The Nov. 6 all-candidates forum at Roberts Creek Community Hall gave Creek voters a firsthand look at their four choices for Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director for Area D.
Candidates Barbara Hague, David Kelln, Mark Lebbell and Hans Penner are running to replace outgoing director Donna Shugar, who is retiring after serving nine years.
Hague, the only woman contesting a seat in the SCRD this election, said she was committed to creating living-wage jobs, working for affordable housing and achieving fiscal responsibility.
“Conservative budgets with no tax increases are my goals,” Hague said in her opening statement. “Transparency and honesty I live by.”
Hague, who has been a commercial fisherman for 41 years, also said a priority was protecting wild fish stocks, fish farms being a major concern.
“We need to get those fish farms out of the water,” she said. “We have to do something very quickly and I hope the First Nations will be on board.”
Hague said she would support First Nations “in all endeavours.”
“Everything we do should be informed and involved with First Nations. It’s their land.”
Kelln said his years serving on official community plan (OCP) committees gave him an understanding of how policy is made and how it translates into bylaws.
“I have a vision for Roberts Creek where we really maintain our social ecosystem as much as we maintain our environmental ecosystem,” Kelln said. “They both depend on diversity.”
A critic of the Multi-Material BC system, Kelln called for local recycling solutions. On the ferries issue he said the SCRD should work with BC Ferries to increase passenger numbers.
“If we can focus with BC Ferries on getting more traffic over here. It’s maybe a more valid solution than getting action out of the government.”
Lebbell, who served eight years on the OCP committee and has been endorsed by Shugar, listed seven priorities in his opening statement, starting with environmental protection and collaboration with the Sechelt and Squamish First Nations. But he saved his most political message for his closing statement.
“Be wary of voting just based on one issue,” Lebbell warned. “We’re talking about a four-year term here, and it’s a long time. So on Nov. 15, however you vote, I urge you to consider not just passion or policy or perseverance. Look for perspective and people skills to make sure a collaborative, values-based approach is taken in this job.”
As it was the last statement of the night; the other candidates had no opportunity to respond.
Penner, who recently made news when he led a three-day blockade that helped end logging in the Chapman Creek watershed, said he was running again as a candidate because “very little progress has been made on the issue that prompted me to run in 2011.”
The priority now, he said, is to address the issue of logging on private land in the Chapman watershed before logging recommences in the spring.
Addressing his detractors, Penner cited his professional background as highways technician, municipal planner and conflict mediator.
“Contrary to what some might say about me being a forceful person, I have also resolved conflict,” he said.
Besides the regional watershed, other issues that demand attention, he said, are the large industrial proposals for Howe Sound and plans to barge thermal coal to Texada Island, working to establish a 1,500-hectare provincial park on Mount Elphinstone, lobbying for highway improvements, the ferries issue and planning, which he said is “turning into a big current issue that needs to be looked at carefully.”
One planning issue that grabbed more of the spotlight than any other topic at the forum was the rezoning application for Goldmoss Gallery, which has been opposed by some neighbours on Lower Road.
Taking the hardest line against the application, Penner said the existing zoning had to be respected and that having an existing non-conforming use is not a good reason for rezoning.
“The property is not suitable for the use. It doesn’t have the parking,” he said.
Hague said the events hosted by the gallery and the traffic they generated were the problems, not the gallery use itself. She suggested the SCRD give the owners ample time to relocate.
Kelln, also agreeing that parking was lacking, said he could see two events allowed per year, but would be opposed to more.
Lebbell quoted goal 15 in the OCP: “to encourage a wide range of cultural and artistic opportunities,” and said he would be interested to see if a changed application comes forward following the latest SCRD staff report on the issue.
Moderator Scott Avery put the four candidates through their paces, at one point directing them to pass the microphone around and converse among themselves about the Goldmoss rezoning and whatever other topics came to mind.
