It was standing room only last Sunday afternoon at Pender Harbour Community Hall, where residents gathered for a town hall and hour-long forum featuring the three candidates running for Area A Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director.
Pender Harbour Advisory Council (PHAC) president and moderator Alan Stewart gave candidates 10 minutes each to introduce themselves before asking about outdoor burning, incorporation, affordable housing and transportation.
Both Sandy Hegyi and Mike Price drew on their professional experience, the former as a film industry professional and the latter as a city manager, to emphasize their fitness for the job, while Leonard Lee doubled down on his roots in the area, which stretch back 135 years. “I’m a family man, been here forever,” Lee said. “They’re going to throw my ashes out in Lee Bay.”
Lee, who is a director for PHAC and former chair of the Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan Working Group, acknowledged he had been asked to vacate the position of alternate for outgoing Area A director Frank Mauro in 2015 for being “a little bit outspoken” about the dock management plan, an issue he addressed near the end of the forum when asked to identify the central issues facing the SCRD. “The “biggest problem the SCRD has is us,” he said, adding it has an “ethical problem when it comes to issues that affect us and not them, such as the dock management plan, such as the OCP.” In reference to the dock management plan, he said the SCRD “should have stepped up and said leave Pender Harbour alone.”
Hegyi, who has worked as a chief lighting technician in the film industry and supplied power to international clients during the 2010 Winter Olympics, emphasized his facility with finances, citing one television show with a budget of more than $1 million that he kept in the black. “You learn to be a good money manager when you work in that business,” he said.
Price, who recently resigned as PHAC director, told the audience about his training as an engineer and his 10 years in senior municipal positions, including as city manager for Scarborough, a city of 500,000, and managing Toronto’s water utility.
He also used his introduction to address concerns over his relocation to Sechelt. Price explained the move was forced upon him after his long-term rental in Area A was taken off the market. “In this community, believe me, there is a problem with long-term rental accommodation,” he said before asserting his desire to return to the area.
And while directors agreed that long-term affordable housing is too scarce on the Coast and in Pender, they were divided on the details. Price said he supported the SCRD’s approach, which entails encouraging density, exploring rezoning, and regulating vacation and short-term rentals, which he identified as “a quick way to get some cash, it’s a quick way to help pay the mortgage on the property, but it is certainly creating a problem for people who need accommodation.”
Lee disagreed that Airbnbs and short-term rentals should be regulated. “It’s the owner’s choice on which way they want to go. They’re the ones that put the money in, they’re the ones that’s taking the risk, they’re the ones that’s working like heck for very little dollars. It’s an investment in time and capital and we sure don’t want to stop it because that’s how we get more,” he said.
Hegyi called vacation rentals an “unfair playing field,” while acknowledging it’s often a more profitable option for homeowners than long-term rentals. “I call this summer, the summer of Airbnb,” he said, adding that local businesses have been hurt by them. “It’s unfair for motels who are zoned in commercial areas, that have to pay commercial taxes, and they’re in direct competition with the Airbnbs,” he said.
Candidates also took different approaches to the question of incorporation. Both Lee and Hegyi said they support conducting a feasibility study before making a decision on what Lee called a “divisive” issue in the area. Price, meanwhile, took a firm stance. He said incorporating Pender as a town would be too expensive and that it would create problems for those living outside town boundaries. “The bottom line is, at the moment, I don’t think our community should be looking at incorporation. You’re not big enough,” he said.
Despite no direct questions on the topic, water still made its way into the forum. When asked to identify the most pressing issue facing the SCRD, all candidates pointed to water. Price applauded Pender Harbour’s water system and told the audience his background could help the rest of the areas and municipalities “solve their water woes and hopefully get their support to get things done up here in Pender Harbour.” Hegyi said “storage is by far the most important” priority and that a reservoir could solve that problem. Lee echoed Hegyi’s view on storage and also suggested Clowhom Lake could add to the supply.
