Balance on the Ballot

I have a lot of respect for those who choose policing as their career - it is not an easy job, and in Victoria it is a job that seems to have been made more challenging in recent years. The policing budget for Victoria has been kept artificially low, with every request made being put under an administrative microscope. The argument has been that the resources used in policing are not available for other services. To the degree those other services are within the scope of the municipal government to provide, this is true. Money spent on policing, isn't money that can be spent on improving roads and sidewalks. Money spent on policing can't be spent on collecting garbage and recycling. Money spent on policing cannot be spent on improving local recreation facilities.  However, if enough money isn't spent on policing, public safety is put in jeopardy. If people don't feel safe spending time downtown, they do not go downtown - they choose to go to Oak Bay or Saanich or the We...

One of the most difficult things about our housing issues in the city is the reality that the city is limited in what it can and cannot do to address them as some of the solutions are provincial (modernization of the residential tenancy act, provincial measures to protect the domestic residential market) and some are federal (taxation and mortgage issues). At the municipal level - what can the city do to make the housing challenge more surmountable? 1. Zoning  I am not a fan of blanket rezoning, I do not believe it will alleviate the affordability issue, and may result in a loss of what many have "bought into" when they decided to make Victoria home. People who decided Victoria was the place to be, often did so because it wasn't Vancouver, or Toronto - it was Victoria. Quaint and welcoming, a little hippy with a dash of sophistication. Many did so because they could get a good job working for either the province or the university (and now the tech sector), or they could r...

Our city is going to change over time. All cities change over time, all cities grow, and our city isn't an exception. It will change and grow - we've seen that, rather dramatically over the last 20 years, with our downtown core morphing from a place with few buildings more than 10 stories, to one where larger buildings are the norm.  Generally speaking, that is not a bad thing in and of itself, particularly as those who reside in the core tend not to need to drive as most of their day to day needs can be met on foot. That said many may decide to partake in car shares, or own a car and have it mostly parked for use on further afield outings on weekends. The local residents who call downtown home support a vibrant downtown and prevent the core of the city from feeling dead on evenings and weekends. What isn't so great is the degree to which the larger downtown core with small units have been used more for investment rather than as housing. The degree to which those units are ...

Housing is one of the core challenges in Victoria and its surrounding communities. Housing is generally not considered affordable, neither for homeowners nor renters with some of the highest home prices and rental prices in the country. In general, those who have chosen to call Victoria home have had to make trade-offs and sacrifices to be feasible for them to do so and that has been the circumstance for many decades. The City is somewhat constrained in what it can or cannot do (zoning and bylaws being among the limited tools at its disposal) and going it alone on some policies may only result in some problems becoming exacerbated. As an example, due to a lack of national/provincial service standards for social housing, cities that provide it tend to be overwhelmed with those seeking access to those services. The city needs to identify the specific strategies it may undertake to make housing more attainable for those who are looking to contribute to this city as citizens, while ensur...

If I lived in any other city, I'd probably forego even thinking about stepping into the political ring at the municipal level. I'd be content if my city felt like it was being well managed, if it felt like on the whole things were improving for the vast majority of people. I'd pay my taxes and keep my focus on the many other areas of my life that demand attention. Or perhaps I'd wait a few more years until my kids were mostly grown. Maybe I'd even forego running if I thought council was better balanced, if I thought that everyone's voice was being heard and represented at that table. But I don't live in another city, I live in Victoria. I live in Victoria, and the city needs people to step up, more importantly, it needs people to step up for the right reasons - out of a love for the city and a sense that we could be doing a much better job for everyone. Out of a sense that we cannot let the problems our city is facing get worse - we have to do better. Furthe...