WE: Occupy Vancouver is irrefutably the issue of the election
Suzanne Anton: Its certainly a big issue because the election is about leadership and the lack of leadership and the lack of direction around Occupy Vancouver has been a real demonstration of the mayors leadership style, Gregors leadership style.
So do you feel Occupy Vancouver warrants the precedence its been given in this campaign?
Yes. Its the waffling and the dithering, the oh you can stay as long as you want oh you have to go, well maybe Ill cut your power off maybe Ill do this, maybe Ill do that, maybe Ill get an injunction, thats not leadership.
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing Vancouver in the next three years?
Housing supply. Lots of people come to Vancouver, not enough housing. And the economy. And they relate because if you dont have places for people to live, they dont want to come here and do business. Social housing is a separate issue.
A separate issue? O.K. lets talk about that then. One of the criticisms Ive heard of the NPA is youve been attacked for not having a homelessness strategy.
Well I think that that is the most ridiculous accusation. When I was elected in 2005 we had the most significant increase in social housing that has ever happened, ever, in the history of Vancouver. Do you know how much social housing Gregor has initiated?
Off the top of my head? No.
Absolutely none. Every single project you are seeing is an NPA project. I think the reason they say that ridiculous thing is because they feel guilty that theyve created no new housing. All they have done is change the definition of housing from solving homelessness to solving street homelessness and I think that is reprehensible. A shelter is not a home. To Gregor it is, its mission accomplished, to me it is not and I will return to the days when the NPA put the partnerships together to build social housing.
I just find that question not your question the suggestion and that Vision has the gall to say that, when theyve have done nothing to put together social housing. Every single ribbon theyre cutting is an NPA ribbon.
The partnerships that youve put into place, that youd like to put into place again are
We persuaded Rich Coleman to buy 26 hotels, we persuaded Rich Coleman to build 14 buildings and weve persuaded the federal government to do the mental health project, $20 million for housing for people with mental health issues. Weve got 24-hour funding for shelters and we founded Streetohome, which is charitable dollars into housing. Do you know that they voted against Streetohome? The Vison people? Those were five major projects from the last NPA council and I will continue that kind of imaginative and creative work to make sure that we have a good supply of social housing in Vancouver. But the most important piece of that is that I will put the partnerships together, the regional partnerships and the provincial partnerships, because taxpayers of Vancouver cant solve homelessness, it has to be through partnerships.
Lets talk about non-social housing, lets talk about market housing or affordable rental housing for people. What is your strategy around that?
People needing housing means we have to build housing supply. Im going to make it easier to have housing supply in Vancouver. Cutting red tape, predictability of fees and predictability of zoning, those will make it easier to build. Youve got to take advantage of the supply opportunities when you have them. So for example if youve got an area that can take a bigger building, you might consider making the building taller.
You cannot build supply everywhere in the city. You can only go where the going is good, if you know what I mean.
You and Gregor Robertson both said in the Nov. 7 homelessness debate that inclusionary zoning would not work in Vancouver. Why would inclusionary zoning not work in Vancouver?
Inclusionary zoning meaning forcing
Meaning [requiring] developers to allot a certain amount of housing to affordable or rental housing.
Well sorry, Gregors doing inclusionary zoning all along Cambie Street, so Im not sure if he said no to that what he meant.
He did say no to that.
He has required inclusionary zoning along Cambie Street and I disagree with that. We have a scarce housing dollar, taxpayers of Vancouver. My scarce housing dollars will go into where they are needed the most, for the most vulnerable.
So that would be social housing?
Yeah.
What about middle-income people who are suffering in Vancouver or young people moving out?
Young peopleI just want to build more housing. I think that is the only real answer. The market place is really creating a lot of rental housing through Do you know the big buildings downtown? And I bet you have friends that live in these, do you know the new towers downtown might be three-quarters rented? Huge rental market.
Where do you live?
I live in Mount Pleasant.
In a
In a purpose-built rental from the 70s.
Purpose-built rental from the 70s, OK, but I bet you have friends that live in condos downtown?
Not too many actually. Most live in old houses, that kind of thing.
Just like me when I was your age, we lived in a lot of places like that. But in any event, you know that thats a big rental market, right, because a lot of people live in those rented condos and that is a big source of rented housing. I was talking to a guy the other day, he had a big building, 350 units. Guess how many of them were rented? Ninety per cent. Thats a rental building, so I do not need to subsidize rentals because the market place is building rentals for me.
Lets talk about campaign finance. Vision put forth an appeal to the provincial government to have them regulate campaign contributions by corporations and developers in Vancouver. Whats your stance on that?
When did they do that, recently?
I dont know exactly when, but they did put forth a motion.
Oh a long time ago. I think I did support that actually. Im very happy to have the discussion. You have to understand that in a city like Vancouver, when you campaign you have to campaign for 600,000 people because its at-large. Its a complicated question, but I think it is one that the provincial government could tackle. Its not going to be unilateral, I could pretend to you and Vision could pretend to you that they are going to do it themselves, but the reality is that its not going to happen until the provincial government steps in.
How much of your campaign financing comes from developers and corporations?
I do not know. These are questions youd have to talk to our campaign manager about.
Would you ever be amenable to releasing those numbers before an election?
For me to see them before the election?
To release those publicly so the electorate would know?
Hm. Yeah, its a bit complicated to do that, I think. It all gets public. It is all published.
It is published, but it does get published about six months after the fact. I ask this because a lot of the alternative slates have raised an issue with developer financing of municipal slates and it creates at the very least a perception that theres a conflict of interest. How do you respond to that?
You have to separate it. I choose to not know whos supported me and I will tell you right away thats a little bit artificial because obviously I have access to who is supporting me and I can go online and look at any time. But I leave it in the hands of my campaign people and I put it out of my mind as best I can, which is for me pretty much out of my mind. I dont like to look at the list, I dont like to know whos given me money and I want to really qualify that by saying I appreciate that its artificial, because obviously its public information, so it is technically known to me. But I just dont want to know because I need to make every decision independent of who has donated to me.
At the beginning of your campaign you focused a lot on backyard chicken coops and front yard wheat fields. Why did you decide to focus on those things?
Its really focusing on misplaced priorities at City Hall. Gregor squandered three years of his agenda on the green agenda. Jessica, you are an observant person, can you tell me one thing new in the green agenda?
The bike lanes are new.
Bike lanes, weve had bike lanes for two decades in Vancouver.
The separated bike lanes.
Weve had separated bike lanes in Vancouver. The central valley greenway is separated bike lanes, Kent Street is separated bike lanes. Anything else on the green agenda?
The Greenest City Grants seem to be new.
That was new. Giving away money is new. But does that make the city greener to give away grant money? But my point is there is nothing new on the green agenda. Theyve spent three years saying wouldnt it be nice if we were greener in Vancouver? What makes us greener is good land use.
Im a land-use geek. Im a land-use politician. And the reason Vancouver has a fairly low carbon footprint is because so many people live downtown and live in high density. And I am a total environmentalist. Everything I do is based on what I think is good for the environment and for me, the best thing for the environment that cities can do is allow high-density development in all the right places, I hasten to add. Because people think I want to build highrises everywhere, no I do not. But I do want to build them where I can build them, if you know what I mean.
Another criticism Ive heard of your campaign is that you come across as a contrarian; opposing Visions policies just because theyre Visions policies as opposed to their merit. Whats your response to that?
We have such a positive platform and I came into politics to get better public facilities and Im still fixed on that agenda. I still have the ambition to have top-notch sport facilities and community centres, sport and recreation facilities in Vancouver. I want to have top cultural facilities. I can picture the new art gallery and the new museum downtown and picture Vancouver as a destination for people who want to see great cultural facilities. You go to some famous cities in the world you go there to see their culture. Thats what I want for Vancouver. I want to get the streetcar built, so I really am fixed on building that public infrastructure. Its a big part of our platform. I want to build a wonderful city. I dont actually see that in Visions platform, I dont actually see any public infrastructure in their platform. Thats my ambition for Vancouver. Im still in politics where I started, which is better public facilities.
Do you feel like the underdog in this race?
Yes. I am the underdog but my numbers are steadily going up. The day I wont be an underdog is the 19th of November.
What do you have to do between now and November 19th to get elected?
Were I.D.-ing voters, shaking thousands of hands, saying hello to people, communicating our platform, trying to figure out our platform in 140 characters.
How do you feel about some of the mayoral candidates, the independents and alternatives, being excluded from debates?
It always happens in politics that some people get excluded from debates. I cant say any more than that. Its usually up to the debate organizers, whether they do or they dont.
Youve opposed Visions rent bank idea. Why?
Tell me, is there a taxpayer cost to the rent bank or not?
You know what, I cant tell you.
You know why you cant tell me? Because yesterday they said theres not and today they said there is. Theyve changed their position on it. The city is not a good bank. City taxpayers should not be paying rent for other taxpayers. So if they want to form a rent bank as a charitable thing, of course I would be in support of it. But City of Vancouver taxpayers should not be supporting it. It goes back to what I said earlier which is, first of all, if its rent its provincial its not city. The city shouldnt be paying for it at all. Secondly, youve got to focus on your core job as a city. We dont have water in childrens wading pools, it sounds a bit frivolous, but the sidewalks are broken. You have to focus on what the citys job is, let the province well I dont even know that the province should be a bank. But to keep expanding your services and then turn your city into a bank? Ive spoken to so many taxpayers who have a tough time paying their taxes and they want their fundamental services. They want their sidewalks fixed, they want kids programs at the playgrounds, they want the trees trimmed, they want the graffiti off the walls, thats what people want from their city taxes and to start going off in these other directions, putting taxpayers money at risk in banks? Let the banks be banks, let the city be a city.
Arguably the city would bear the cost of homelessness if people are getting turfed out of their apartments.
Dont forget that one of the things that Gregor has done is he has made Vancouver citizens believe that they are responsible for homelessness. The mayor of Burnaby wont touch homelessness. What the citys responsible for is the leadership that was apparent in our last council when the NPA council took the leadership on all those things and made all those different things happen. Most of them involved other governments and their money, not City of Vancouver money.
How are you going to convince the Province to get more involved in housing?
Well, we convinced them five years ago.
Theyve taken a pretty hardlined stance though. Theyre not funding shelters this winter
Well whats Gregor done? Gregor has not done one single thing. No new units. His record on housing is actually really, really weak.
But what would you do to convince [minister responsible for housing] Rich Coleman to get more involved?
Well first of all, Id get the other 10 buildings built that arent built yet. Id like to assess what that means, because the number of homeless and the number of those buildings should match. But what I need to get the province to do and other non-profits, is we actually need to buy more buildings in the city. Its actually a quicker way of getting the housing, like buying the SROs, because theres no question that we need a steady stream of social housing in Vancouver.
