All Candidates Forum

Audience members at the All-Candidates Forum held November 2 at the Phoenix Theatre, were allotted one-minute each to ask the panel questions. Some questions were directed to individual candidates while others were directed to the panel, and often several weighed in on the concerns. Over 125 attended, with 55 online listeners. The forum was not recorded, but was streamed for on-line listeners to tune in. The following is a shortened summation of some of the questions and answers: First names are used.

Q) Why did you consider spending $7.4 million of taxpayers money on a government owned health clinic without first holding a referendum?

A) Kim: Council thought there was adequate community engagement with the Alternative Approval Process (AAP), which proved to be false. We will be going to referendum in the spring. It looked as though people who filled out the forms didn’t know what they were voting for.

A) Bill: As a voter against the AAP, this should have gone to referendum right away.

A) Nathan: My understanding of AAP within the community charter is that it is to be used for essential things that may require millions of dollars to repair or put in place like sewer or water – for those types of decisions, not for the proposed medical health centre.

Q) Are you still in favour of the NRRM opening and operating a new medical health building?

A) Laurie: It’s a hard yes or no because it’s off the table right now – it’s done and when we go back to the community we’ll be listening to the community.

A) Todd: Some people want it and some don’t and it needs to be further researched.

A) Doug: We have a privately operated clinic and we need consultation with medical professionals in the community first – no point in trying to find five doctors to fill a building and finding out the three we have are going to leave.

A) Kim: As a taxpayer I would vote yes because I believe it will work – as

cona councillor, it’s not up to me it’s up to every one of you. It was difficult to articulate to the public what we knew because a lot of those meetings were in camera.

A)Doug: The doctors actually approached us – it was brought forward that way.

A) Laurie: We did have engagement with the doctors we had quite a bit of engagement.

Q) Whether we like it or not the oil patch is ‘old boys’ club – people break in and people can’t get in. When it comes to working in Calgary I think it makes a big difference with who you are and the representation you carry. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

How do you feel you can get into the CEO’s offices when 99% of the people can’t even get past the secretary’s office. You’ve got Mayor Streeper who’s been there for 30 or 40 years meeting with CEOs on a regular basis. How do you feel you are going to get into the CEO offices?

A) I didn’t go into this with blinders on. It’s an old boys club and I put feelers out there. If I thought Calgary or industry would not embrace me as a leader I would not be sitting here right now.

A) The mayor of Fort St. John is a woman and they’re doing pretty good.

B) In any job I’ve had, committee or board I’ve been on, oil companies, industry, forestry, government, will meet with whoever is at the helm regardless of whether they’re a woman or man.

A) Tourism has a growing economic impact in the north – what would you do to support development?

A) The area this government has jurisdiction over is very large with different landscapes and opportunities. We need to take advantage of that by creating our own tourism opportunities given that we’re called the Serengeti of the North. Lets flex our own muscles. We can get creative working with the local guides, outfitters and stakeholders. Again, economic diversification.

A) We have a lot of information out there about our area; we attend trade shows, and have advertising in tourist brochures. Everybody looks at the potential, but most Americans stop in Dawson Creek and just stop here for food because they have to get to the Yukon and Alaska.

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A) The Visitor Information Centre is open year-round and serves the people travelling the Alaska. We’re getting of a lot of feedback from them.

Q) Brand issue – how do we want to be portrayed? Who are we? It’s working for other communities.

A) Strike a committee of locals to decide branding Fort Nelson. Family values, home grown.

A) We’re the un-country – unpolluted, untamed and unpopulated.

A) Names like gold-pan city, lakes country are some examples in the province. Ours is opportunity at its Peak, and there are opportunities, but we need to focus on geography too.

Q) Apache is for sale and are pulling out of Fort Nelson, a big hit to our economy. As Mayor how do you plan to deal with this situation and others like this?

A) I have not heard Apache is pulling out, just that they’re redistributing. I think that’s a rumour. We have to work with our industry partners closely. It’s tough with the price of gas and oil. There’s a bottom line. We have to continue to work with them as a community and local government and get through this.

A) Apache is for sale, and they’re selling their 50% interest (stake) that they own with Chevron. I’ve talked many times to Tim Wall. He has also talked to us in Council. They are continuing with their contract obligations with Chevron as they try to sell the business. Apache (in writing) said that if they have not sold when they build the LNG plant in Kitimat, they’ll put employees in Fort Nelson (for upstream).

Q) Diversification of economy bringing forestry back in – for those of you seeking re-election, what have you done to bring forestry back?

A) We are marketing our in timber. You are seeing the effects of that now with all the news articles coming out. We’re shopping around for an investor. I don’t believe we’ll get any help from the government or Canfor. We hired a forestry consultant to guide us in lead us in the right direction.

A) We’ve approached the government about forestry licenses. If a new operator comes to town where are they going to locate? Some properties for sawmills are already owned by the competition and they want to retain the wood licenses. Need discussion with railway. It’s going to be a tough battle on our own. We want the provincial government let us take over the awarding of licenses.

A) We had a document describing our large, healthy, diverse forest translated into Chinese, and since August we’ve had 13 serious inquiries. We need to manage the resource ourselves. Agriculture cannot expand without removal of our valuable trees. I was in a four hour meeting today with a single forestry company who is interested in this area.

Q) LNG provides a comfortable lifestyle for our community. How do you plan to mitigate environmental impacts such as CO2 emissions, water quality and reduced wildlife habitat?

A) We have some of the strongest regulations in Canada. I don’t know as local government that we need to do more. Those regulations are there and they’re working. The regulations are strong enough.

A) I believe the people the provincial government has in place here are very good both in forestry and at the OGC. If we look at what happens here and worldwide, we’re way farther ahead. David Suzuki had to go to New York to film his film about fracking because he couldn’t find the evidence he wanted in Canada let alone in BC. The regulations in BC are very stringent but the oil companies say they’re workable.

Q) The mayor has retained your services – how can we be sure your decisions will not be influenced by the mayor?

A) All council members face conflicts of interest. I’ve acted for about 4000 individuals in Fort Nelson over the past 10 years. If I’m fortunate enough to be elected I would look at the issue before me recuse myself. It wouldn’t impede my ability to carry out my duties. I’m sure many people buy things from Boondocks and get their trucks fixed by Doug.

Q) Fair share agreement – with downturn in the economy and LNG unknown, how will we get tax dollars to maintain infrastructure?

A) We match provincial government – they give $10 million and we match $10 million. We always spend between $8 and $10 million in existing tax structure. There should be no reason to increase taxation to support any of the money for infrastructure.

A) We need a 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year business plan. If we can’t come up with the $10 million, the government won’t write a check for us.

A) We had to provide projections to industry and they said they’re good. We’ll watch property tax assessments. We’re already spending the money annually, and with the extra $10 million, it’s about time.

Q) If elected as Mayor, what would you do differently that current mayor hasn’t already done?

A) Kim one of the biggest things I would like to see a more open government – the way in camera meetings are held – what must be held in camera and what may be held in camera. A different way of leading, and opening up council to residents, being approachable. While we continue with infrastructure funding and industry, there’s a piece that’s missing – openness of government. You pay everyone’s stipend, you should have access to us all the time.

Q) No one can comment at council meetings on issues until after the vote and the media period. That means no one can have input into issues prior to the vote.

A) If there’s people in the gallery, before we vote we should be asking them if they have concerns or would like to add anything.

A) November 15th is the time for you to tell your officials how you want them to represent you.

A) It’s a wider issue than that. There’s a responsibility to open up council chambers, not just through social media and facebook learning about this and that until it becomes a controversy. It has to be opened up way way before that. There’s a bylaw on the books right now that prohibits the media and recording devices from being in council chambers. In other communities you can go on Shaw and you can see what’s going on. I came across information on the AAP off-chance – that’s anti-democratic and not supposed to happen unless for example the sewer is busted and raw sewage is in the streets. I’m not putting any fault on Mayor and Council – Mayor Streeper was the only one who didn’t vote for this.

Q) Our council meetings are the 2nd and 4th Monday each month – there are other ways to get that out there. Please come to the council meetings.

A) There’s no participation level, and for the public to be heard before a vote, it would save us a lot of time. Most of us solicit information from the community before voting and it’s time consuming.