Sechelt councillor Darnelda Siegers has formally launched her campaign to be the district’s next mayor.
More than 100 supporters and campaign volunteers were at the Blue Ocean Golf Club in Sechelt on Aug. 29 to hear Siegers outline her “Courage to Lead” platform.
Siegers, flanked by co-campaign managers Craig Moore and Donna Bell and other key members of her team, said Sechelt is at a crossroads and wants “a mayor and council who will be leaders for our community and make the choices to implement solutions to those challenges… To me, courage to lead means not just reacting to the situations that confront us, but being proactive in planning for our long-term future.”
Siegers also talked about times that despite her efforts, the current council missed opportunities to get federal and provincial support for housing and provincial support for an airport expansion. “Going forward we can continue to allow these opportunities pass us by or we can collectively choose the direction we want to move forward in, seize those opportunities and receive those grants and programs available to us from other levels of government,” she said.
On affordable housing, Siegers said she agrees with the idea that local governments are not the best people to build housing, but it does have a role to play.
“Our role is to plan for and lay the groundwork of the future housing stock we want to see built here and do all in our power to make it happen,” she said, adding that the question for the public is not “do you want density?” but “where in your community do you want density?”
Siegers said with two seats at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board Sechelt needs to take a lead role in resolving the questions around the Chapman water system.
She also said the assumptions used to create water strategies on the Sunshine Coast, and many other jurisdictions, are no longer valid because of changes to the climate which mean, locally, that there’s less rain in the summer months and the fall rains start later.
“Water, water supply and water usage have now become a political football,” she said. “If the community believed the [SCRD] comprehensive regional water plan was sufficient, we wouldn’t be having this intense debate in our community.”
According to Siegers, the recent failure of an alternate approval process to fund water meters through a long-term loan was a clear signal that local governments have to go back to the table and come back with a plan that residents are willing to support and pay for.
“Am I in support of the reservoir, the drawdown, the pipe from Clowholm or any of the other proposals put forward? I like the rest of the community don’t know, as we don’t have sufficient information to know which of the options put forward are the right choices,” she said, promising, if elected, to have all the options fully assessed and publicly discussed.
None of Sechelt’s current councillors attended the event, however SCRD director Mark Lebbell of Roberts Creek, shíshálh councillor Keith Julius, and school board chair and SCRD Halfmoon Bay candidate Lori Pratt were there.
Siegers has set up a campaign website at: siegersforsechelt.com.
