Candidates made their case for being elected to city council, then saw some of what awaits them as politicians.
The first all-candidates meeting in Nanaimo’s city council byelection concluded with a heated exchange between Mayor Bill McKay and Coun. Gord Fuller.
The meeting was held in an informal setting Tuesday night at the Vault Café and was attended by candidates Sheryl Armstrong, Brunie Brunie, Sacia Burton, Leon Cake, Kevin Cantelon, Fred Statham, Kevin Storrie and Al Thompson.
Affordable housing and social housing were among the topics discussed, in addition to marijuana legalization, technology jobs, rail and other subjects.
On the topic of clean energy and high-tech jobs, Burton said it’s important to try to reverse brain drain.
“We’re having young people who are getting educated here and then they’re leaving here…” she said. “I think that’s a really big shame and I think that something we can do to fix that is to make affordable cities happen [by] addressing transit, addressing affordable housing. We have to make our cities bikeable, walkable and have livable neighbourhoods.”
Other candidates had more specific projects in mind. Brunie said Nanaimo needs “high-tech super greenhouses” for food security and other reasons.
“We can feed the whole Island, we can create jobs, have high-technology…” she said. “People from the world will come to skateboard Nanaimo and eat organic French fries.”
Thompson favours an incinerator.
“Let’s burn our garbage. Now, when we burn our garbage, we make electricity. We don’t need B.C. Hydro. Nanaimo can make its own damn electricity … We can have greenhouses like you wouldn’t believe. We have our heat, we get an income from the garbage. Everybody on the whole Island will bring their garbage to Nanaimo,” he said, adding that it would create needed employment.
Burton rebutted that an incinerator is “not a healthy way to move forward” for Nanaimo.
“No disrespect, Al, but I’m going to have to live in this city a lot longer than you,” the younger candidate said.
The question of turning the train tracks into a trail was raised, and Cake said while taking a tourist train ride is something people might do once every five years, a trail is something they can enjoy every day. Thompson said the tracks should be paved for the benefit of people in mobility scooters.
Cantelon said he doesn’t believe rail service is coming in the next 10 years, but said the rail bed needs to be preserved.
“We have to think about what things are going to be like more than just 10 years down the road, 20, 50, 100 years down the road,” he said. “We don’t know what our transportation options are going to be, but we may very well want to have and preserve for future generations the option of putting in some sort of high-speed transit system.”
McKay was invited to speak at the end of the meeting and expressed his frustrations with barriers to better rail service in the region, including city council’s recent decision to support a group that wants to to tear out sections of track. Fuller tried to interject, but the mayor talked overtop of the councillor.
Once things had quieted down, Storrie asked that everyone shake hands after a great evening.
“Let’s create the harmony in this room that I want to see on council,” he said.
McKay offered advice to byelection candidates, asking them to be informed and prepared for meetings, urging them to ask questions, and stressing that they be guided by the official community plan.
“Cities are about pavement and asphalt and infrastructure and buildings. It’s not until you put people in there that work with each other, that help each other, that support each other that you have a community. Always remember that,” he said.
The next all-candidates meeting is hosted by the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce on June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Beban Park social centre.
greg.sakaki@nanaimobulletin.com