Interviewed by Michael Scoular.
Since many students will be voting for the first time, what would you describe as the role of municipal politics? What can city councillors actually do?
I’ve worked as an activist, a lobbyist at all three levels. I’ll just use fisheries as an example. We have provincial fisheries, but we also have federal fisheries, and roles and authorities are divided between what the federal department of fisheries and oceans is responsible for as opposed to what the BC province is responsible for. Municipal government is more to regulate and govern local issues that impact us in Chilliwack and the surrounding area. I kind of see the work I’ve done over the years, they’re all very inter-related and inter-dependent, but they definitely have different roles. Some of the local work that I’ve done is when I worked for the Chamber of Commerce and there had been some interest in doing something called an inter-municipal business license and what we had was if you had a business license in Chilliwack — we’ll just use a roofing company for example because they travel around — and if they went to Agassiz or Abbotsford, they’d have to get another license and it would have another cost and [for] somebody that’s running a business, just running a business takes up a lot of time and just trying to keep track of the red tape, “Oh, is this due, is that due.” And sometimes what people would do is just, “Well I’ve just got one job,” they’d just get there and they’d end up with fines and those kinds of things. I worked in collaboration with some other Chambers: Maple Ridge, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission — Agassiz and Hope came in a little bit later, but was able to help facilitate that process and now we have a municipal business licensing. So that’s something that benefits local business, it keeps the cost down, it makes them compliant, cuts down on the red tape, and it’s just a business-friendly policy.
Other things are local transportation, and I think as a student that’s probably something that’s important. It’s one of the things, when I was working with the Chamber is I worked with the manufacturers, when the city did their transportation plan, the manufacturing sector at the time wasn’t included (and they took ownership when we met, and said, “You know, we didn’t step up either”), but if people wanted to go to the mall, now there’s great busing. But for people that want to work, and these are decent-paying jobs in the manufacturing sector. I actually talked to manufacturing owners, managers, CEOs that had actually bought employees cars and loaned them money because they didn’t want to lose them. What I did was a gap analysis of transportation for the manufacturing corridor. So what we did is we mapped out where the manufacturing corridors were, out to Agassiz. We identified five corridors. One of the interesting things was they all started at different hours — the transportation plan had already been put in place by the city, but that’s something, as we move forward as a municipality, getting people to where the jobs are is a big thing.
BC Transit is a provincial body, so how does that work on a municipal level?
My understanding is that there are dollars available and it’s based on population. So we have a large area and a small population, so that’s a challenge. I know there’s a group that talks about light rail and it sounds wonderful, it’s got a lot of really good points and some places like Scotland or Paris, they have small area, lot of people, taxbase really. And that will support it. But for us the problem is we have this bigger area, which is problematic for getting from point A to B to begin with, and we don’t have that taxbase to support it. I think that realistically, in how I operate, you look for the simple solutions first. Maybe some formalized form of carpooling and some dollars on how to do that and make it a formalized process.
Who do you view as your constituents?
Everyone in Chilliwack. And the reason why is because I’ve worked across a lot of sectors. I’ve worked with seniors, I’ve worked with young people, I’ve hired a lot of young people right through this university and through the high schools. You know Chris Reitsma? He’s the work experience fella for the school district. Everywhere I work, it’s really important to me I hire young people. I’ve used Get Youth Working, I used practicum students, I used a summer student program and I hired fabulous local young people with real jobs, with relevant experience that they could build their portfolio and their resume forward. This year at Ann Davis I currently have two interns, one practicum student. I hired two summer students, one for graphic design and marketing and one for youth counselling and then brought one of them back, she’s working for me right now. I think what it does is not only is it a good thing and right thing to do, but it adds a really great dynamic and energy to a workplace to bring in new people, it breathes new energy and when you get people who’ve been doing things for 10 years … One of my younger employees that I just hired four months ago, I’ve got him doing some training with someone who has a PhD in counselling, and the energy exchange just makes sense.
I’ve worked with small business, I was executive director of the BC Wildlife Federation for many years, and some of the things locally that I did was, you know when Willie Charlie was shot in the face with a pellet gun a number of years ago on the river, there was extremely high tensions on the river. And because I’m from here, and the government stepped away, they kind of panicked. I’ve worked with Sto:lo for eight years, doing different consulting, I called a well-known fisheries advocate Ernie Crey and said “Look, I’m really concerned somebody’s going to get hurt or killed and when can we meet?” So I brought a couple of my guys and we met and I was able to facilitate a working group where not only were we able to restore peace on the river but they actually have a working group today, it’s the first group in Canada with sports fishers and Aboriginal groups that actually work together. So some of the things that have come out of that is the River Manners video, so when sportsfishers are going out on the river, they know how to approach and what the protocol is, polite manners really, on how to approach Native nets and for Aboriginal fisheries, some of the things with sports fishers. Because I think a lot of times, things are bred out of ignorance. So that’s something I did there.
When I was executive director of the Chamber of Commerce — I really believe in balance. I have an MBA, but I also have worked in the trenches on conservation and have a lot of friends that are scientists, so I have a pretty broad reach. So one thing that I did, and I know it raised a few eyebrows, but I think this is really important for young people to know — when I had the opportunity, Ian Anderson from Kinder-Morgan to come out and do a presentation to the Chamber, so I set it all up and we did a luncheon, but what I then did was I actually called the representative, Michael Hale, from the Pipe Up group, and they did their presentation two weeks later. So I really believe that decisions should be made with all the information. Critical thinking depends on getting good information, and I really promote that with all the work I do. So that when we made decisions, they’re informed decisions, we’re not going from the guy, we’re not going because this group is noisier than this group, we’re making decisions based on real information, the best that we can get.
How will you receive the views of the entire population instead of just those most active around City Hall?
This is part of the reason I stepped forward. I was widowed young with three kids up in northern BC, I lost my house, lost everything, wasn’t educated, but realized that legislation governing women and children, found out the legislation was enacted before women voted. And I was like, “How does that make sense?” so I moved here and decided it needed to be changed, so I started lobbying — I didn’t even own a suit, I was from northern BC, I was young. I mean my kind of stock thing was long t-shirts, jeans, and moccasins, that was just kind of how I rolled and my mom was like, “You can’t go to Victoria like that.” So I went over to Victoria and banged on doors and tromped around — I got in front of economic committees, people got to know me. I was very naïve, and thank goodness because I probably would’ve given up if I would’ve known how much I had to face.
Because I really had great conversations with a lot of the MLAs and a lot of the deputy ministers and I would think they really liked me, but I felt like they trotted me out and patted me on the head, you know, “Isn’t this sad,” or whatever, but they never did anything. That was very frustrating. So I went back to school here and I started out with a social services diploma, I used my first business communications writing project, I did a study looking back on women’s pension needs: widowed, married, divorced in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. And I really put a lot into that. And — this is a true story, this is kind of funny — I got this meeting with the senior policy analyst for labour for the government. Anyway, I get in my car and I start down the road and there’s a fire on the highway and you can’t get through. And this is really important, and if I miss this meeting I might not get another chance. My heart’s in this. So I ride motorcycles, so I went back home, I got my motorcycle, threw my backpack on pack, went as fast as I could and got in there a couple minutes late, a little windswept, and I’m thinking — well I was really young! So I went in there and they were kind of looking at me like “Who the heck are you?” I introduced myself, gathered myself, sat down, took out a couple copies of my report — it had been marked, I actually only got a B on it — but, that was the information that they needed and that actually informed the decision. So that really started the ball rolling and four pieces of legislation were changed in 2003.
I think what I have a gift for is being able to identify, in really messy situations, what the key issues are and I am also able to bring people together to make change. I know most of the street people as well as the business people. I’m not a respecter of title, I’m a respecter of people, and I think that shows in what I do. Sometimes people don’t realize that they’re just a couple paycheques away from being one of what people call “those people.” I meet a lot of people in my job now at Ann Davis. I think our stats for people coming through the doors are about 2700 this year. Which in a small community like this is a lot.
We have an extreme poverty situation — right now, in Chilliwack, 23% of our kids live below the poverty line. And that’s not okay. I have a strong track record of getting things done. And what I do is I bring people together, we have the debate, we debate it to death, and we come up with ideas and we make an action plan and we make things happen and that’s what I’ve done over and over.
One thing that I think is an oversight in Chilliwack is we don’t have a poverty elimination strategy. So if I’m chosen for city councillor, I think that’s something I would like to start working on right away. And I know we have some really good work done by the current city. There’s the homelessness strategy, there’s different pieces, but I think the root of a lot of our social issues, a big part of it is poverty. We have generational poverty, it sets people up for addictions, alcohol addiction, people get trapped, and how do they get out? We can put a lot of things underneath access to childcare, access to housing, nutitional food.
I’ve worked with small business here a lot, I have a lot of friends that are small business owners, and for me working with business is developing the relationships and listening and, of course putting your head up and doing the overall scope, like my business background is management consulting, so I think I have some skills there.
And then also community safety and crime prevention, which can be related to poverty as well.
I think a big part of it is bringing people to the table that aren’t all like-minded. I have a friend that’s on one of the comissions in Chilliwack and he was telling me, “We’re all like-minded!” And I said “Well I don’t think that’s good,” and he got all offended with me. How is that good? We had this debate, and I think we need divergence, we’re in a democracy. That’s how you really represent people.
Are you doing anything to address the lack of student interest in local politics?
I do have a little bit of concern with the university system. I really want to make sure that if the province is looking at doing the blueprint stuff for trades and that, I understand, but not at the expense of our arts and our academic, higher-level learning. I think it’s critical that we really keep that as well, so I’m kind of watching that and seeing what’s happening. That’s not at the municipal level, but like I said everything’s very inter-related and I think part of the role of city councillor is if there are issues, what do you do? You lobby to the province, you lobby to the federal government.
I think there’s a lack of local interest — I mean 17%? That’s a lack of local interest overall. My real concern, I think the underlying problem is that people aren’t voting, young people and everybody else that isn’t voting because they don’t think it really makes a difference. I don’t think they have hope that if they go down there and make a check box that it’s going to change. And how do you instill hope in people? I think you need to have the conversations.
If elected, how would what you want to do as councillor be different from what council is already doing?
What I hear a lot of is a lack of transparency. I think I’m kind of an open book. I think there’s going to be times when things have to be dealt with in private and then brought out, but I would like to work with as much transparency as possible and having as many as makes sense as possible in the decision-making process.
With the Aevitas recycle plant next to the river, I wasn’t there, but it was said “We follow process,” and you know, if all we do is just follow process, that’s one thing, but I think when things are this important to the community, that we need to do more than just what we have to. We need to really take that extra step when these kinds of things come forward and have a little more public discussion and transparency before decisions are made. That’s why people get their dander up, it’s not a respectful process when you do the minimum of what you can and don’t include people.
Do you have a specific project you want to prioritize or bylaw you want to change?
There’s six committees for Chilliwack and I sit on two already, so I think that I understand the complexities of some of the social issues. Some of the survey questions that are coming out, like heritage housing, so what do I think of that. I need to do my homework and see exactly what I think on a few of these, and some of them frankly, I know a little bit, but I need to go and find out some more information before I think I can provide informed opinions on them.
I think walkable green spaces and biking — I think that’s important for a lot of people.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
