Promising to fix the “blue bridge boondoggle” and “solve the sewage treatment standoff,” former Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong officially announced her candidacy for Victoria’s mayoralty on Thursday.
“Victoria needs strong, proven, experienced leadership. I have served this region for the past 20 years, and I tell you I care passionately about Victoria and its future,” Chong told the crowd packed onto the harbour-front patio at the Steamship Bar and Grill.
A Saanich resident, Chong addressed head-on the fact she doesn’t live in the city she hopes to lead. She started her speech trying to establish her Victoria bona fides by offering anecdotes about being raised in Victoria, growing up in a house that is now the site of Blanshard Court, walking downtown with her mother and swimming in the original Crystal Pool.
“Where you live is not an automatic qualifier to be the mayor of Victoria — something that I know my opponents would like to use,” she said.
Chong later told media she has no plans to move to Victoria if elected and said she doesn’t need to receive city services to know whether they are working properly.
“You can always hear from citizens about what works and what doesn’t work. That’s part of the accessibility that I will offer,” she said.
There is no requirement for candidates to live or own a business or property in the municipality where they are running.
Chong also promised to freeze the city’s tax rate — which is not exactly the same as freezing taxes. The current residential tax rate is 4.4691 per $1,000 of assessed value. So, for example, if the tax rate is frozen and the assessed value of a property goes up five per cent, the taxes would go up five per cent.
Coun. Lisa Helps, who is also running for mayor, said Chong’s platform appears long on pledges and short on plans.
“I would like to see the plan that goes along with that [tax] pledge. Plain and simple, if we’re not going to have increased revenue in excess of the increase in assessed value of the properties, what is the plan?” Helps said.
Mayor Dean Fortin called Chong’s tax proposal confusing. A freeze in the tax rate could have the effect of residents paying more taxes than the city needs to balance its books, he said.
“If she’s talking about tax rates, then I’m not quite sure what’s she’s promising — and to a certain extent, I’m somewhat surprised that a former minister of municipal affairs doesn’t quite understand how municipal taxes work,” Fortin said.
A freeze on property taxes, on the other hand, would be an “extreme” measure that would translate into a $20-million cut to services, he said.
“In her time at the provincial cabinet table, she’s forgotten that municipalities can’t run deficits,” Fortin said. “So she needs to be clear where she’s going to cut the $20 million in services — services our residents rely on.”
Chong, a certified general accountant, promised to invest in critical infrastructure. She said the city’s problem-plagued $92.8-million Johnson Street Bridge replacement project needs “executive oversight” and promised to implement all of the recommendations made by consulting engineer and interim project manager Jonathan Huggett.
“I find it shocking that the priciest infrastructure project in the history of this city proceeded with no one in charge,” she said. “Not good enough. Not good enough for the taxpayers.”
Helps noted that Huggett’s recommendations for the project are already being implemented.
Chong said her 20 years of experience have given her the leadership tools to solve the Capital Regional District’s sewage treatment stalemate.
“It means using my experience to collaborate — to reach out to regional, provincial and federal partners. That’s what’s important to this area,” she said.
The election is Nov. 15.
