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This 8mm film footage shows Vancouver Island’s Esquimalt & Nanaimo railroad in the 1950s, shortly after the introduction of diesel. As we consider the future of rail on the island in the 21st century, I urge my fellow Victoria City Councillors to exercise foresight and plan for the future — by ensuring that the new Johnson Street Bridge is strong enough to accommodate light-rail passenger service.

While this would entail a modest increase in design and material costs today, it would remove the need to build a second bridge (for $35-million) to accommodate rail at some point in the future. Moreover, building a rail-capable bridge today will maintain continuity of this vital, historic link on Vancouver Island.

Guided by the hopeful principle, “If we build it, they will come,” Victoria can join with the Island Corridor Foundation and citizens and public-office holders from across the Capital Region and communities up-island to build a strong, sustainable alternative for inter-city and commuter transport.

Here, you can listen to my interview on CBC Radio’s On the Island with Gregor Creggie, where I discuss the benefits of a rail-capable Johnson Street Bridge as well as potential cost savings from a simpler, more functional design:

Link to CBC Radio interview, February 9, 2012

Download CBC radio Podcast

Freight Train – Joan Baez

Download Joan Baez’s “Freight Train” Podcast

I want to share my views on a delicate subject: secrecy at City Hall and the need for much greater community consultation and openness. While my views may ruffle some feathers, I think we need to begin a serious discussion on how the city operates. After sitting at the council table for six weeks, I strongly believe that greater openness and early, meaningful community consultation will result in better, more cost-effective decision-making.

A number of important issues have crossed my desk since I took the oath of office, including spirited debates over the sale of city land to Vancouver-based developer Reliance Properties for development adjacent to the historic Northern Junk buildings. Council’s current discretion is shaped by an in-camera January 2010 decision, in which the previous council agreed to sell the land to the developer. This decision was made in the absence of community consultation. Much of the controversy we see today could have been avoided by talking to the community at the outset.

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Since assuming my seat as City Councillor and Regional Director last month, I have taken a number of steps to familiarize myself with the operations of the City and CRD, while beginning to move forward on my platform. It has been a sharp learning curve!

Highlights include:

• Meeting with Gonzales residents and city workers to discuss options for reopening the Gonzales-Chandler Pathway - a 180-metre-long city-owned corridor near Margaret Jenkins School, which has great potential to connect the neighbourhood and contribute to Victoria’s broader greenways strategy. On December 15, I successfully moved a motion to begin consultation with adjacent neighbours and neighbourhood proponents with a view toward re-opening the path in 2012. This month, I am meeting with proponents and the city workers union, CUPE Local 50, to discuss opportunities for a volunteer work party to clear the path.

• Calling for a more holistic approach to the Northern Junk land-use proposal, which would involve the sale of city land to Vancouver-based Reliance Properties as part of a strategy of restoring two harbour-front heritage buildings. Following a protracted two-hour debate, Council agreed to hold off on further consideration of this proposal pending more information on how it fits into the design for the new Johnson Street Bridge.

• Advocating restraint in the Police Budget at a joint meeting of the Police Board and Victoria and Esquimalt Councils. Prior to the meeting, I acquired detailed financial data from the VicPD comptroller and in the meeting suggested that the Force pursue further savings in the $2-million annual overtime budget (which accounts for nearly 5% of total funds requested for 2012). On the night of Saturday-Sunday January 7-8, I completed a “ride-along” with VicPD, observing policing from the perspective of officers on patrol on the overnight weekend shift. I observed the range of emergency calls, responding to a domestic assault, a robbery, and an out-of-control house party involving underage youth (several of whom were detained in police cells). This ride-along demonstrated to me the degree of integration both within VicPD as well as with neighbouring municipalities.

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Greenway Photo Album – IPhone/IPad/Non-Flash Version
After making careful and detailed inquiries regarding the proposed Gonzales-Chandler pathway, I support the city moving forward with residents to reopen this city-owned corridor in 2012. There are many examples of successful pathways, both in Victoria as well as in adjacent municipalities.

Council agreed to re-open the path in a 2009 resolution, deferring the question of timing and financing to a later date. The discussion at the council table and among city staff has moved beyond “if” the path should open to determine “how” the path should open, consistent with the direction set by the previous council in 2009. Consultation with adjacent neighbours and other residents is the essential first step in re-opening the path.

At our last governance and priorities meeting, I moved a motion (which was approved unanimously by my council colleagues), directing Parks staff to proceed with consultation with adjacent neighbours and proponents of the path, within the context of 2012 budgeting discussions.

Consultation will hopefully bring the sides closer together, determining a design that addresses safety concerns while allowing for public access. I am confident that when we look back on this issue in a few years time, re-opening the path will be seen as a very positive step for the neighbourhood and city.

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On December 21, 2011, I helped commemorate a forgotten mutiny of French-Canadian soldiers that occurred 93 years ago at the corner of Fort and Quadra streets in downtown Victoria, as the 259th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Siberia) embarked for the port of Vladivostok and service in the Russian Civil War.

I first discovered the story of the Victoria mutiny while researching my book From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19.

Casting a critical eye on the government of the day’s reading of the Military Service Act, and the use of conscription for a theatre of war a world away from the Western Front, I joined other citizens in calling for the soldiers’ pardon and for an apology for their families.

Here I discuss the mutiny on CBC radio’s On The Island program, recorded at Fort and Quadra with host Gregor Creggie:

Link to CBC Radio interview, December 21, 2011

Download CBC radio Podcast

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Here is my position with regards to the Northern Junk proposal for city lands and private lands at the foot of Johnson Street:

• The previous council erred in providing the opportunity to a single developer to envision possibilities for this prime downtown real estate;
• In light of the Johnson Street Bridge project, the first step should be for council and staff to determine the final design for the easterly (downtown side) bridgehead;
• Council should then inventory city land in the vicinity of the bridgehead (including the proposed land adjacent to Northern Junk) to determine whether any of this land is surplus (exploring all options, including greenspace and future uses such as a railway station);
• If land is determined to be surplus, consider whether such land can meet the city’s social priorities (vis a vis affordable housing), through discussions with BC Housing, VIHA and not-for-profit providers;
• If a stand-alone publicly financed housing initiative is deemed impractical, the City should consider issuing a Request for Proposals to the private sector, with priority given to applications that (1) partner with social housing providers; (2) provide public access to the harbour front; and (3) enhance the heritage character of Old Town;
• Throughout the foregoing process, the City should work with the owner of the Northern Junk properties to affirm the city’s ongoing interest in the restoration of these heritage buildings and the expansion of public access to Victoria’s harbour front.

For more info, read this media report.

Please share you views on this important issue, below and/or by email to councillors@victoria.ca and mayor@victoria.ca.

Listen to this CFAX 1070 interview from December 12th, 2011, where I discuss public office, regional services and the oath to the Queen:

Link to CFAX 1070 Interview, December 12, 2011

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Letter to the Editor of the Victoria News, 10 December 2011

Or does the federal crown corporation have an ongoing obligation to connect the communities of Vancouver Island, providing an efficient alternative to automobile transport that will help reduce carbon emissions and mitigate harmful climate change?

Nearly a quarter of Vancouver Island was handed to the Dunsmuir family in the 1880s to build a railroad connecting the port at Esquimalt with the coal-mining towns further north. Surely this massive transfer of public land to private interests should provide an ongoing benefit to the public in our 21st-century world.

Whether the federal government supports the restoration of the E&N corridor through Via Rail, or provides capital funds along with the province to a public island-based operator, is an open question.

But we should reject the notion that a sustainable future can be built on this island in the absence of commuter and inter-city rail.

Thank you for helping elect me to Victoria City Council and the CRD Board. We captured more than 8,400 votes for council and nearly topped the poll for CRD. Our “ground team” of dedicated door-to-door volunteers was the heart of the campaign, covering the city nearly two times over. We were backed by generous financial contributors and everyone who took lawn signs or helped in other ways.

Now, the work begins to implement my platform, finding a progressive majority around specific issues at the Council and CRD tables so we can start to build a fair, safe and green city and region.

I urge you to continue to share your ideas with me. Many politicians have started out with the best of intentions, only to have their enthusiasm and vision dampened by bureaucratic inertia and the weight of past practices. I need you to tell me what you think about issues, about the job I’m doing, about where you think our city and region should go. Encourage me when you think I’m right. Offer constructive criticism when you think I’ve been misguided. But please, keep in touch.

You made this victory happen. Now, by working with you, hearing from you, and learning from you, we can build on this breakthrough. We can create a city, region and world to be proud of. A place where no one is left behind; where people receive the support they need; where government is fair, open and inclusive; where social justice and environmental sustainability are integrated into every decision.

Yours in solidarity,

Link to CBC Interview on Election Night

 
 
Listen to the CBC interview I gave with fellow councillor-elect Lisa Helps on election night, Saturday, November 19.

Download Podcast

As a parent, I am endorsing the following eight progressive candidates for Trustee for the School District 61 Board of Education. Each of these candidates brings distinct skills to the table and diverse points of view. However, they share a common concern for protecting and enhancing our system of public education, which provides an essential stepping stone for each child’s development while contributing to our collective future as a humane and fair society:

Alpha, Catherine
Bratzer, David
Horsman, Bev
Loring-Kuhanga, Edith
McNally, Dianne
Nohr, Deborah
Orcherton, Peg
Paynter, Rob

 
I would urge you to join me in supporting these progressive candidates on November 19.

Victoria, like cities across Canada, North America and the globe, has become a site of contestation, where young and old people have drawn a line in the sand against a system they believe is built upon inequality and exploitation. These visionaries offer the brightest beacon in a generation of the possibility for a better world.

The people camped in Victoria’s Centennial Square belong to a global movement, inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that emerged in mid-September as a spear in the heart of the global financial system. They also look beyond North America to millions of people in North Africa and the Middle East who collectively made the “Arab Spring.”

My sympathies are with the visionaries occupying the world’s squares and the 99% they believe are on the losing end of our so-called “free” market economy. Read more »

By Katie Derosa, Victoria Times Colonist, October 7, 2011

A Victoria-based historian and council hopeful has bought what was once a house known for drugs and prostitution on Prior Street and is turning it into a home for him and his five-year-old daughter.

As Ben Isitt, 33, stands in the two-and-a-half storey 100-year-old home at 2547 Prior St., the bathroom is being gutted, the rooftop deck is being rebuilt and holes in the walls are patched and awaiting a fresh coat of paint.

“It’s a diamond in the rough,” Isitt said, as one of his campaign volunteers put a fresh coat of paint on a wooden railing in the yard. One room is already outfitted with a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, fitting for the author and University of Victoria history fellow.

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