by George Le Masurier | Sep 17, 2018
Jin Lin wants the City of Courtenay to spend less and not raise taxes every year, include food waste in its recycling program and talk more with 3L about Stotan Falls
Jin Lin, the co-owner of the Maple Pool Campground and RV Park, wants voters to know that she is not running for municipal office to settle any scores over the city’s failed lawsuit to shut down her business, and cost her family about $180,000.
Nor would she use a council position to lobby for a common room for residents of Maple Pool that would help her tenants reduce their electricity costs, but which they haven’t done because building in a flood plain requires too many additional rules and restrictions.
“I’m popular, I think, because people know I won’t do things for myself,” she said. “So no lobby for common room.”
She is running to help the city cut its expenses and lower taxes.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to raise taxes. Once in awhile, okay, but not every year,” she told Decafnation. “People can’t afford it.
“The city has to think how to save money from expenses.”
She is concerned about this year’s hiring of 16 new employees, and thinks the city took the “easy way” of raising taxes, instead of reducing its expenditures.
FURTHER READING: For more interviews with candidates and a full list of who’s running for councils, regional district and school board, go to our Elections 2018 page
Lin and her husband, Dali, emigrated from Taiwan 25 years ago to start a sawmill that eventually closed, along with most independent sawmills in BC, due to the softwood lumber issue with the United States.
Since then, the couple have operated the Maple Pool Campground that caters to summer tourists with campsites along the Tsolum River and reserves another 53 year-round sites on higher ground as low-income housing for people living in RVs and trailers.
The Lins charge $360 per month for a trailer/RV site that includes water and sewer hookups. Residents pay their own BC Hydro bills.
They get new requests to rent sites every day. They give priority to young families with children, then seniors on fixed income and then the unemployed.
“I feel bad, I don’t have more,” Lin said. “But it’s not just simple as a business, we live and work on site, because it’s easier in management. Financially, we just can’t afford to hire employee.”
Lin said whether she gets elected or not isn’t important because politics for her is “a learning journey.”
She believes her cultural difference from everyone else on council could help bring more civility to the meetings.
“Don’t vote yes or no on issues, but to support things. Talk and negotiate, find the best solution,” she says. “We have different views, but we can talk.”
She think the Comox Valley Regional District should follow that principle and talk more with 3L Developments over their proposed Stotan Falls project.
Saying “it’s a beautiful property,” Lin would have to know more about the technical aspects of the proposal to comment specifically. But she says “the CVRD shouldn’t just say yes or no.”
“Many people don’t like houses there, but they (3L) have the land, they have the right,” she said.
Lin takes a similar approach to the city’s traffic problems. Before another bridge gets built, the city must look at other ways to reduce congestion. She mentions widening Cliffe Avenue and other approaches to the bridge, and thinks cloverleafs or overpasses aren’t out of the question.
“(They would be) expensive, but if they solve problem, then we have to think about it,” she said.
Lin would also take a cautious approach to decisions relating the legalization of marijuana next month.
“People have a right to smoke, but people also have right to clean air,” she said, noting that Maple Pool has a zero tolerance to illegal drugs. “We have to protect all the people.”
She’s hoping the provincial pot regulations will guide the city, and she is looking to the BC Lodging Association to learn more about how to handle marijuana issues at Maple Pool. Although she doesn’t think it’s a good idea to smoke around children.
Lin wants to borrow good ideas from Japan and Taiwan on recycling.
In Taiwan, she says young children are taught about the need to protect the environment and how to recycle in the schools, starting in the early grades. She thinks more education is the long-term answer.
“For example, Comox and Cumberland can recycle food waste, but not Courtenay. Why?” she said.
Lin is currently president of the Comox Valley Multicultural and Immigrant Support society, which helps new immigrants adjust to Canada life and encourages them to share their own culture.
She would like Courtenay Council and city staff to be as welcoming to different ways of thinking about “the little things that affect daily life.”
Lin says if the city would communicate better, it would help reduce conflict and lead to better solutions.
by George Le Masurier | Sep 17, 2018
Arzeena Hamir has experience in bringing together people with opposing views, a skill she would use to improve decision-making at the regional district level
Arzeena Hamir has decided to seek election as the Area B representative on the regional district because she can offer a fresh perspective on how the Comox Valley Regional District makes decisions.
Hamir would definitely bring a world view to local government.
Born in Tanzania, East Africa, she moved with her family to Richmond, BC in 1973. After finishing a BA degree in agriculture at the University of Guelph, Hamir served as a CUSO volunteer in Thailand, where she’s fluent in the language.
She then spent time in India doing field research for the Masters degree in sustainable agriculture that she earned from the University of London, England.
After concluding her studies, Hamir worked as an agrologist for West Coast Seeds, and as the food security coordinator for the Richmond Food Security Society creating community gardens and doing education workshops.
In 2012, she started her own farm, Amara Farms, in the Comox Valley, and helped form Merville Organics, a co-operative venture with four other area farmers.
FURTHER READING: For more interviews with candidates and a full list of who’s running for councils, regional district and school board, go to our Elections 2018 page
Over the last six years, Hamir has become increasingly concerned with how some local political decisions have been made and wants to use her skills in bringing people together to take a different approach.
“I see projects on the horizon that could impact the things that attracted me to the Comox Valley — land, water and community,” she told Decafnation. “I want to shine a light on them in a way that hasn’t been thought about.”
Hamir points to the proposed Agriplex for the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds (CVEG) as an example of a project — included in the CVEG Master Plan “in an underhanded way” — for which there is no proven need and will burden taxpayers forever.
“I see many needs in the Valley, this is not one of them,” she said. “We should channel that community energy and staff time and money into real needs.
“We’ve got bigger things to think about.”
One of those is building the Comox Valley into Vancouver Island’s primary food producer.
Right now, about 95 percent of food consumed on the Island comes from somewhere else. Hamir says that’s not a good long-term position.
“The Valley is blessed with lots of farmable land while other Island areas are losing theirs,” she said. “We should be ramping up production.”
The Cowichan Valley is drying up, she says, and farms have dramatically lost production. Saanich peninsula farms are losing ground to McMansions and mega cannabis growing operations, plus they have soil and water challenges.
“We don’t have those same development and climate pressures,” she said. “If the Comox Valley Regional District could support farmers, even just helping them share information and work cooperatively so they can continue to farm, this industry will be successful.”
Hamir recognizes the diversity of interests in Area B. Its boundaries include the Comox peninsula, Bates Beach, Lazo and Point Holmes and parts of Headquarters Road in the Tsolum regions.
“I don’t have all the answers,” she said. “But I have the experience and ability to bring people with opposing views together.”
She is a founder of the Mid-Island Farmers Institute, an organization of about 80 farmers formed to address common issues and share information. She also helped form the Comox Valley Food Security Roundtable for a similar purpose.
Hamir says she would build on those experiences to address issues at the regional district level, such as sewerage, land development and water.
“We have people on city water and wells, and we have boil water advisories and water bottling proposals, and our glaciers are shrinking,” she says. “I would bring people together to create better watershed plans.”
She wonders if climate change is being fully considered in regional decision-making.
“It worrisome to have sewer pipes in the foreshore and to allow building in flood plains,” she says. “I’m not afraid to tackle those issues.”
She opposes the 3L Developments proposal to build a subdivision at Stotan Falls because it contradicts the expressed wishes of the community represented in the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS).
“I don’t take changes to the RGS lightly,” she said. “We need more infill in our existing settlement nodes and urban cores before stressing the outer areas.”
Hamir would also like to see more incentives for Area B residents to recycle. Some households rely on private collectors, but recycling isn’t built into those contracts. She proposes a discount for only one garbage bin, more composting education and making recycling easier to do in the rural areas.
by George Le Masurier | Sep 15, 2018
The final list of candidates for the Comox Valley’s five local governments. Election Day is Oct. 20. Cumberland has a public referendum on the ballot, and Courtenay has a non-binding opinion question for voters
Cumberland
Candidates for mayor: Incumbent Leslie Baird and Eduardo Uranga
Candidates for four (4) council positions: Incumbents Roger Kishi, Jessie Kelter, Sean Sullivan, Gwyn Sproule and new candidates Eric Krejci, Vicky Brown and Ian McLean
REFERENDUM: Are you in favour of “Wastewater Upgrade Project Loan Authorization Bylaw, No. 1084, 2018” to authorize the Village of Cumberland to borrow up to $4,400,000, including interest, over a period not exceeding 20 years in order to finance the construction of an upgraded lagoon wastewater treatment plant? YES or NO
FOR CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS AND OTHER ELECTION 2018 INFORMATION: Go to the Decafnation Elections 2018 page
Courtenay
Candidates for mayor: Incumbent Larry Jangula and new candidates Erik Eriksson, Bob Wells and Harold Long
Candidates for six (6) council positions: Incumbents David Frisch, Doug Hillian and Mano Theos, and new candidates Melanie McCollum, Will Cole-Hamilton, Deana Simpkin, Judi Murakami, Wendy Morin, Brennan Day, Kiyoshi Kosky, Tom Grant, Murray Presley, Starr Winchester, Penny Marlow, Jin Lin and Darwin Dzuba
OPINION QUESTION (non-binding): Are you in favour of conducting a study, in partnership with the Province of BC, to review the governance structures and policies of the City of Courtenay and other local governments within the Comox Valley to consider the feasibility and implications of restructure? YES or NO
Comox
Candidates for mayor: Tom Diamond and Russ Arnott
Candidates for six (6) council positions: Incumbents Ken Grant and Maureen Swift, and new candidates Nicole Minions, Don Davis, Chris Haslett, Alex Bissinger, Ronald Freeman, Stephanie McGowan and Patrick McKenna
Regional District Rural Areas
Area A — Daniel Arbour and Jim Elliott
Area B — Incumbent Rod Nichol and Arzeena Hamir
Area C — Incumbent Edwin Grieve and Jay Oddleifson
School District 71
Janice Caton — City of Courtenay
Kathleen Hawksby — City of Courtenay
Sarah Jane Howe — Village of Cumberland
Laurel Rankin — Village of Cumberland
Randi Baldwin — Town of Comox
Tonia Frawley — Town of Comox
Shelia McDonnell — Area A
James Derry — Area B
Michelle Waite — Area B
Ian Hargreaves — Area C
Terence Purden — Area C
by George Le Masurier | Sep 11, 2018
Harold Long says Courtenay has outgrown small town thinking, should plan for sea level rise, calls a subdivision at Stotan Falls a ‘bad idea’ and wants to densify the urban core to preserve downtown businesses. And he’s disappointed in incumbent Mayor Larry Jangula
Harold Long, a three-term Courtenay council member in the 1980s, will launch a return to city politics this week, this time in a run for the mayor’s chair.
Long, who was born and raised on 21st Street, was first elected to City Council in 1984. He ran for mayor in 1990, losing to Ron Webber by only 25 votes.
He’s stayed out of the political scene since then because he didn’t want “to be a heckler from the sidelines.”
But Long is jumping back in now because he is disappointed in the city’s lack of a long-term vision and particularly in the performance of incumbent Mayor Larry Jangula, who he believes has alienated the council and failed to bring them together.
“I think, in general, it’s time for the city to think outside of the box,” he told Decafnation. “We’ve outgrown small town thinking.”
Long spent most of his career as a plumber and pipefitter, working on many of the Comox Valley’s major infrastructure projects, such as the Brent Road sewage treatment plant, the sports centre, Driftwood mall and a renovation of St. Joseph’s General Hospital.
He’s probably best known recently as a land developer. His biggest project was the Valley View subdivision that essentially created East Courtenay.
Asked if voters might wonder if he has a conflict of interest, Long says he has no big projects planned and hasn’t done any developing in Courtenay for eight years. All the property he owns in the city is his house and five acres near Glacier View Lodge.
FURTHER READING: For more interviews with candidates and a full list of who’s running for councils, regional district and school board, go to our Elections 2018 page
And for someone who might get stereotyped as a conservative — Long is a fiscal conservative — he talks about many progressive ideas.
Long favors densification of the urban core, says the city should be planning for sea level rise and moving infrastructure inland, believes the Stotan Falls area is a bad place to put a subdivision, wants to upgrade sewage treatment facilities to produce effluent that can be reused and opposes dumping wastewater into any body of water.
He also believes Courtenay residents “won’t stand for more tax increases” and should look more closely at ways to reduce costs. At the same time, Long thinks the city hasn’t spent enough on maintaining its important infrastructure, such as the Fifth Street bridge.
On housing
Long worries that middle income families, as well as young people, have been priced out of Courtenay’s housing market.
“To get ahead, people have to own it (their property),” he says. “Equity is everything.”
So he supports smaller houses on small lots, removing obstacles that prevent developments targeting lower-priced houses and requiring new developments to have a mix of varying priced homes.
Long knows the city has lost several affordable housing projects because the bureaucratic tangle was overwhelming.
“If we don’t work on a long-term housing plan for both availability and affordability, I’m afraid of where we’re headed,” he said. “The next generation of seniors will be much poorer, their pensions eaten up by rent or mortgages.”
He supports allowing secondary suites, especially around the downtown core.
“The only way to preserve our downtown is to put people on the street,” he said. “Not just during the day, but 16 hours a day. Retail is a tough business and it’s more important than the development community.”
On the environment
Long recognizes that “a lot of environmentally sensitive people” live in Courtenay, and more are moving here because of its natural assets.
“This wasn’t an issue when I was a kid, but it’s vital now,” he said.
Long will lead council to do more planning for the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise.
“That’s (rising sea levels) a big issue with the sewer line along Dyke Road; it should be on land where we have the opportunity to clean up any potential spill,” he said. “It’s going to be expensive, but necessary.”
He thinks the region should also rethink wastewater outfalls considering the thousands of homes proposed for the Royston-Union Bay area and the sensitivity of Baynes Sound.
“Technology has improved to the level where we don’t necessarily need outfalls,” he said. “We need to start looking at that. We can treat wastewater so it’s reusable, even drinkable.”
On Stotan Falls
Long doesn’t hesitate to call the 3L Developments proposed 540 house subdivision on the Puntledge and Browns rivers a “bad idea.”
“It’s sitting on rock, and everything drains toward the river,” he said. “It could be built to protect the rivers, but what happens if it fails?”
While he says Riverwood would not address the Valley’s affordable housing issues, Long also believes the regional district should open up more settlement nodes.
“There’s no significant available land in Courtenay,” he said. “90 percent of the land available is in Crown Isle.”
He said it’s too expensive for a developer to consider a 10 to 15 acre subdivision. To make it worthwhile these days, Long says a developer needs a minimum of 100-200 acres.
On traffic
Long says council needs to think outside of the box on transportation. He doesn’t have a silver bullet, but says the city should consider ways to improve traffic flow while making long-term plans for things like another crossing.
He envisions a cloverleaf on the east side of the 17th Street bridge and making Fitzgerald Avenue a major route to move traffic off Cliffe Avenue.
On the Airpark
Long supports the Courtenay Airpark and the Kus-kus-sum projects, and dismisses suggestions that the land might be better used for housing. He says people don’t realize what’s under the Airpark property.
“There’s bits of concrete, a mixture of soils and general rubble down there that makes it totally unsuitable for development,” he said. “It’s partly fill from when we had to cover up the sewer lagoon, and it contains heavy metals.”
And what hasn’t been discussed is that the whole area is a First Nations midden, according to Long. In the late 1950s when the marina was being built, he remembers there were arrows and skulls and more turned up during the excavating.
“I don’t see this as developable land,” he said.
Economic development
Long would like to promote the city to the technology sector and attract remote workers who can enjoy a higher quality of life here than in larger cities. It’s a clean industry that comes with high paying jobs, he says.
On marijuana
Long regards the legalization of marijuana as a federal issue that City Council cannot change or impact. However, he would create a special, site specific zone for marijuana retailers.
“I think we need to pay close attention to public opinion as we move forward on this one,” he said.
Full disclosure: My youngest son and Harold Long’s son have been long-time friends, but this interview was the only time he and I have talked one-on-one.
by George Le Masurier | Sep 9, 2018
After a one-term absence, Starr Winchester is carrying on a long family tradition of public service in seeking another term on the Courtenay City Council
Former Courtenay Mayor Starr Winchester hopes to extend her 21 years of leadership by once again seeking a City Council position.
Winchester has already served two stints on council, the first one for 12 years and the second for three years before losing by just a few votes in the 2014 election. In between her City Council terms, she also served six years as mayor.
“I love local government,” Winchester says. “It’s in my blood; it’s all I’ve know since childhood.”
Winchester’s father, Bill Moore served several terms as mayor of Courtenay in the 1970s, and was the MLA for the North Island in the 1950s and 1960s.
Losing her seat in the 2014 election was a disappointment, but it turned out to be fortuitous. In the last four years, she’s beat breast cancer and mourned the loss of two close friends.
“It became a good time for me to reflect on what I really want to do with my life,” she said.
FURTHER READING: See who’s running for local government this year on our Elections 2018 page
This time around, Winchester is focused on traffic and taxation issues.
She feels the council mishandled the recent hiring of 16 new staff and reclassifying one employee, and she didn’t like to see the staff criticized in public over the issue. It’s the council that makes these decisions, she says.
“How did we get to the point where we needed to hire 17 people all at once,” she said.
The former mayor sees tax savings in combining selected services with Comox and the rural areas, such as planning departments, fire departments and public works.
“It can be done,” Winchester said, pointing to her efforts in the past to form the Regional Playing Field function at the regional district and in creating the Comox Valley Art Gallery.
She counts an improved status for provincial funding among the benefits of consolidating services.
Looking back on her terms as mayor, Winchester cites splitting the Comox and Strathcona Regional Districts into two separate jurisdictions as her “proudest moment” and greatest accomplishment.
“Finally, the Comox Valley could do its own planning,” she said.
On traffic issues, Winchester believes a third crossing of the Courtenay River is inevitable. But the cost will have to be shared regionally, especially with Comox.
In the meantime, she thinks a widening of the 17th Street bridge could relieve traffic congestion to tolerable levels.
She also thinks the city has too many traffic studies.
“We just need to get them all out, review them and make some decisions,” she said.
But she fully supports the Courtenay Airpark and the Kus-kus-sum project, indicating that 21st Street isn’t a good third crossing option because it threatened both.
Winchester thinks the city’s regulations on carriage houses and secondary suites should be relaxed, so people don’t have to apply for a variance to create them. She wants to increase density in the city’s core and make housing more available and affordable.
And to increase government transparency, she would like to see internet streaming of all regional board meetings, including the water and sewer commissions.
by George Le Masurier | Sep 3, 2018
Courtenay City Council candidate Brennan Day believes that with good planning, the Comox Valley can grow without without losing its charm or small town feel. He would improve infrastructure, housing affordability and promote greater City Council transparency and better communication
Brennan Day believes the silent majority is under-represented on the Courtenay City Council, but that’s not the only reason he’s running for office this year.
He wants to make housing more affordable, properly plan for population growth, ensure the city spends its money wisely, improve infrastructure and create more transparency in local government.
As a 25-year resident who was raised in the Comox Valley, Day understands the desire to maintain the small town characteristics that people love. He just doesn’t see that as mutually exclusive with what he regards as inevitable growth.
“We can’t pretend the Valley won’t continue to grow,” he said. “If we do, and bury our heads in the sand, we’ll get sprawl. But if we plan for growth, we can improve infrastructure so that the community still feels small.”
Day and his wife, a former Denman Island resident, and their one-year-old child moved back to the Valley in 2016, after spending the previous 10 years living and working in Kazakhstan. He worked as a manager for Arctic Group International, which specializes in services for Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry.
Day currently works for Hyland Precast in Cumberland.
FURTHER READING: Who is running for municipal office this year, go to our Elections 2018 page.
The Valley’s infrastructure lags behind neighboring communities like Campbell River, according to Day, because we’re not recognized as an urban center and split into smaller municipal populations.
“This should concern everyone, because we’re missing out on federal and provincial funding as a result,” he said. “We don’t get a proportional return on our taxes.”
Day isn’t promoting amalgamation, but he sees considerable savings in consolidating services such as fire departments and parks.
“I believe City Council has to be responsible with tax dollars,” he said. “We’re currently overspending for the services we get. Consolidating services could be a transitional step to lowering the tax burden.”
Describing himself as a moderate fiscal conservative, which he believes mirrors the majority of Courtenay residents, Day disagreed with the City Council’s recent decision to hire more employees, because the process was flawed.
“Their methodology was okay, acceptable,” he said. “But there was no attempt to look at spending accounts first.”
With a windfall surplus, he said City Council “seemed desperate to spend it rather than cut taxes.” Had council looked harder at expense accounts, Day says he might have approved the hirings.
The candidate points to the aging Fifth Street bridge as an example of the city’s failure to plan for infrastructure improvement.
“That bridge is about 30 years past its life cycle, and we’re going to have to replace it,” he said. “What are we going to do when it no longer passes safety inspections?”
Day believes a third crossing of the Courtenay River will eventually be needed, but says the city should work with the province to make improvements to the 17th Street bridge first.
While City Council has to consider all available options, he thinks a new bridge at 21st St. that would close the Courtenay Airpark should be the lowest priority.
And the city could avoid miscommunications with citizens like the Courtenay Airpark Association if the council was more transparent. He calls the council’s communication efforts “terrible.”
Day would advocate for more robust minutes that show how each council member voted in all decisions, not just those motions that fail.
“If elected, I would publicize a position piece on every vote I cast,” he said. “People should know why council members voted the way they did.”
And he would restrict in-camera sessions because they “don’t give the public confidence.”
Day would also support efforts to make housing more affordable in the city, including allowing carriage houses and suites without going through an amendment process, and other easy steps to densify the urban core.
“These things can get us to the goal quicker,” he said. “And they have a smaller impact than putting up high rise buildings.”
Day would also promote creating more industrial development land, which he says is in short supply.
“Industrial land is scattered around and about half of it is covered by mini-storage operations,” he said. “If it doesn’t exist, where are the new jobs going to go?”
