Ask the candidates
PART 5 OF 5 If the city were to unexpectedly receive a grant of $50 million that could be spent any way council chose, how would you advocate the money be spent?
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Courier sent a series of five questions to city council and mayoral candidates in Kelowna. The questions were supplied in writing and responses were limited to 100 words. This is the fifth and final question of this series.
Question: If the city were to unexpectedly receive a grant of $50 million that could be spent any way council chose, how would you advocate the money be spent?
MAYORAL: COLIN BASRAN: We would partner with higher levels of government to triple this funding and use it for our top three greatest concerns: housing, transportation, and safety. Like creatively partnering with the private sector by taking action to use the money to purchase land and build a diverse range of housing from supportive to affordable rental housing. This would help clean up our streets and make our city safer and more livable for all residents. For transportation, we would put it towards the Highway 33 extension to alleviate traffic on Highway 97.
TOM DYAS: Present mayor and council have not ensured that the future city infrastructure of our city is being met. The 10-year capital plan estimate costs $1 billion, with only $478 million budgeted. That means we have a very serious infrastructure deficit, which is the result of poor leadership and planning. A $50-million windfall would be invested in our capital plan but would only satisfy less than 10 per cent of the deficit, leaving us with about a $428-million shortfall. Under Mayor Basran’s leadership, taxes have increased by almost 16 per cent in four years. Compound that with increased assessments, and the result is an incredible burden for taxpayers.
BOBBY KENNEDY: Did not reply.
BOB SCHEWE: As this is money that really belongs to all the citizens of Kelowna, the public would certainly be first consulted for priorities. Long-promised projects such as the public beach at Cedar Ave. would hopefully make the cut. Improvements to our roadway infrastructure and public transit should also get some priority. Possibly some neighborhood parks/playgrounds would also be considered. Once again, the public should have a strong say on what we do with the money.
CITY COUNCIL LINDSAY BELL: If the city has the windfall of $50 million the evaluation used to see where it would be spent would need to be assessed by all of council and community consultation to determine where the most significant impact would be realized. It would be hard to please everyone but the community would definitely have significant input into the decision.
KEVIN BOND: I love this question as the current city council would simply just spend it. I would go directly to the public and ask them how to spend the $50 million. I believe that there should be a transparent bidding process to allocate the funds according to what the city’s wants and needs. There is no harm in putting the funds away for a rainy day, but I personally believe that day has come and gone and the current council has left Kelowna in a mess. So again I say, I would open the doors to valid proposals and make an educated decision with my fellow council members.
MARK BOYER: I would split the $50 million up into parts. Ensure parks are completed along with beach access. These are needed for a sense of community and enjoyment. Journey Home and affordable housing would get the rest. If there is affordable or rent to income housing it would go a long way to reducing those who are visibility homeless, those we don’t see couch surfing and the families struggling to live where they are every day.
WAYNE CARSON: Crime reduction, strengthened bylaw enforcement with more bike patrols in all areas of the city, not just downtown, public transportation, rainy day fund. Why do we always have to spend every cent we get immediately?
GREG DAHMS: I would advocate the money to be spent wisely on infrastructure, policing and attainable housing and not wasted on consulting fees, surveys and studies.
MAXINE DeHART: I would advocate for a new Parkinson Recreation Centre, put the funds towards parks that are in our park reserve, but not completed, and recreation facilities for all ages from youth to seniors.
RYAN DONN: I would split the $50 million between building a new Kelowna Community Theatre and a new Children’s Museum. Removing those two items from our capital, it would then move those planned funds to start building Phase 1 of the Clement/Highway 33 extension. Please see my website for other ideas in my 50 next steps for Kelowna post.
GAIL GIVEN: So many competing needs, so little money. Will it be the completion of undeveloped parks, or replacement of Parkinson Recreation Centre, or a state-ofthe-art waste to energy system (not actually in our plans, but fun to dream?) I think I will go with a contribution toward the extension of Clement Ave. to Highway 33 (the parallel corridor to Highway 97 so desperately needed). Unfortunately, $50 million would not be nearly enough as the project potentially requires the relocation of city works yard, transit yard, possibly a Fortis substation, and the construction of an interchange at Spall and Clement.
CHARLIE HODGE: That would likely help solve the homeless problem. Certainly an addiction centre. Seriously, I would want a staff report on some good options.
CRAIG HOSTLAND: I would follow Burnaby’s model. Bank it and invest off the interest. In only a matter of a decade or so, Burnaby’s fiscal position has become the world’s envy with a billion dollars in the bank. A city is among other things, a social safety net. To best provide that service, it must make the best use of its resources including tax base. Personally, I conduct cost benefit analysis on most everything I do so that my decisions move me towards financial independence with an ability to share. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the City’s investments returned value instead of interest charges?
GRAEME JAMES: Complete parks that have been sitting for years. We have a massive infrastructure deficit so part of these funds would go towards infrastructure upgrades to reduce future taxes.
AMARJIT SINGH LALLI: I would set up a working group to identify areas that have been underfund by the city. Funding a muchneeded bus route, neighbourhood watches, private security for trouble areas and social outreach groups would be given priority.
GORD LOVEGROVE: Split funding to leverage short and long term community innovation partnerships to sustain our quality of life:
• Short ($20 million): Proven ideas from around the world that promote inclusive, affordable, transit-oriented housing and walkable green neighbourhoods: $3M) Residential U-Pass (ComPASS) transit; $2M) Cohousing (cohousing.org); $3M) SMARTer growth neighbourhoods; $2) Journey Home; $5) Cycle track network; $5) fire/police
• Long ($30 million): $5) Okanagan Valley electric regional passenger Rrail (OVER PR; public meeting Oct.18; $5M) Invest in more inner-city parks, public spaces, and car-free cores; $5M) Resolve public access along our Okanagan Lake beach; $5) Maintain it; $10M) Reserves/debt service
JEFF PIATTELLI: Develop our infrastructure with overpasses and roundabouts. As well as building some sort of one of a kind tourist attraction.
MO RAJABALLY: My priority is a welldesigned plan for the homeless. And I do not mean a building. It is for safety, treatment, counselling with constant scientific evaluation of results
DUSTIN SARGENT: Years ago when I was advocating heavily for the revitalization of our downtown, I liked to use health references in describing the need for a healthy heart (our downtown) to pump the lifeblood back into creating a vibrant community. Should our city receive such a sum, I would hope we could be fiscally responsible in using it to enhance current and future grant programs especially to the be proactive in staving off future community crisis, and building on and connecting the other city centres to reduce travel to enhance quality of life in for everyone in Kelowna no matter the civic address.
BRAD SIEBEN: I would suggest the money be put towards executing the Journey Home strategy. Although $50 million is a significant amount of money, the operating budget required to for the supports required in the strategy would still need continued funding from the province.
MOHINI SINGH:I would look at solving the homeless crisis, building parks, improving social programs, supporting innovation/partnerships between our not for profits and industry.
LUKE STACK: I would invest the money into a Legacy Trust Fund so that the interest earned from the fund could be allocated each and every year to the City’s priority projects. The legacy fund would be for all Kelowna citizens forever.
STEF VAN MEETEREN: Did not reply.
LOYAL WOOLDRIDGE: I would allocate this amazing opportunity to a broad range of projects based on the 2017 citizen survey: Homelessness/Housing ($10-million): Fund youth recovery facility (Journey Home) and a land acquisition strategy to build supportive housing.
Transportation upgrades ($15-million): GPS tracking on busses, establish key bypass points, upgrade intersections to improve efficiency.
Fire services ($10-million): for Glenmore fire hall, Upper Mission fire hall and purchase two engines.
Park development ($10-million): Develop key parks: Rutland, Glenmore and Mission.
Arts facility ($5-million): Contribute to public/private partnership to replace the Community Theatre and include shared artist work spaces and offices for smaller non-profit organizations.