our Squamish Votes 2018 coverage, we invited each candidate to fill out an online questionnaire answering questions about policy and big issues facing Squamish in the next four years. Candidates were emailed the questionnaire and given one week to submit answers.

 

About You

Name:

Jacquie Menezes

How many years have you lived in Squamish?

1 year

How many council or committee meetings have you attended since Sept. 1, 2017?

8 and a few watched online

What do you love most about Squamish? (150 word limit)

I was drawn to the spectacular natural beauty of Squamish and the many opportunities for adventure, as well as to the spirit of Squamish, a youthful, hard-working, optimistic and welcoming community of people who are here because they want to be here. In choosing to move here, I spoke to the Economic Development officer and the Mayor, three years ago; I understood then and saw first hand, the opportunities for growth while respecting the natural environment.  If the right decisions are made by District Council in the next couple of years, I see a thriving, dynamic community with good middle-class jobs from new local industries, a diverse and growing tax base, housing for everyone, more and better transit, more recreational activities and a cultural life filled with arts and entertainment.

Are you endorsing a particular candidate for mayor? (question for councilor candidates)

No/Not at this time

 

Squamish Issues

What do you think is the biggest single issue facing Squamish? (150 words limit)

Economic Development. Squamish needs living wage jobs. The path to better income, affordable housing, recreation and culture is through economic development. Squamish needs a much broader industrial base, which means that Council has an obligation to work to attract diverse high value-add businesses like the digital, clean tech and alternative energy industries, recreational manufacturers and entertainment and tourism companies, among others.

In the last term, what was council's single greatest accomplishment? What was council's biggest failure? (150 character limit)

 Greatest Accomplishment: Adopting  the OCP (Official Community Plan). Council's failure: Ignoring the OCP in passing the development of Garibaldi Springs.

 

Residents often complain about traffic (speeding, parking etc.) What would you do to improve traffic and parking in Squamish? (150 words limit)

Traffic: Implementing Transportation demand management strategies in all planning initiatives: transit-oriented development (i.e. building housing density and retail along well served public transit routes), walkable work and activity centres, complete streets (designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities) and Adaptive Traffic Signals.

Parking: Improve local public transit by increasing the fleet with clean tech buses and improving wait times to encourage people to make better transportation choices, increase bike lanes and EV bike share program, reducing the need for vehicles for every aspect of daily life.  Council needs to address the issue of fees paid by developers for reducing parking stalls in new developments especially in the downtown area.

Squamish has a housing affordability crisis. What would you do to improve affordability? (150 words limit)

What is "affordable housing?" In Canada housing is considered “affordable‰Û when households don't pay more than 30% of gross income on annual accommodation costs. Residential development must follow a municipal plan that includes a balance of family housing for modest and mid-level incomes and much more rental accommodation. Consider global best practices: 1. Shipping container based rental housing, 2. Inclusionary zoning, used to create affordable housing for low-and moderate-income households; requires affordable housing units to be included in residential developments of 10 units or more. 3. Co-Op Housing 4. Options for Homes model 5. Habitat for Humanity model. 

Do you support stronger regulation of AirBNB?

Squamish has limited hospitality rental accommodations and is about to loose a few more.  We need to build more such accommodations to meet and increase our tourism industry. We also need to understand the need for a formalized AirBNB system. The Distirct needs to complete it's study of the issue and risks in Squamish; currently there are 356 Airbnb listings or about four percent of total housing and eight licensed B & Bs in the District, meaning almost all short-term rentals except hotels and motels are operating outside municipal law. We need to review what other municipalities are doing, in particular if the recent District of Tofino model is adaptable to the needs of Squamish.

How would you attract new businesses and employers to Squamish? (150 words limit)

I would do this through an Economic Development Action Plan. Council already developed and approved a plan in 2016.  It now needs a quick review in light of market changes and any new municipal, provincial and federal plans and incentives. The staff to implement the plan must be hired and motivated to implement in Q1 of 2019.

Do you have a strategy to implement regional transit? (150 word limit)

The District is part of the development of the Sea to Sky Transit Future Plan, which was tabled in October 2017. I would have staff work with the other eight partners to complete the development of the governance and funding model by the end of 2018 and then work towards implementing the plan by mid to late 2019.

Given limited financial resources, what do you think is the single highest priority for Brennan Park? (150 word limit)

Build a new recreational facility via public private partnerships and funding from the recently announced Federal /Provincial Community, Culture and Recreation Program.

Do you support cannabis retail shops in Squamish?

Yes I fully support them so long as they meet Federal, Provincial and Municipal regulations.  They will help diversify our tax base, encourage entrepreneurs and create local jobs. Depending on how the Province decides to disburse the Federal and Provincial tax revenues from cannabis sales, Squamish would be better positioned to be the recipient of much needed cannabis sales tax revenues to invest in local infrastructure (e.g. hospital, schools, roads, water/sewer), transit, housing and recreational facilities.

 

Major Developments

Would you consider yourself pro-WLNG or anti-WLNG?

Neutral (3)

Are you supportive of the Garibaldi At Squamish project?

Somewhat supportive (2)

Do you support development of the Cheema Lands (Lot 509/510)?

Neutral (3)

 

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