Just ahead of the municipal election, an all-candidates forum was hosted in Creston.
On Oct. 4, candidates spoke to an audience of over 100 voters at the Kootenay River Theatre. The event was co-hosted by Kootenay Employment Services and the Creston Valley Tourism Society.
Participants included mayoral candidates Arnold DeBoon and Nora Maddocks, as well as Monique Arès, Greg Banbury, Amber Bartlett, Keith Baldwin, Denise Dumas, Norm Eisler, Jim Elford, Richard Howes, Elizabeth Ireland, Scott Irwin, Anthony Mondia, and Ursula Waslovich. Mayoral candidate Jim Rota and council candidate Adriana Snashall did not attend.
Rita Scott, current chair of the Creston Valley Housing Society, served as moderator of the event. The participants were civil and timely in answering questions, so she did not need to intervene hardly at all.
The questions were submitted in advance by voters, and the candidates were given time to prepare their answers ahead of time. For some, this meant reading from a prepared script, which often led to repetition of similar answers from multiple candidates.
To start, each candidate was given the chance to introduce themselves and speak on why they want to be elected.
For the rest of the three-hour event, candidates took turns at random answering five given questions within a two-minute time limit.
How would re-routing truck traffic to Cook Street impact downtown businesses?
The plan to divert large semi-trucks from Main Street has been discussed for over a decade.
Arnold DeBoon, an incumbent councillor, said he has been asked by some residents about diverting traffic on to Erickson Road.
“Several years ago, the Ministry of Highways did a study that revealed it’s not a feasible option,” he said. “And the reason it isn’t, is because especially in wintertime, it can be slippery on the hill. If you’re going down that hill in a big rig and you have a problem with your brakes, you’re not stopping and you’re endangering people.”
Mayoral candidate Nora Maddocks raised concerns about the highway diversion costing local taxpayers millions of dollars, which he disagreed with.
“In my opinion, all highway traffic should go to Cook Street,” said DeBoon. “The province owns the highway, so they have to fund this. We have a piece of land where we can build a merge lane that will turn off to Cook Street.”
Denise Dumas, daughter of current Mayor Ron Toyota and a small business owner, took it upon herself to do her own research by stopping in at downtown businesses and asking them the question.
She said one Cook Street business was concerned that it would make freight drop-off difficult, another thought the increase in traffic would prevent patrons from enter their parking lot.
“All other businesses we spoke to said it would be a positive effect on them,” she said. “This is what we’ll learn from talking to people.”
Incumbent Jim Elford, who has just served his second term, said that the town’s current downtown revitalization project has been constantly studying this issue.
“Ownership of Main Street would allow us to have street festivals and other events and make them more pedestrian friendly,” he said.
Greg Banbury, a former town employee and small business owner, said that diverting truck traffic would alleviate a significant portion of the congestion seen during the tourist season.
“I don’t think it’s as easy as just diverting truck traffic to Cook Street because it is now the home of the new emergency services building,” he said. “It’s also right next door to the high school, with lots of students walking back and forth. So, I see potential conflict with that as well.”
What steps would you take to protect water security in the future?
After the rising heatwaves of the last two summers and more frequent water restrictions, concerns about water security have come to the forefront.
In answer to this question, Maddocks said she would ask residents to join water conservation efforts.
“If you ask them to join you in the mission on water conservation, I’m sure 99 per cent of our residents would be happy to do so. But they don’t appreciate being taxed to death,” she said. “Mandating people to do your bidding is not conducive to co-operation. Charging them more fees is not going to save water.”
Monique Arès, a young mother with a social work background, said that it’s important to take steps now to reduce the effects of climate change. She suggested providing incentives for residents to partake in water conservation programs.
“This could include investigating ways to recycle rainwater and use it for watering gardens, washing cars, and other things,” she said. “The town could look at providing incentives for residents to recycle their grey water or install rainwater collection systems.”
She also thought using constructed wetlands to filter and retain stormwater could be used in drier summer months for irrigation.
Banbury claimed that even in the hottest summers, the Arrow Creek water system that supplies the Creston Valley has never dropped below 70 per cent.
“Our water supply is quite good here,” he said. “A couple of things that we could do to protect our water in the future is continual investment in the infrastructure, by installing back flow prevention or reducing leakage.”
He added that he would also consider fixing the Splash Park equipment to prevent leaking continuously.
“That’s quite a large waste of our freshwater supply,” he said.
How can council encourage the development of affordable rental housing in Creston?
Solutions for a lack of affordable housing, especially for young working families and the disadvantaged, have been discussed increasingly over the years. Now with inflation and rising mortgage rates, buying a home seems like a far-off dream to some.
Incumbent Norm Eisler, a registered massage therapist, said that the affordable housing issue was the main motivation for him running in the by-election in 2021.
“I’m really proud of the things we’ve done,” he said. “In the last year, we’ve changed bylaws to allow detached rental units, so people will be able to build laneway houses or like a detached garage with a with an apartment above. We created a 10-year tax incentive for all new rental housing. So I think that’s a good incentive for people to start.”
Amber Bartlett said she would hope to partner with developers to build more affordable housing.
“We could aid the developers by reviewing and removing some red tape within our files promoting a more smooth and timely build,” she said. “Everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads and enough money left over to afford to feed their families. I would like to see the people who grew up here in this community afford to stay in the community.”
Dumas recently attended a meeting of the newly formed Affordable Housing Committee and found the work towards solutions to be encouraging.
“We need more volunteers and concerned citizens who are a part of this community,” she said. “I’m looking forward to jumping into the process that has already started and helping in any way I can.”
Should council prioritize transitioning to becoming a net-zero community?
It’s no surprise that one of the submitted questions from voters focused on climate crisis concerns.
While most candidates agreed that climate change is a major problem, the answers to this question varied. Some said it isn’t a priority because it’s too costly, while others cited how the town is already working towards this goal.
Keith Baldwin, an incumbent from last year’s by-election, said it is absolutely a priority. This fall, the town plans to hire a climate change co-ordinator to work toward’s the goal of transitioning to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, which was an agreement signed throughout the West Kootenays last year.
“Clearly, progressive actions must be undertaken if we are to avoid traumatic and abrupt crises in our lives locally and beyond,” he said. “With kindness and collaboration, we will help preserve the quality of life the next generation.”
Richard Howes, an engineer, said that the problem needs to be considering holistically.
“We’ve heard a lot about energy, but what about our waste and our septic? There’s opportunities there that are just waiting for us to take advantage of.”
He also mentioned that B.C. is one of the biggest producers of hydroelectric electricity, with low carbon impact.
“In terms of renewables, we’re going to have to balance our resources a little bit to figure out what we have, and what can be the biggest bang for our buck,” he added.
Elizabeth Ireland, a former commercial fisher, was in agreement with a holistic view and balance of resources. She said that the effects of the climate crisis, such as temperature changes, are slow moving.
“I have to ask logically - why the panic? I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be against any kind of environmental support,” she said. “We need to talk with people from all different study groups.”
Scott Irwin, manager of the Uptowner Hotel, said that becoming a net-zero community is an amazing goal to strive towards for the future.
“I’m not going to make any promises on that. I think it’s such a massive undertaking, and I don’t think the individual should be forced to solve this problem,” he said. “I think approaching it too hastily and going about it too quickly is a really bad idea and could hurt people’s pockets a lot.”
Would you maintain, increase, or decrease property taxes?
None of the candidates explicitly said they were in favour of raising taxes in the future. Most agreed to maintain the current rates.
Maddocks said that as a senior herself, she has been fighting to keep taxes down.
“I’m not privy to what the situation is, as far as our financial status is for the town, so it’s very difficult for me to address that question,” she said. “There is no reason why our taxes should be going up. When we’re expanding and overspending our budget, we as homeowners can’t go anywhere, to get funding for more groceries, we have to stay within a budget. I would like to know why our mayor and town council are not staying within a budget.”
Ursula Waslovich claims that she has been feeling the burden of rising property taxes.
“We have been paying some hefty taxes, and that’s pretty hard to take, so I feel we cannot keep going like this,” she said. “Unfortunately, as far as our financial records for the Town of Creston, I am unable to comment on those because I have never seen them. And like Nora said, they’re not really available.”
Anthony Mondia, a chartered accountant, disagreed with both Maddocks and Waslovich and used his time to respond to their statements.
“Financial information is publicly available in detail on the website, online, for every town,” said Mondia, which was met with loud applause from the audience.
He reviewed the financial statements himself and noted that the town has been under budget for the last four years consecutively.
“Sometimes, it’s more than a million dollars below budget,” he said. “Sewer, water and roads are accounted for. The financials show the assets and they’re being replenished and maintained according to the schedule that they depreciate. And that’s available publicly for anybody to look at online.”
He believes that the town’s financial position is sound and he would maintain the current tax rates.
“One thing I want to look at is there’s over 12,000 inquiries per year go that go into the town, so I would like to know what those inquiries are about. I think we have to realign and focus on that.”
READ MORE: Lower Kootenay Band breaks ground on $9.5M treatment centre