Housing was the recurrent theme as development, climate change, water security, economic vitality and other concerns orbited the gargantuan issue at the Gibsons Chamber of Commerce all-candidates meeting Sept. 21.
More than 50 people attended the two-hour evening event – the candidates' first all-candidates meeting this election cycle – at the Gibsons Legion. The event was also live-streamed.
Of the 13 Gibsons candidates, two were absent – Christi Thompson because of ferry delays and Greig Soohen as he was on vacation.
After two-minute introductions, moderator Keith Van Brabant covered the gamut of issues in four categories: housing, economic vitality, infrastructure and cultural and social issues.
Each question was pre-assigned and just asked of one candidate, though the candidates all had two chances to elect to have a question asked of them as well.
Housing & STRs
When asked how he’d advocate for affordable housing, mayoral candidate Leslie Thomson said that Gibsons isn’t in as bad a situation as the rest of the Coast. “Yes, within the next two to three years, we have an emergency. So before we get to that stage, let's try and work with it.” To address affordability, Thomson said he’d like to relax the short-term rental regulations recently put into place. “It brings bread and butter to [the operator’s] table to help them pay taxes and everything else. Let's relook at that.” Thomson said he’d also like to see the Town lease its property for housing assets but that he’s against selling land to a developer. Later in the evening, when discussing reasonable rent and housing prices, Thomson said he’d like to see incentives from local banks to make housing purchases possible for young people.
Discussing how he’d advocate for affordable housing, mayoral candidate Silas White said he’d like to “turn the tide” on Gibsons becoming another West Vancouver. He said that current processes are stacked against multifamily housing, making it cumbersome and expensive to build, whereas high-end houses are much easier to get built. “Trying to rezone for more affordable housing within the OCP is made so difficult that most developers in town studiously avoid it,” he said. White pointed to updating the Official Community Plan, Zoning Bylaw and other processes. On the recently passed Gibsons residential guest accommodation (also known as short term rentals) regulations, which set a course to phase out unhosted STRs in the next two to five years using temporary use permits to regulate in the meantime, White said that he supports legalization and regulation of STRs but that the regulation should’ve been started earlier and more incrementally. He said he supports the immediate restriction of unhosted STRs but doesn’t think it feasible in the timeline set out. He sees room for review and a more balanced approach.
Also on the affordable housing advocacy question, councillor candidate and incumbent Annemarie De Andrade said that the current council had approved a housing strategy and that the crucial first step, even before an OCP update, is a land strategy. “We need to support density in the right place. But more than that, support the density that can support water security,” she said, adding that she fears with the current density, Gibsons may have already passed the 10,000 population limit that the aquifer can support.
For councillor candidate Desmond Delaney, Gibsons has an affordability problem not a housing problem. “We don't want to confuse affordability with building new housing units,” he said. “Building new housing units right now, when construction costs have never been more expensive in the history of this planet as of today, and they decide that by building these new expensive units we’ll solve affordability. I'm sorry – the math doesn't work. It's a money issue. It's an income issue. Pay people more money, and they can afford it.” Delaney also came down hard against the recently passed Gibsons STR regulations, decrying the sudden loss of income for those who operate rentals and the effects for those looking for short-term accommodation, such as construction workers.
Asked what he thinks a reasonable rent in Gibsons is, councillor candidate Bob Morris had to say: “The kinds of rents that are being charged on the Sunshine Coast right now, quite frankly, are horrendous, but so are the rents everywhere else,” he said. “I think there's a tendency for people to try and pocket as much money as they possibly can when we're renting properties. And there's not much you can do about that.”
When asked what he’d done for the economic vitality of Gibsons over his term, councillor candidate and incumbent David Croal doubled down on housing. “We're dealing with a row of dominoes. And the first one we have to deal with is housing,” he said. “We've dealt with some of our most vulnerable with a supportive housing, which has helped immensely. I've personally been working with a couple of property owners in this community to redevelop their properties to provide housing for workforce caregivers, first responders.”
Other topics
Answering a question about building sustainably with climate change in mind, councillor candidate Blake MacLeod drew on experiences in construction, and pointed to the effects of implementing the BC Energy Step Code. “We're about to enter into phase three and at each stage, it sends a shiver through the industry,” he said. “When you put restrictions on industry, which I agree have to be done, it puts the costs up and it takes a while for the industry and the economy to adapt to that. So what can be done…well, we're doing it, we're doing it gradually. Adaptations is cultural and societal as well.” MacLeod also pointed to a number of things he’s personally doing in his downtown Gibsons building. “There's so many things that a property owner can do to help solve the problem. It's not all up to council, and we need to hear from you on what council can do.”
When asked if he supports a new highway route or bypass, mayoral candidate Phil Yeung said that development must go on gradually – stage by stage – and therefore a bypass is needed. “However, we have to be very careful to choose the route, the path and then make sure that our pleasant living environment is unchecked with our own planning to stay with the same kind of living standard as before,” he said.
The subject of the bypass elicited a passionate response from councillor candidate and incumbent Stafford Lumley: “This subject makes my blood boil but only because my experience on council with [Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure], it hasn't been a good one,” he said. “For the safety of our citizens, the schools, everybody else, there should be a bypass.”
“This council has to take an initiative of advocacy with the Ministry of Transportation to get the job done. They did come to the Coast. They had all these elaborate plans, and they're useless. They're not going to happen.”
On water
The topic of long-term water supply drew Lumley and White into agreement: “The town in its wisdom has done as much as it can regarding its natural asset policy,” said Lumley. “And obviously, we lead the way in metering water, which immediately saved the town over 54% of its water use.” He added advocating for the protection of the aquifer recharge area on Mount Elphinstone as a next step.
Delaney voiced concern about Gibsons running out of water and a need to apply for provincial government licensing to withdraw more. “We must know how much water we can take out of that before we continue this headlong density process.”
White said that Gibsons can only apply to withdraw water for its current population – not its future population. “So when the time comes that we will actually have more population, we’ll apply for a renewal of the license. And I'm 100 per cent confident we'll get it because our stewardship in this province is second to none.”
Gibsons candidates have two more all candidates meetings scheduled: On Sept. 29, Cover the Coast is hosting an all candidates meeting focusing on housing and homelessness at Gibsons Public Market 6 to 8 p.m. And on Oct. 4, Gibsons Seniors Society will host an in-person all-candidates meeting at Harmony Hall. 4 to 6 p.m. Limited to 100 in person. Both will be livestreamed.
Coast Reporter will publish more information on candidates in the coming weeks. Find all of Coast Reporter’s election coverage at www.coastreporter.net/2022-civic-election.
A full list of questions asked of candidates
Here's what all was asked of candidates. See the video embedded below to hear their answers.
Q: In what ways will you advocate for affordable housing in our community?
Answered by: Leslie Thomson, Silas White, Annemarie De Andrade, Desmond Delaney
Q: If elected, what will you do, if anything, to the recently passed residential guest accommodations bylaw?
Answered by: Silas White
Q: What do you think is a rent that’s reasonable in Gibsons and what is a reasonable house price in our community?
Answered by: Bob Morris, Leslie Thomson, David Croal
Q: What is the municipality’s role when dealing with houselessness and people living rough?
Answered by: Annemarie De Andrade
Q: Do you support buying local at every opportunity?
Answered by: Phil Yeung
Q: How do you balance the needs of tourism and the future of this community?
Answered by: Blake MacLeod
Q: Will the Gibsons and District Chamber of Commerce get representation from the Town of Gibsons in their meetings as SCRD provides?
Answered by: Annemarie De Andrade
Q: What have you done for increasing economic vitality of the town of Gibsons?
Answered by: David Croal
Q: Does Gibsons need more larger places of employment to take some of the dependence on tourism away?
Answered by: Desmond Delaney
Q: Climate change is a problem we will be dealing with more and more what can be done in regards to building sustainably with climate change in mind.
Answered by: Leslie Thomson, Blake MacLeod
Q: Are you in support of a new route or a bypass for the Sunshine Coast?
Answered by: Phil Yeung, Stafford Lumley
Q: Gibsons is on the precipice of needing a separate RCMP force at a large price tag. How would Gibsons fund this when we reach this point?
Answered by: David Croal
Q: Gibsons has remained lucky and consideration to the rest of the Coast on the water topic. What are long-term solutions for making sure Gibsons residents [retain] water?
Answered by: Stafford Lumley, Desmond Delaney, Silas White
Q: What does reconciliation mean to you?
Answered by: Silas White, Leslie Thomson
Q: How do you plan to involve young and lower income residents in the decision making process of Gibsons?
Answered by: Desmond Delaney
Q: Would you support establishment of safe and ethical therapeutic mushroom dispensaries, as other communities have done?
Answered by: Stafford Lumley, Bob Morris
Q: Is the health and wellbeing of a community the responsible the responsibility of the federal, provincial or municipalities? Or is it the nonprofit sector?
Answered by: Bob Morris
Q: Do you support the expansion of supportive housing? And if yes, how would that look in Gibsons?
Answered by: Blake MacLeod
