Provincial candidates talk business and safety in Victoria

On Wednesday, the Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) brought NDP, Green Party, and Conservative candidates for Victoria Beacon-Hill face-to-face-to-face to discuss topics ranging from tourism to public safety.

Held at the Victoria Conference Centre and moderated by Gregor Craigie, host of the popular CBC radio show On The Island, the meeting featured veteran MLAs Sonia Furstenau of the Green Party, the NDP’s Grace Lore, and Conservative newcomer Tim Thielmann.

The DVBA’s invite was for "business owners and operators [who] want to know how the candidates in Victoria-Beacon Hill plan to address the challenges of and opportunities for the area.” Over the nearly two and a half hours of intense discussion, the candidates didn’t disappoint. Spotlighted throughout the evening was a broad range of policy topics that directly impact lives and businesses downtown.

Off the top, Thielmann noted that downtown Victoria was built on three pillar populations—tourists, residents, and government workers. The hot-button issues—public safety, small business ownership, public transit, and infrastructure—impact all three. And while the candidates pitched their intentions and promises to Victoria voters, it is Victoria’s council, in practical terms, that must manage policy implementation. To that end, coordination is needed across jurisdictions.

Mayor Marianne Alto told Capital Daily, “It’s critical for the provincial government to work, and value their relationship, with local governments. We are responsible for programs and services that directly affect our residents every day, and local governments must be key partners in designing and delivering provincial policies.”

Alto said she is looking forward in the coming weeks to hearing more from provincial party leaders about how they will work with the city on housing, social services,  infrastructure funding, and community safety and well-being.

One of the dilemmas of trying to serve these three core groups is what’s good for one may be at odds with what’s good for another. That contradiction also played out at the meeting along partisan lines, mainly in the realms of public infrastructure, small business development, and public safety.

Parking, pedestrian spaces, and bike lanes compete on the streets

In the Conservatives’ world, the car remains king. The Green and New Democratic parties would like to see greater investment in public transit—specifically more electric buses. Thielmann said he had concerns Victoria doesn’t have a medium- to long-term plan for expanding public transit in the Capital Regional District. Moments later in the debate, he said public infrastructure “needs to keep in mind the fact that businesses require parking.”

For tourists and residents who already live and walk downtown, the promenade on Government is a feature that helps make Victoria unique. According to Walkscore.ca—which measures the distance between amenities in various cities—Victoria is a “walker’s paradise.”

Peter Mack, a Chicagoan visiting Victoria for three days, tells Capital Daily what he loves about the Garden City is that he can walk around everywhere.

“I think it's a very accessible, beautiful place to be a pedestrian, especially on Government Street, where it's closed to traffic. That’s been really enjoyable,” he said.

Business owner Lera Zareski of Artina’s handcrafted jewelry is worried that if the business doesn’t pick up along that same pedestrian stretch of Government, she won’t be able to keep her staff or continue to sell the work of the many artists her business has supported for 30+ years. She says 95% of those artists—many of them Indigenous—are local.

Parking, parking and parking

She tells Capital Daily parking is a major issue that has kept many residents from outside of the core and around the CRD from visiting her shop. As a result, she now relies on her online buyers and tourists. And now there’s another challenge in attracting tourists, she says. “The cruise ship schedule has changed. A lot of cruise ships are now arriving very late.

“The boats have to leave at midnight, so we try to stay open late to provide the service to those customers,” she said, explaining that the effort takes a toll on her staff and her operating budget.

The late hours of their stops indicate to some degree, the cruise ships aren’t stopping in Victoria so much for the shopping but rather to satisfy the 1886 PVSA (Passenger Vessel Services Act), which dictates ships must stop in a foreign port before returning to a US port of origin, in order to qualify for various tax breaks.

“The days we have cruise ships coming during the day, tourists are coming and shopping and going for lunch and coming back. But when they come late, we don’t have business here,” said Zareski.

After three decades downtown, she says she’s considering moving her business entirely online. “I don’t want to lay off my staff,” she said. But she fears she may have to.

Fast-food franchises that can afford to pay Victoria’s rising retail rents and stay open late for tourists are taking up more storefront vacancies along Government. These stores are necessary but they are not what made Condé Nast vote Victoria the best city in the world. “Chicken, chicken, chicken is all we will see,” joked Zareski.

Public safety was another concern for her. She, like other shop owners, has had to contend with downtown’s escalating opioid and homelessness crisis.

“The last two years, homeless people sleep here, they leave their garbage here, and are doing their necessities here. They are doing drugs right on the picnic tables.”

Candidates agree: downtown needs fixing

She nods towards the open storefront door to the street beyond. She said it’s gotten better lately and the availability of the new Community Crisis Response Team (CCRT) that connects people in crisis to services they need makes her “hopeful.” She has the CCRT card right by her till.

All of the candidates spoke to this ongoing reality.

Thielmann supports a more severe judicial response to downtown lawbreakers and supports involuntary treatment in cases where people who he described are so debilitated by the impact of substance use that they can’t raise their own hand to ask for help.

“It is inhumane to stand back and say, we're just gonna wait for you to let us know when you're ready when you see somebody lying face down for the second time on Pandora, those are the people that need to be picked up and taken to somewhere that they can be cared for,” Thielmann said.

While Lore did not speak directly to the matter of involuntary care, the NDP government has said it would expand involuntary treatment for people with severe mental health and addiction issues. Fursteneau said she would rather see far greater investment in addressing the root causes of homelessness and addiction, such as poverty reduction and increased holistic supports for unhoused people. She’s also all for stricter enforcement against criminals selling toxic drugs in the city and beyond.

That kind of enforcement can’t be done without a coordinated police response. “One of the recommendations [that came] out of the special committee [on police reform] was regional and coordinated police,” Lore said. “We have a small region and a lot of detachments. We need to make sure that our systems and our policing is fair to Victoria and that we are actually delivering service and response to community members,” she said.

“We need a Victoria that's safe, affordable, accessible, and fun. I don't need to tell you that it's unsafe today in downtown Victoria”, Thielmann said. “Rent has doubled in six years. Businesses are getting crushed by taxes and fees, and what do they have to show for it?”

Businesses need more support, lower taxes, and less bureaucracy

Andy Cunningham, owner of Green Cuisine organic eatery in Market Square, calls the pre-Covid years “the golden years of Victoria.”

“[Politicians] are all going to increase the minimum wage and put extra statutory holidays,” he said. “The blanket five-day sick leave policy for employees was not properly thought out.”

He’d like to see considerations made for how long an employee has worked and whether they’ve actually earned that time off.

“What about the difference between a full-time employee and a part-time employee, someone who worked for a couple of months and then quits? How come they're allowed to take five days’ sick leave that I have to pay somebody who works all year and never takes a sick pay?” he asked.

Cunningham likes Furstenau’s Wednesday night proposal, that businesses buy into an umbrella sick day insurance policy, covered on a pro-rata basis by larger to smaller businesses—meaning larger businesses would cover the greater cost share of the theoretical policy they could all buy into.

“I want to be fair to my employees and keep the costs of food low, something I have been able to do because I have been here so long and am in the financial position now to do that,” he said. “These are all expenses we pass onto the customer.” “I also support the carbon tax. We’ve got to do something about climate change. I think everybody should chip in and save the climate. If you’ve got kids and grandkids, you’re thinking long-term. Climate is a very important issue. That is a good business decision.”

None of the questions directed at candidates this night addressed climate change.

When candidates were asked whether they’d support the creation of a small business secretariat or ministry none was particularly supportive of an added bureaucracy. However, Furstenau said she’d like there to be an orientation to small business.

“I think our government has been oriented to big industry, big business, and has really left behind the small and medium businesses that are so critical to our economy,” she said.

Lore wondered if something innovative could be done with the surplus of redundant office space in the downtown, given the number of workers who now work from home.

​​The Greens, the NDP, and the Conservatives would all like to see policing reform, though not necessarily in the same direction. Both Lore and former Green MLA Adam Olsen worked together on the Parliamentary Committee on Reforming the Police Act. Fursteneau’s critique of that and the Select Standing Committee on Health on which she served, is that “the public comes in good faith to these committee hearings and believes that they're participating in shaping policy, and then, way too often, their recommendations don't go forward.”

Excerpts from candidate closing remarks reveal their values and their vision

“We have to start voting for the future and the work that we want to have, and we have to start asking ourselves really important questions about where governments have not succeeded, if not failed, to respond appropriately to the climate crisis. Two parties… have governed this province forever and we get very similar outcomes, regardless of who has that majority power. The time we [will] see change in this province is when one party does not have all the power.” —Sonia Furstenau, BC Green

“My commitment is to continue to show up and for this community to make sure that we've got a progressive government that can take action, that can invest in housing and invest in health care. We need to make sure that people continue to be at the centre of every decision made by the government, and that's my commitment.” — Grace Lore, BC NDP

“I am here to give you a vision for Victoria that is safer, more affordable, more accessible, and more fun, where people want to come again, where people feel safe, where people feel like they're heard, and where we address the real issues that have not been tackled.” — Tim Thielmann, BC Conservatives

Election day is Oct. 19. All candidate meetings in your riding are a great opportunity to get to know your candidates and their party platforms.