Last night the Port Coquitlam All Candidates Meeting hosted by the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce was held at the Terry Fox Theatre in front of 300 people. All three Mayor Candidates and twenty of the twenty-three City Council Candidates were present.
The format for the City Councillor portion of the meeting was a one minute opening statement; one minute response to three questions and then a one minute closing statement.  This meant each Candidate spoke for a total of five minutes over the course of 2 hours. This was a difficult format in which to really present one’s platform and solutions – but from the applause and comments I received, looks like I did well.
Here are the three questions asked and my answers as I recall:
Should we develop the industrial lands near our waterways?
In Port Coquitlam, we are running out of land and will soon only be able to build upwards. The industrial lands by the water offer an opportunity for us to create revenue generating industry for our City which will give us the money needed to tackle social issues such as homelessness, heritage, etc. The New Westminister Quay – or something similar – could be the model for this plan. We will of course have to balance the needs of industry with the protection of the environment. This means we need to be cautious – but not afraid to move forward.
What would you do to tackle the homelessness problem?
Other candidates talk about getting the Provincial and Federal governments to do “something”. While I support lobbying senior governments to get involved – specifically opening up the Riverview Lands – we are running for City Council and need to do what we can do locally. This means relaxing zoning for basement suites, lane and “backyard” houses and for temporary shelters. We cannot tackle the problem by ourselves – we need to work as a Tri-Cities Region and within the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) using Toronto’s “Streets to Homes” as the model. One thing I will NOT do is vote to spend another $150,000 on gates to lock out the homeless from what little shelter they can find.
What should we do to protect Heritage in Port Coquitlam?
We need to create a Heritage Plan so we have a blueprint as to what and how we will protect heritage buildings in PoCo. In terms of financing, I am the only candidate with a financial plan to make this happen. Namely, I would create a Heritage Fund financed by developers – either through a levy of 20 cents per new square foot being built or assigning a portion of the Parkland Acquisition Fund (which the developers pay into) for Heritage. It is a shame we do not have a museum for the Greatest Canadian and Port Coquitlam’s own, Terry Fox. Preserving Terry’s legacy in our City via heritage preservation and a museum would generate tourist dollars and restore pride to Port Coquitlam.
If you were at the All Candidates Meeting – what are your thoughts on the event? If you did not attend – why not – and what do you think of my comments above?
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