In a bid to get local issues back on the political map during the provincial election, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce has asked all local candidates to weigh in on where they stand on a slate of chamber priorities.
From B.C. Ferries to amalgamation, the chamber has sent out a questionnaire asking candidates in each of the region’s seven ridings to indicate — by writing either yes or no — if they support 28 recommendations, including 11 specific infrastructure projects, in eight different categories.
“One of the reasons we did this is there’s lots of discussion out there about a number of things provincially, but we’re not seeing a lot of discussion around the things I think are important to us locally,” said chamber chief executive Bruce Carter.
The questionnaires were sent off Monday and the results will be posted on the chamber’s website as they are received.
Carter said the issues the chamber is asking about were identified by the organization’s membership with recommendations resulting from surveys, board planning and research.
The chamber has already identified B.C. Ferries, natural gas development, regional transportation, a national marine conservation area, value-for-money for infrastructure projects, infrastructure priorities, police amalgamation and municipal amalgamation as the main local issues for this election.
The questionnaire asks, for example, if candidates support the creation of a regional transportation authority for Greater Victoria. It also asks if candidates support broadening Ferries’ mandate to include “connecting communities” or adding a guiding principle of maintaining “affordable rates to protect the interests of ratepayers, users and communities.”
It asks about the “fractured policing structure,” wondering if candidates support establishing provincial standards for the integrated delivery of police services where municipal boundaries are immediately adjacent and legislating the amalgamation of police services in areas where established standards are not being met.
It also asks about municipal amalgamation, as the chamber believes “the local governance framework has not adapted to the changing nature of the local community and may require provincial leadership to change.”
Candidates are being asked if they would support the chamber’s recommendation that the “Community Charter be amended to include a third option for instigating municipal amalgamation — that being amalgamation by order of the province.”
Carter said if he had to prioritize the issues, amalgamation would top the list.
“I think [the one priority] would be efficient regional governance,” he said. “When we talk about it, we’re not talking about the challenges amalgamation has — amalgamation is a solution.
“The opportunity is if we had a co-ordinated regional leadership and vision, we wouldn’t end up in the debacle over sewage treatment we are in now; that we can appeal to higher levels of government with a united and singular voice and can rally around an issue,” Carter said.
When asked if amalgamation wasn’t a more suitable topic during a municipal election, Carter suggested the municipal bed is made at a higher level. “Municipal government is a creature of the provincial government and there has never been an amalgamation of a municipality in North America that wasn’t ordered by a higher level of government,” he said.
The chamber’s economic agenda and the responses from local candidates are at www.victoriachamber.ca
