One drew on his local politics pedigree while the other urged a need for change in a lively all-candidates meeting at Elphinstone’s Frank West Hall that saw a rookie take on the only incumbent running for Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director.
Candidates Lorne Lewis, Elphinstone’s current director, and former journalist and chamber of commerce executive director Donna McMahon spent an hour on Sept. 25 responding to audience questions on a wide range of issues, including water, development, roads and waste. The two were like-minded on key items but differences surfaced in the particulars.
Bubbling to the top of the debate was the water crisis. McMahon addressed the problem head on in her opening remarks. “We have a water supply emergency on the Coast, not because we lack water or because the SCRD wasn’t aware of the problem, but because the people elected to make difficult decisions have failed to take action for years.”
Lewis answered McMahon’s reproach by distancing himself from the board. “It’s easy to be critical of this last board’s accomplishments on water, but I have to say that I did not vote for any of them except for the wells. The Chapman Creek expansion project I voted against consistently and roundly,” he said to brief applause.
Following their opening remarks, moderator Mary Degan summarized a cluster of questions about water, while later on an audience member asked Lewis and McMahon to divulge “the guts” of their water plans.
McMahon leaned on water management, offering a flurry of options, such as facilitating water efficiency among the top 25 industrial water producers, working with Sunshine Coast Tourism to ensure local accommodations and restaurants are water efficient, prioritizing water for agriculture and increasing enforcement. “Water restrictions are meaningless if there’s no enforcement,” she said to applause.
She said wells could come online sooner than other major projects, referencing test-drilling at the Mahan well currently underway. She vehemently opposed the Chapman drawdown project and warned, “Once the SCRD has sunk $5 million into this project, they’re going to be tempted to make it the answer.” Instead, she said the long-term solution lies in the construction of a reservoir.
Lewis agreed wells are needed to diversify supply before offering up his idea for boosting supply: containing water within the Chapman watershed. “If you pull together a very small, not very invasive impediment to the flow of water in the channel that leads into Chapman Lake you can hold back what is 158,000 cubic metres of water, that’s half a year’s production for Chaster well,” he said.
Lewis also reminded the crowd he’s been a long-time proponent of water management and has campaigned for a reservoir, and that Chapman’s temporary siphons don’t need to be replaced with a permanent pipe.
When an audience member asked them to address the difference in their political experience, Lewis looked back to 2005, when he was first voted in, and said without mentorship of the two incumbent rural directors “it would have been pretty chaotic for us.” He said his years in local politics also gave him political connections, telling the audience, “I know an awful lot of the minsters by their first name in this government.”
McMahon responded by dipping into her experience covering all three local governments as a reporter, as well as her extensive community involvement, including in economic development and outdoor recreation. “I have a lot of contacts, and I’m on first-name basis with many people, too,” she said as the room erupted in laughter. After outlining the collaborative nature of her work experience she told the crowd, “I’m starting out the way I mean to go, by bringing people together and building bridges.”
School board trustee candidates for Lower Coast also spent an hour answering questions from the audience. In attendance were Sue Girard, Charlene Penner and Pammilla Ruth. Candidate Stacia Leech was not present.
Voting day for the local government elections is Oct. 20.
