SquamishVotes Election questionnaire: Susan Chapelle

Name:

Susan Chapelle, MBA

How many years have you lived in Squamish?

 I arrived 19 years ago for riding and Climbing

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

I have been on council 2 terms, and attended September meetings.

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

What I love about Squamish is that there is so much to love about Squamish! My children get to grow up in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Our community is engaged and passionate, and citizens collaborate and contribute to the betterment of Squamish. I moved here for access to climbing and riding, and now after activities, I have full access to local craft beverages and great food.

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

No/Not at this time

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

Livability. Squamish is growing rapidly, and with density must come transportation, access to affordable housing, and proper neighbourhood planning. We have not kept pace with policy, and have not preserved economic development land and we have no way to manage our affordability crisis. We have not created a diverse foundation for a sustainable future. These issues affect peoples ability to live and work in the place they love and call home.

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

 Council completed and updated master plans; sewer and flood management as well as a real estate strategy. Our biggest failure is that we lack the resources to pay for implementation. Currently, Squamish is reliant on our residential tax base or on grants that are not reliable to fund our plans. This is not sustainable.

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

Centralized parking must be planned for. We need to build and properly resource other ways to move around Squamish through the active transportation budget. There must be income generated from amenity contributions to pay for a solution, including the possibility of parking permits for residences to ensure people have a place to park. New council must look at our parking strategy and start figuring out if 1.4 car parking per townhome is enough. Appropriate storage for equipment must be thought about in each new development so garages are kept for cars.

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

A housing authority such as Whistler's is required to manage future policy and affordable housing units. Squamish only has 70 affordable housing units. Council has not adopted strict policy to take in units while continuing to add high density. Building more market housing in a desirable location such as Squamish will not resolve affordability. There must be a way to manage and take in non-market housing units with every new development. Temporary modular housing for medium income residence has been done successfully in many communities and must be looked at as a way to add to affordable housing stock. Rental housing has to be prioritized.

Do you support stronger regulation of AirBNB?

Licensing and tourism taxation would help with revenue for amenities and data collection. 

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

Ensuring there are affordable places for people to work, with proper amenities that contribute to supporting the local business environment is an essential task.  Having diverse and affordable places to grow business creates an amenable environment for attracting new economic opportunities. Squamish has a growing demographic of start-ups and entrepreneurs who are unable to scale their business because of a lack of professional space and inadequate zoning.

Creating connections between existing local businesses and new businesses and employers helps facilitate ideas across sectors, and generates new business opportunities. We need to ensure that appropriate space and reasonable red tape reduction is available for our local businesses before attracting outside employers.

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

Regional transit south to Vancouver where 54% of our population currently commutes is essential to help congestion. However, BC transit going into TransLink territory is an expensive and time consuming proposition, currently priced at $6m. We currently have no funding model, and have spent 4 years waiting for a committee. A memorandum of understanding to form yet another committee, which may get us an idea of a funding model is being worked on. Focusing our time on creating a funding model should be prioritized. Supplementing already existing systems is an opportunity that could be immediate. Whistler transit is BC transit, and can be funded between our communities as it was previously. Cutting that bus cost our community lives. Whistler/Squamish should be a priority for our vulnerable workforce as well as access to recreation opportunities.

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

Brennan Park is still crown land. In order to build and amalgamate facilities to take advantage of the land available, Squamish must apply to have control of the land and own it in order to make plans for future use. The area is central to Squamish, and the possibility of combining buildings such as a new school and municipal hall seems like the best fiscal option. Sharing building with partnerships instead of taxation. Moving our public schools away from high density and relocating the high school to where children have access to fitness, active transit and after school programming. Having municipal hall out of downtown where parking is an issue and where we can better utilize valuable economic development land makes fiscal sense.

Do you support cannabis retail shops in Squamish?

Yes

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

Neutral (3)

Are you supportive of the Garibaldi At Squamish project?

Somewhat opposed (4)

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

Somewhat supportive (2)