It was a packed house for the first of three all-candidates forums held Monday night at Howe Sound Secondary School.
About 400 turned out to see the five mayoral and 22 councillor candidates take turns answering environment-based questions prepared by organizers from My Sea to Sky, Squamish CAN and the Squamish Environment Society.
Squamish Nation Coun. Deanna Lewis opened the evening.
Moderator Catherine Rockandel kept candidates to tight one-minute answers throughout the night.
Over the course of the more than two-hour evening, no one candidate stuck out as a clear "winner."
While there were also no significant gaffes, some candidates clearly were not well versed in the policies already in place at the District, some citing a wish develop a "four-year plan" without knowing there is a strategic plan in place each council.
There is no way to cover all the candidates in this one article, but there were some notable moments.
Candidates Susan Chapelle, Karen Elliott, Doug Race, Eric Andersen and Chris Pettingill showed an impressive grasp of council’s history and policies.
Asked about the three greatest threats to our environment, almost all council hopefuls said humans were the biggest threat.
Mayoral candidate Paul Lalli said he would like to see the District take more steps to help people move away from using fossil fuels.
Green initiatives he suggested included encouraging more electric charging stations, and more solar energy use, passive housing and work with Squamish CAN to build more community gardens.
“We have BC Hydro right-of-ways all throughout the community that are more or less not used,” he said.
Elliott, who is seeking the mayor’s chair, referenced the recent milestone of the District reaching carbon neutrality.
“But there is so much more we need to do. Regional transit is in our grasp in 2019 and we need to seize that opportunity and make it happen… we need to keep funding active transportation, we need to keep encouraging car share and our e-bike program at the District. We also have a big job to do in promoting the cleantech campus down on the waterfront — that is essential.”
Candidates for council seats, Lee O’Callaghan, and Doug Race took aim specifically at Garibaldi at Squamish as a threat to Squamish's environment.
“Lots of threats but for me, the three main threats are Garibaldi at Squamish, Garibaldi at Squamish and Garibaldi at Squamish, “ Race said, drawing a gasp from the crowd for his direct aim. “There are issues around water supply, sewage disposal, the fact that it is a greenfield development and the fact that it is massive — 22,000-bed units, which translates into about 5,550 residential units of different types located in one spot on Brohm Ridge.”
Mayoral candidate Tess Linsley stood out, mostly because she has been relatively unknown in the race publicly.
"As far as the environment is concerned, I think you can see the results as far as the lack of attention to that environment," she said. "That applies to both the construction of LNG and our journey into what is not our environment but is the environment of the bears and the natural animals of this corridor. We need to stand back from that and be much more careful about how we treat our environment."
Linsley, however, also later suggested if she were mayor she would ban or severely restrict how many development permits council passed, something that councils can’t legally do if the applicant complies with the guidelines.
Developer Edward Archibald stood out for his mention of the anticipated closing of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada office as an environmental concern.
“Number 3 [threat] is the loss of the DFO office at the same time as it looks like Woodfibre is going forward,” he said. “I frankly have no answer to that. I am dumbfounded by that decision and we really need to work with our community and stakeholders, the provincial and federal government to come up with solutions on that.”
In terms of threats to our wetlands and habitat, John French said that the Garibaldi Springs golf course should never have been OK’d by council because of the impact on the environment.**
French also suggested a linear dog park as a green initiative.
“Leash laws also need to be enforced. I am a strong advocate of a linear off-leash dog park,” he said. “Dog owners could bring their dogs to a place where they could run far and wide. It is well signed, it is fenced — so that everyone is aware of that area.”
Sacha Fabry, a councillor candidate, mentioned human-wildlife conflict as a significant local issue.
“Bears potentially getting euthanized because of people leaving their garbage out throughout the evening,” he said. “[Also] our developments and their proximity to sensitive habitats without buffer zones properly in place as well as wildlife corridors. There are easy ways to address this, which include proper bylaw enforcement as well as actions to make sure garbage, for example, isn’t left out overnight… making sure that all new developments have appropriate amenity contributions coming through to both fund and budget for all of the infrastructure needs that we do have.”
Many candidates referenced transportation as a priority should they be elected.
“I want to set a goal for our council so that in four years we reduce the number of local car trips by 20 per cent,” said mayoral candidate Jeff Cooke. “The way we will do this, is three things: one is to ensure that our bike commuter paths are safer and have better connectivity. The second thing is to make sure we have secured bike lockup areas. We ask for car parking spaces when we build new developments, we need to have bike facilities when people drive their cars to work or ride their bikes downtown to the store or to school. Lastly, I want to use my connections in the biking industry to see if we can come up with — for Squamish residents, heavily subsidized opportunities to purchase e-bikes to make biking around town easier.”
Chapelle, a mayoral candidate, touted initiatives she said she brought to the District that have helped address climate change.
“The climate adaptation plan was put forward as a partnership with Quest University, I put forward that plan that Squamish actually work on having an adaptation plan instead of just a mitigation plan,” she said. “I put forward that we have electric car charging stations — the reason we have an electric charging station outside of municipal hall is because of a grant I brought to the District... I live my values. I live tiny. I ride my bike to all my meetings and my work. I don’t live in sprawl.”
Rick McKinney, who is seeking a councillor seat touted a ban on cars idling and getting rid of straws and plastic bags in the district — promoting bamboo straws for those who need them.
A rare — and disallowed — rumble from the audience broke out when O’Callagahan said he wouldn’t support the Cheema proposal to develop his land.
Bianca Peters noted parking issues she would like to address if elected to the council.
“We did a survey… and 69 per cent of respondents said that was our biggest issue,” Peters said. “Today we are losing more parking than we are gaining parking.”
Terrill Patterson, who is often spotted around town on his bike collecting recyclables and wearing his homemade helmet, garnered appreciative laughs when he said developers see Squamish as a place to build “cheap” multifamily housing.
“The past term of this council… has seen [Squamish] go from the outdoor capital of Canada to the condo capital of Canada with bunk beds,” he said.
~Video by Paul Watt
**Please note, this story has been corrected since it was first posted. John French says that when he spoke about the golf course development, he was referring to the previous iteration of Garibaldi Springs when it was a functioning golf course, not the Polygon housing development.
