Boundary expansion took a back seat to recreation and issues surrounding Area C at an all-candidates’ meeting in Pemberton on Friday night — despite what candidates expected.
Candidates for mayor, council and school board gathered at the Pemberton Community Centre to hash out the various issues being faced by residents of both the village and Area C, which falls within the purview of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. The event was hosted by the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Dr. Hugh Fisher.
Candidates for the mayor’s post are incumbent Jordan Sturdy and current councillor David MacKenzie. Sturdy, a resident of Area C himself, said in his opening remarks that the boundary expansion is phase one of a greater expansion that he expects to take place at a later date.
“Simply spoken, it’s $180,000 in revenue and the province pays the bill,” he said. “There’s no cost to the regional district and I hope they all think about supporting this referendum on election day.”
However, a number of affected properties will see their taxes go up if incorporated into the village. Emerald Adventure Tours, for example, will see its annual taxes go up 64 per cent, according to a report from Stantec, a planning firm that’s overseeing the expansion.
Phase two, Sturdy said, is a governance restructure to resolve a “jurisdictional nightmare.”
“We’ve got the Village of Pemberton, regional district, Lil’wat Nation, school district 48, dyking district, ALC, Ministry of Transportation, it goes on,” he said. “It’s a miracle we get anything done.”
MacKenzie, a village resident since 2004, also stood by boundary expansion as “phase one” of a greater expansion into Area C that he expects to take place in the future.
“Extending the boundaries will bring in much-needed revenue to help grow the tax base of this tax-poor community,” he said. “This proposed extension will help facilitate the growth of amenities in the village. Our longer term goal would be to create a single governance model in the valley.”
The mayoral candidates’ stances on boundary expansion, however, did not provoke any questions from the audience. At one point Sturdy was asked why the Village of Pemberton provides water to areas in the SLRD, and why the SLRD “subsidizes” people who are getting village water.
Sturdy responded by drawing attention to issues surrounding fire service, saying that at one point the VOP said it would not respond to areas in the SLRD because for a while those areas were not paying for service.
Water, he said, is a different situation, and unlike the fire service, “We can’t shut the water off.”
“We’ve determined a certain rate, the regional district has said no, that isn’t acceptable,” he said. “They feel that it should be apportioned differently, we have our methodology.”
There are six candidates seeking four remaining council spots. Ted Craddock, who’s lived in Pemberton for four years, touted his experience as a councillor in Squamish and Fort Nelson. He wants Pemberton to have a “plan for the future,” which he hopes to realize by taking a closer look at the community’s Official Community Plan.
He also wants to see employee and seniors’ housing as components in every future housing development.
Cam McIvor, meanwhile, is also seeking a spot on council. He’s a staunch proponent of the GEMS private school initiative and head of Ravens Crest Developments, which seeks to develop a neighbourhood in Pemberton’s Hillside area.
He wants to deliver recreational amenities such as a pool, arena, water park and skateboard park to Pemberton, and at the meeting he touted his experience as a businessman.
Susie Gimse, who is also the SLRD director for Area C, said she wants to bring both the village and Area C together by serving on council and the regional board.
“We need to get to a place where we are truly serving the community as one jurisdiction, not two,” she said. “Now, more than anything, our community must develop a single mission, a single strategic direction.”
An audience member asked whether she will have enough time to serve on both the SLRD and the village council. She responded that both positions would take a “considerable amount of time” but that she didn’t have any other job.
“I don’t have a job,” she said. “Most of the people currently on council and most of the people sitting up here have jobs. I’m unemployed.”
Council candidate Peter Pocklington, also a supporter of boundary expansion and a Pemberton resident for 15 years, said he wants to offer “executive decisions and solid leadership.”
Alan Leblanc, also a candidate for council, ran to be director of Area C in 2005 but lost to Gimse. In his opening remarks he railed against “broken political promises” such as an ice arena, swimming pool and bike park, all of them recreational projects that have long been demanded in Pemberton.
As a councillor he wants to see Pemberton nurture business development, saying that Pemberton’s business community needs “less red tape and bureaucracy.”
One audience member directed a question to LeBlanc and Pocklington about Olympic LiveSites, venues that allow communities to watch the Olympics and engage in physical activity.
In May 2007, it was announced that the Village of Pemberton had received $328,369 for a LiveSite project that would include a youth centre and new audio/visual equipment in the old Pemberton Community Centre.
That youth centre, however, has yet to be built, and LeBlanc and Pocklington were asked what they expect to do in order to make a LiveSite happen in Pemberton.
Pocklington said it was the past council’s fault that a LiveSite hasn’t been built in Pemberton and said he would look into it if he were on council.
LeBlanc, meanwhile, said the Village of Pemberton ought to look at the facilities it already has to see how it can celebrate the Olympics.
“Let’s really look at what we have here in Pemberton that we can use,” he said.
Neither candidate noted that a LiveSite is currently being built in Mount Currie at the site of its new community centre, approximately four to five kilometres up the road from the village.
School board candidates Dave Walden and John Burleson also spoke at the meeting. Walden touted his experience as chair of the school board and said students throughout the Howe Sound School District have improved opportunities now.
He highlighted the opening of the StrongStart early learning centre at Signal Hill Elementary School as one of the high points of his term. He also noted that three of four school administrators in Pemberton were hired during his term.
Challenger John Burleson said parents need to “demand the best” from those responsible for their children’s education, and that children are the “best natural resource we have.”
