This article has been amended since first posting.
There should not be a casino in the City of North Vancouver.
That was the one point of unanimity Monday evening during a two-hour Centennial Theatre debate that saw the city’s six mayoralty candidates talk pot shops and trade pot shots.
“We have a $10-billion industry just waiting to explode and be a part of the community,” environmental researcher Michael Willcock told the crowd, referring to the legalization of marijuana.
While council voted to allow a maximum of six pot shops in the city following legalization, Willcock bashed council for a previous decision to take the pot shop proprietors to court. “Just think about the overtime these people are running on. Lawyers aren’t cheap; especially the city ones,” he said.
After prefacing his comments by saying: “I hope you don’t get the impression that I’m a pothead,” Coun. Rod Clark noted he was the only councillor to vote against the city’s decision to pursue legal action against the pot shops.
Conversely, Kerry Morris called for a city-wide ban on cigarette and marijuana smoking. “Your grandchildren or your children, or your grandmother or father, are going to potentially get stoned just walking down Lonsdale,” he said.
Morris also criticized the city’s financial stewardship, suggesting the city’s $140-million reserve fund had been whittled down to about $60 million. The city currently lists $92 million in its reserve fund. The city's 2005 audited financial statement reported a $75-million reserve fund.
It’s imprudent for a city to keep that much in the bank, according to banker and former councillor Guy Heywood.
“There is no virtue in having your government keep $100 million of your money in their bank account. It means they haven’t figured out something good to do with it,” Heywood said.
If elected, Linda Buchanan said she would push for a new North Shore Neighbourhood House, and in a bid to aid walkability, a Loutet-Casano pedestrian/cycling overpass, which would: “make sure that the upper part of our city that’s transected by the highway is connected to our other greenways, the Green Necklace and the Spirit Trail.”
Density is unavoidable, according to former independent federal candidate Payam Azad, who said he would use volunteer labour to build public housing paid for by developers. Azad repeatedly reminded the crowd that if he were elected, 35 per cent of everything built in North Vancouver would become city property.
Azad also supported a third crossing, an idea rejected in the recent Integrated North Shore Transportation Planning Project report.
With the debate being hosted by the Courthouse Area Residents’ Association, the new Harry Jerome rec centre project was a frequent source of discussion, with Clark defending the project’s financials.
Morris blasted the cost of the $237-million rec centre project as an “unnecessary expenditure,” and incorrectly stated the project involved 32- and 28-storey towers. The neighbouring 802-unit development includes a 30-storey and a 26-storey tower, in addition to three six-storey buildings and one five-storey building.
"I would stop it in its tracks and I would change it," Morris said.
Heywood, Buchanan and Willcock all advocated for a more modest rec centre.
“When I hear some of my opponents say we need affordable housing and no more market condos, then I question why they have approved the biggest density, the biggest project, right next door,” Buchanan said.
Speaking as a banker, Heywood advocated using debt. “It’s a way to split the cost of an asset between the current generation and future generations.”
Those arguments amount to “a pile of hooey,” Clark responded, explaining the leased land will eventually come back to the city and become a cash cow. “Just because you are an accountant, doesn’t mean you understand numbers.”
The city has the wrong philosophy on development, according to Morris. “We are in this place where we think that we have to make a place for the rest of the world at our own expense. And then we can’t afford to live here,” Morris said. “We are well ahead of our population targets on the OCP.”
The OCP anticipates the city’s population will reach 56,000 by 2021. As of the 2016 census, the city’s population was 52,898.
“I’m comfortable with where we are and the density that we’ve put in,” Buchanan said.
The city’s traffic “sucks,” in part because there are: “four times more volume of people coming onto the North Shore in the morning, whose jobs are here but they can’t afford to live here,” Buchanan said.
The number of commuters heading to the North Shore rose by nine per cent, or approximately 1,880 people, between the 2011 and 2016 censuses.
While he didn’t support amalgamation, Heywood stressed the need to put city and district planners in one room. “It makes sense that we don’t try and push and social engineer people out of their cars until we give them a transit alternative,” he said.
Noting he was possibly the only person on the stage who didn’t own a house, Willcock called for every new city development to be rental.
“Step 1: no more condos for a very long time because it’s killing our community.”
Morris criticized the city’s policy to offer 10 per cent rental discounts on 10 per cent of the units in new developments, suggesting average prices are too high to help those in need.
Clark defended the policy, noting the discount knocked 10 per cent of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. rates in perpetuity. “Over time, we will build up a pool of affordable rentals for our seniors, for those on lower incomes, for those who work at jobs that just don’t pay a whole lot of money.”
While some three-storey walk-ups are coming to the end of their life, residents will likely not be displaced, Buchanan said. “I don’t believe it’s in our best interests as a community to fearmonger,” she said. “We have one of the strongest tenant relocation policies in Metro Vancouver,” she said.
Editor's note: This article has been amended to clarify that City of North Vancouver mayoral candidate Kerry Morris advocated a more modest rebuild of the Harry Jerome rec centre than the $237-million project previously approved by city council, and did not oppose the rebuild itself, as his comment in the original article may have implied. It also includes city financial information that was unavailable at press time.The city has confirmed it currently lists $92 million in its reserve fund. However, it has $23.4 million loaned out to the Lonsdale Energy Corp. Because of its relationship with LEC (the utility is wholly owned by the city), the city does not account for this in its reserve fund total, but it is the figure Morris factored in when elaborating on the state of the city’s reserves at Monday’s all-candidates meeting.
