Candidates forum Q&A

At an all candidates meeting in West Kelowna earlier this week, about 150 residents heard from three mayoral candidates and 12 others running for council.

They all unanimously agreed that the district’s economic well-being hinges on the refurbishment of the areas infrastructure, and their ability to reel in younger demographics with desirable amenities and services.

Mayoral candidates Stephen Johnston and Mary Mandarino, along with incumbent Doug Findlater, spoke on a variety of issues including downtown development, business, and the possible need for an alternative power source in the wake of recent outages.

“What I want to do is upgrade our aging and non-existent infrastructure and I am very supportive of a vibrant Westbank town centre,” said Findlater. “I think the key to revitalizing downtown Westbank is putting businesses and residential areas down there.”

That sentiment was echoed by Johnston, who said if elected, there would be a lot more development in the downtown core.

“One of the things of the Westbank revitalization is that actually we need to beautify that strip. The improvements to Brown Road need to continue. The reason is we’re the gateway to Central Okanagan, but also to ourselves. I want to see mixed (use) buildings in there, retail on the main floors and residential above. Get people working, playing, and living more in West Kelowna.”

Meanwhile, Mandarino took a much more slower approach and said she would seek out more information before making decisions on many of the issues.

“Reliable power is important if we want to attract business, if we want to service the business and the residents we already have. It’s a very intriguing question,” she said.

“I would like to research a lot more. I have a Facebook page, I invite to go to my Facebook page, and I will tell you in detail how I have researched this particular topic. There’s going to be a cost involved, as we all know. Hydro has already said between $50 to $100 million. We will pay for it because rates will increase. We won’t get it for free so that’s something we have to take into account.”

The host of the forum then circled the panel, asking questions to councilors in groups of three.

In terms of annual property tax increases for West Kelowna, David Knowles, Rusty Ensign and Rick de Jong do not envision anything greater than the three per cent suggested.

“The outlook for the next five to ten years is to maintain a maximum of three per cent tax increase,” says de Jong. “That’s the top-end benchmark, but I think council needs to work hard on your behalf to get it below three per cent as much as possible.”

“To the first council’s credit, they had a five per cent increase which allowed them to go up that much higher and farther off at three per cent. If it would have been a three per cent increase in the beginning, we would have less reserve funds, said Rusty Ensign. “We need to keep that three percent increase to be fiscally responsible, in order to have the services that the people need. And quite frankly, we’re not going to get all of them because we need to exercise fiscal prudence also.”

“Well, I would strive to make it two percent,” said Knowles. “I don’t see any reason why we could not keep it down to two percent. It needs to be two percent. We are an emerging municipality, not that we can call it new anymore, but we are still paying for infrastructure improvements.”

The questioning then changed as councilors were asked to provide insight into some of the district’s greatest challenges, and Duane Ophus, Tanya Lister, and Gary Stabb offered their opinions.

“I have asked a number of businesses why they have left and they said the taxes are too high, the rents are too high,” said Lister.

“Why are the rents too high? Because [shops] are empty. Landowners need to recoup some of their money, so we need to make it more feasible for them to do business downtown and in all of West Kelowna by revitalizing downtown.”

“The biggest challenge of course, is the continued demand for infrastructure upgrades: major water system upgrades, continuous roads and sidewalks, and sewers, and so on,” noted Ophus. “These things all cost money. There’s a serious demand for recreational services, lighted sports fields, and so on. And what we need to do to address those issues is continue to attract good investment to West Kelowna, increase our tax base to help us pay for all the things that we need.”

Stabb believed the biggest challenge to West Kelowna is the lack of a collective heart or a downtown that residents can be proud of.

“The biggest challenge is the highway going through it, the provincial highway. We have now Christy Clark in our backyard. I think she is being underutilized; we’re going to have her here for a very short time. We have a chance to do something with the provincial highway. Slow things down, two way traffic on Main Street, double up.”

The focus then moved to the question of residential developments in the downtown core, and what council hopefuls Jerome Chung, John Peter Christoff, and Joanne Baker would do if given the chance.

“The residential developments in West Kelowna have been sufficient,” said Chung.

“But if you look at 2010, we have paid $355,000 for an economic development report and we know our weaknesses and strengths. So where do we stand? Are we going to pay 85 per cent of our taxes to maintain infrastructure there or are we going to introduce more investors to carry some of that burden?”

“I’d like to see something affordable,” posed Christoff.

“In Germany, municipal councils have banned the building of single family homes within the municipality. They only allow multi-family units or apartments. They embraced this drastic measure to bring civic policy to the people. They can provide affordable homes. We have a problem with affordability.”

“What I very much like is the development occurring at the Westbank centre, the Urban Gateway Village has been an excellent addition,” says Baker.  “It’s utilizing vacant land. I like to see projects that incorporate youth; we need to have that downtown.”

An issue close to last night’s predominantly silver-haired audience was whether West Kelowna is doing enough in terms of elderly health care issues.

Candidate Bryden Winsby said that a hospital facility is out of the question, but that consolidating services within a complex is the best option.

“We can’t have a full service hospital here, that’s not going to happen, but we need better and more services in a central location where it’s accessible and people know about it,” he said.

Carol Zanon pointed out her concerns on several issues concerning health care.

“First is that people wanted to have a health centre last time around and we did a study and found out that people really need the service available only in Kelowna. The services exist, but they’re not here. What we need over here is some accommodation treatment of chronic conditions and addictions, in particular.”

Mike Trenn claims that he knows what is needed.

“In the last seven years, we’ve had meetings after meeting over this subject, and the issue is that we know very well what needs to be done. The support for senior in terms of that area is becoming more problematic and more serious and some of the services can be improved just by using some of the newer technology.”

Once the formal portion of the debate had concluded, audience members were able to submit written inquiries for the candidates. They were asked to point out Council’s best and worst decisions in the last four years and the relationship council has with the Westbank First Nation.

-- With files from Sasha Lakic