Reverse Forum engages electors, Council rejects homeless camp, View St. development progresses
By Bill Metcalfe
The people talked and the candidates listened.
About 80 people engaged in round table discussions with municipal election candidates on Wednesday night at the “reverse forum” organized by the Social Planning Action Network (SPAN). The subject matter was social issues such as affordable housing, mental health, and poverty.
The candidates rotated between tables for ten-minute discussions with about eight members of the public seated around each table. Candidates and citizens appeared to be intensely engaged, and according to organizer Rona Park, that was the point—to get away from the public sitting passively and listening to election speeches.
Then the candidates all spoke for three minutes to the entire room, ostensibly about what they had learned from the round table discussions but in some cases with some electioneering thrown in.
Mayor John Dooley did not attend because of a serious family medical emergency. The three-minute wrap-up comments by mayoral candidates Deb Kozak and Pat Severyn are shown in the video above.
Council won’t be funding homeless camp study
At its meeting on Monday night, council rejected Pastor Jim Reimer’s bid for council to help fund a feasibility study into a campground for homeless people. Council had referred the request to its housing committee, which decided against jumping so quickly to a solution to a problem with so many complex unknowns, according to the committee’s report which is attached below.
Related story: Pastor Jim Reimer asks council to fund feasibility study for a secure homeless camp (September 18, 2014)
Proposed View Street medical clinic takes another step
Also on Monday night, council passed second reading of a motion to change the Official Community Plan and the Zoning Bylaw that would allow Dr. Andre Kirsten to build a medical centre on View Street across from the emergency ward. As in the first reading in October, the rezoning was opposed by Councillors Donna Macdonald and Robin Cherbo on the grounds that it departs too much from the Official Community Plan.
Councillor Macdonald argued that a medical esthetics clinic, which would be included in the development, is a non-medical business because it includes treatments she said are non-medical, such as botox treatments. There will be more public consultation and, as in all rezoning applications, a formal public hearing.
Council was presented with a consultant’s marketing study prepared for Dr. Kirsten. The study concluded that moving Dr. Kirsten’s business from downtown to View Street would have no adverse effects on other businesses.
The material presented to council is attached below.
Related story:
Council takes first step toward View St. commercial medical centre development (October 17, 2014)
