Hello Victoria!
Thank you for reading my vision for the City of Victoria. The ideas outlined below were developed in close consultation with people from our city, including residents, subject-matter experts, small businesses, artists, affordability advocates and youth.
I’m fully committed to listening to residents, reducing division in the community, tackling the big challenges we’re facing, and building a better city for everyone. Please reach out if you’d like to discuss any of these issues in detail.
My platform is based around 8 Key themes:
- Housing and Affordability
- Climate Change
- Parks and Amenities
- Livable Neighbourhoods
- Arts and Culture
- Welcoming Downtown
- Effective and Accountable Governance
- Reconciliation with First Nations
A healthy city has homes for everyone – students, artists, families, workers, and seniors. Right now, Victoria is in a housing crisis which means people can’t find places they can afford to live and businesses can’t retain the workers they need to thrive. The City of Victoria has a Housing Strategy that lays out a plan to build diverse and affordable housing for all – but it’s falling behind. We need to get back on track and speed up new rental, affordable, social and market housing. I commit to making that happen as soon as possible.
Affordability & Renters: We need more low-income housing and affordable rental housing and to keep people from being evicted from their homes. To do this, we must accelerate construction of non-market housing, build thousands of new rental units, and strengthen policies to protect renters.
Adding Housing Supply: We need to add more market housing while still ensuring neighbourhoods are green, vibrant and safe with a great sense of community. To do this, we must have housing strategies based around walkable communities, good transit, amenities and great public spaces.
Climate change is the most critical challenge of our generation. I am committed to doing everything possible to reduce emissions in Victoria. City councils play a huge role in creating local policies to reduce emissions and help educate the public. As a parent, I know my children will be dealing with the realities of a warming climate throughout their life. I’ve been passionate about tackling climate change for a long time. In 2009, I wrote my Master’s thesis on policies to incentivize small-scale agriculture in BC, to help build climate resilience. Throughout 2020 and 2021, I represented community associations on the City of Victoria “Climate Change Adaptation” working group. I’m proud that my community South Jubilee hosts a monthly zero-waste recycle depot, to keep plastics and styrofoam out of the landfill. The City of Victoria declared a climate emergency in 2019, but we must act faster to tackle the climate crisis. To reduce emissions, we must promote active and public transportation, reduce vehicle reliance and traffic congestion, and move to clean electricity to heat our homes and buildings.
Reducing emissions and waste: Advocate for policies that promote green building technologies, reduce waste and move towards a circular economy.
Active transportation: Expand clean and active transportation options and public transit - so everyone can get around Victoria easily and at reasonable cost.
Victoria should remain a green, accessible and engaging city for everyone, which requires increased investment in our shared community space. Victoria is falling behind other communities by not investing in new parks, playgrounds, sports fields, recreation, and community services. As a parent, I use these public spaces often, and I’ll be a strong advocate for public amenities on council. We need to preserve green space and invest in new parks with inclusive amenities, and we must invest in recreation facilities for everyone – such as a new Crystal Pool and Central Library.
My vision for Victoria is a city made up of unique, complete, walkable villages, where citizens have most services in their own neighbourhood. Victoria is growing, so it is critical that we ensure our neighborhoods are amazing places as we grow. We can do this by creating innovative local plans, in consultation with communities, to ensure each neighbourhood is unique, walkable and vibrant.
I’m a strong advocate for the arts, cultural and music community in Victoria, with decades of experience as a musician and event organizer – including everything from putting on shows at the Fernwood community hall to touring locally and internationally with my bands, Kincaide (www.kincaideband.bandcamp.com.) and Croatia (www.croatia.bandcamp.com). These days, I lead The Big Tree Band, a children’s music group that plays throughout Victoria. Victoria should support its thriving arts and culture sector by providing artists with great venues and practice spaces, and also encourage community involvement. To do this, we must implement strategies in cooperation with the arts community, preserve important venues and provide grant funding for diverse artists to create work for the public.
Victoria’s downtown should be a thriving and unique place that is a great place for families, residents and visitors. I’m committed to making Victoria’s downtown a place for local business to flourish and urban culture to thrive. I want our downtown to be accessible and welcoming, with safe and well-designed streets and public spaces.
Effective & Accountable Governance
Earlier this year, an external report about governance in the city showed the public wanted better transparency and to be more informed about decision making. This report shows a new council has work to do. As a longtime civil servant, I know the importance of good governance and community trust. I commit to working to improve transparency, accessibility, and trust at City Hall. To do this, I support many of the recommendations for improved governance from the 2022 report, namely listening to residents and being transparent in making decisions.
The City of Victoria is located on the homelands of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations and is also home to a diverse range of Indigenous peoples from many nations, as well as Metis and Inuit peoples. I commit to my own path of learning and I support the City’s commitment to Reconciliation with the Esquimalt and Songhees Nation, and will work collaboratively with local First Nations to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.