Victoria needs a Mayor that is more bridge-building, collaborative, able to bring the stakeholders, citizens and those with lived experience together. The chaotic piecemeal approach to ending homelessness has to be transformed into coordinated, effective and compassionate change.

“Too often, follow-through has been the weak point. My approach is to build the working system needed to change that: clear responsibility, coordinated action with provincial and regional partners, measurable results, and tracking whether improvements actually last.

It will require a coordinated effort. Citizens, governments, health services, housing providers, Indigenous partners, non-profits and people with lived experience working together around individual transitions into permanent housing.

This is a public health crisis. We need affordable, supportive and complex-care housing alongside mental-health care, harm reduction, treatment and recovery, prevention and pathways into employment. We should also work toward no discharge into homelessness from hospitals, corrections, detox, treatment or other public systems.

We can do much better.

City Hall belongs to the people of Victoria.

Good consultation happens before key choices are made. People should know what they can influence, see a fair account of what was heard, and understand what changed because they participated.

Consultation Should Actually Matter
City Hall already knows much of what good engagement requires: involve people early, clearly identify what is open for decision, report fairly what was heard, and close the loop afterward.

For major consultations, City Hall should publish a response within 60 days explaining what was heard, what changed as a result, and why Council chose differently where it did.

A Citizens’ Assembly for Victoria
As Mayor, I will bring forward a Citizens’ Assembly early in the term. It will bring together a broad cross-section of Victorians, provide reliable information and different perspectives, and give participants time to work through difficult choices before making recommendations.

Keep Two-Way Communication Open
City Hall should provide practical ways for residents to engage between elections. Abuse should be moderated firmly, but a badly functioning public forum should be fixed, not simply shut down.

A citizens-first City Hall listens early, explains its choices and shows people what their participation changed.

That means a mix of market and non-market housing, non-profit housing, supportive and complex-care housing, family-sized rentals and affordable paths to ownership.

New supply should be added without unnecessarily displacing existing affordable housing. Development decisions should consider affordability and displacement alongside overall supply.

Public land should create lasting public value, including opportunities for non-profit and co-operative housing.

City Hall should make approvals faster and more predictable, and publish permit-processing targets and actual processing times by permit type, so residents and builders can see whether approvals are really getting faster.

Housing cannot be solved by Victoria alone. As Mayor, I will work constructively with the CRD, Province and federal government, while pressing them when their policies, funding or implementation fall short.

New development should strengthen neighbourhoods with the infrastructure and amenities needed to support growth.

Homelessness is not synonymous with crime, and public safety policy should focus on harmful behaviour rather than someone’s housing status or background. Compassion does not require accepting violence, harassment, predatory behaviour or serious public disorder.

I support appropriate policing and enforcement alongside prevention, better public-space design, late-night safety, civilian and health responses where appropriate, and serious action on homelessness, mental illness and addiction.

Safe streets are a public good, and they belong to everyone.

I am proudly pro-union and support living wages, secure employment, apprenticeships and strong public services. I am also proud of 25 years of work at local non-profit community service agencies.

We need to support sustainable employment in the city, for the city workers we depend on and for everyone who serves our community.

Victoria needs practical action on building efficiency, extreme heat and wildfire smoke, resilient public facilities, water management, local food security, public transit and active transportation.

Businesses are already carrying costs that shouldn’t be theirs alone, from traffic congestion and lost productivity to helping keep business areas clean and welcoming. City Hall should be a stronger partner through better transportation, clean and safe streets, affordable housing for employees, good infrastructure and effective municipal services.

The economic pressure on Canada, combined with growing global uncertainty, makes it more important than ever to sustain local businesses.They provide not only jobs, but essential services, innovation and the economic activity that helps our communities grow. Let’s try to make every dollar we spend on the things that we need sustain our neighbours and community. City Hall should be at the centre of a proud, ongoing Buy Local campaign that encourages residents, businesses and public institutions to support our local economy.

Municipal procurement and investment can strengthen local supply chains, create good employment and keep more money circulating locally.

Economic development should be measured not only by how much investment comes into Victoria, but by the lasting prosperity it creates for the people who live here.

Public money, public land and public power should create lasting public value. Major decisions should come with straightforward public accounting: What did we spend? Why? Who benefited? What did the public receive in return? Where did we forgo revenue and why?.

I believe City Hall can be ambitious about improving Victoria while remaining careful, transparent and accountable with the public purse.

Victoria should be a place where artists, musicians, performers, writers, designers and cultural organizations can live, work and create.

Creativity also means entrepreneurship and innovation. Great cities give people the freedom and opportunity to experiment, create and imagine something better.