First it was Roberts Creek, then it was West Howe Sound, and as of Sunday, Pender Harbour and Egmont will be guaranteed a new Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director after Frank Mauro announced he won’t be running in the upcoming local government elections.
“It has been a rewarding seven years and I think that we have made a personal decision in my house that I’m not,” Mauro said after being asked by an audience member at the May 6 Pender Harbour Advisory Council meeting whether he would run again. “I retired in 2006, I’m just not very successful at it. I’m looking for a bit more success in that regard.”
Mauro told Coast Reporter it wasn’t just the time, but the intensity and schedule demands of the job that informed his decision.
Mauro will be leaving behind a number of ongoing challenges within his electoral area, including one he had originally campaigned on: establishing public transit in Pender Harbour. Prior to Mauro’s time in office, the province had considered providing funds for transit in Area A, but during trials there wasn’t sufficient ridership to meet BC Transit’s threshold. Instead, a Paratransit option was pursued, but because of a provincial moratorium on transit spending, it didn’t get past the trial phase.
“If you’re pushing against trying to get ridership to meet BC Transit’s modelling, and you’re not going to ever achieve it, you don’t want to be spinning your wheels,” said Mauro of the challenge.
Another issue Mauro faced in office is the protracted problem of derelict vessels, something he shares with outgoing vice chair and West Howe Sound director Ian Winn. In February he and Winn provided feedback on Bill C-64 at a parliamentary committee and Mauro has worked with local MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones to secure grants for assessing vessels. “It’s nice to be one of the ones that helped move this along,” Mauro said. He said he plans to continue working on the issue at the community level.
One of his goals before stepping down is to improve the Coast’s water security, which he said includes moving forward with the Chapman Lake drawdown for emergency purposes, something he has consistently voted in favour of. “I’ve said it in meetings that water systems need to be overbuilt.” He is also in favour of building a reservoir, despite what he expects will be a lengthy and expensive project. “I don’t think people recognize the order of magnitude of storage that’s required. It’s a lake two-thirds the size of Chapman Lake, and I’m not sure why we’re arguing about one per cent of Tetrahedron Park being declassified.”
Mauro was first elected to the board in November 2011 and has served two terms. He served as vice chair from 2013 to 2017. In 2017 he was nominated for board chair but lost to Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne. He has also served as chair of the corporate and administrative services committee, the planning and community development committee and Regional Hospital District Board. During his tenure, he oversaw the completion of the Sechelt Hospital Expansion Project.
As chair of the corporate and administrative services committee, Mauro said a key accomplishment was streamlining the budget process, including reducing the number of days required to pass the budget.
As for the number of directors choosing not to seek re-election, Mauro said, “I’m not sure such a large change is all that great, but … there comes a time when you do need to move on.”
