Barry Hobbis for City Council
Victoria BC

Thanks to Roszan Holmen for her article in Vic News on council’s self evaluation. 18 months ago they entered office with an agenda to deal with homeless, street problems and affordable housing. Certainly there have been positive steps…

City council has taken an unprecedented initiative in affordable and supported housing for people of low means and those without a home. All that leg work hasn’t been felt by residents yet because few units are ready for occupancy — but that’s soon to change.

and also problems…

There have been other hard lessons learned through the courts.

In December, Victoria lost its appeal to ban tents in city parks.

Rogers’ Chocolates and Abstract Developments both won cases against the city, giving them the right to compensation for heritage designation, and the right to build overtop a rental apartment, respectively.

These cases of property rights caught the attention of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

“Each of these occurrences cost the taxpayer money, and each could have been avoided,” said Bruce Carter, CEO of the Chamber.

Victoria BC

What has overshadowed the accomplishments are the Johnson Street Bridge process, which is still unfolding, community engagement, and government transparency. There is a review on the role of community advisory committees – sometimes called panels, and a first step would be to ensure they are open to the public, that complete minutes are available and – if their terms of reference state seeking public input – a mechanism is put into place for meetings.

2. Excluding housing issues, (i) what has this council done well and (ii) where has it missed the mark? Please list one example each.

Chris Coleman: (i) Council has made some good advances in developing a department of sustainability (and used its introduction to increase the multidisciplinary work at City Hall). (ii) Council has missed the mark with its tax policy. I believe tax lifts generally, and the business ratio specifically, are too high.

Geoff Young: (i) We have continued to expand facilities for bicycling in the form of bike lanes, bike parking, and work on the E&N bicycle trail, such as secondary suites and carriage houses. (ii) On the other hand, the council has to work harder to control spending.

John Luton: (i) The late night strategy was in progress when I got elected but I think it’s a good piece of work and I’m happy to have endorsed it. (ii) I can’t say yet that we’ve missed the mark, there are always works in progress.

Lynn Hunter: (i) We are creating the vision and the supporting infrastructure for walkable neighbourhoods and villages throughout Victoria. (ii) Although we have reorganized our governance structure to be more responsive and less costly I don’t think we have communicated these changes adequately.

Pamela Madoff: (i) Setting and monitoring long- and short-term priorities. For example, committing to an expedited process for the update of the Official Community Plan (with the intent of moving forward more quickly with Neighbourhood Plan reviews), delivering the Draft Downtown Core Plan. (ii) (Did not answer.)

Philippe Lucas: (i) This council has been very good at working with staff to address large-scale restructuring at City Hall, including the unveiling of a new governance model and the development of the Official Community Plan. (ii) However, I believe that we have fallen short on harm reduction.

Sonya Chandler: (i) We have exceeded expectations in terms of our changes to our governance model and our commitment to improving our public engagement processes. We are leading nationally in these two areas. (ii) We could have been more strategic in our approach to harm reduction and poverty reduction.

Charlayne Thornton-Joe: (i) When I look at all the work going into the OCP and the Downtown Plan and our Civic Engagement piece … it is amazing. (ii) Underestimating the public’s desire to know all about the Johnson Street Bridge and how decisions came about.

Your comments and thoughts are welcome

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