— I would have first sat down with staff and looked at their reasoning for not wanting the major development all at once. However, if the development meets the needs of the community in the here and now, then I would have voted yes to this. But if this development could have been put elsewhere without amending the OCP then I would have voted against it.

— We need to look at how we can best proceed with the 4,200 units, and then we need to look at getting funding from the province to upgrade the infrastructure to support additional development applications over time.

— We should look at getting more resources from the province in order to open more treatment centres and shelters to assist with drug user rehabilitation. In the meantime, we should look at temporary housing options similar to the Tin Town option that Victoria set up with temporary steel-box housing to get people off the streets into proper temporary housing. We could also look at maybe purchasing older motels and using them as housing treatment centres. The City of Victoria also took this approach and purchased many of the older motels and turned them into housing and drug rehab centres. We should also look at in the here and now hiring mobile outreach workers to walk around the city and assist helping drug users towards the path of rehabilitation and also have mobile outreach workers pass around free Naloxone kits to help revive drug users from overdosing and which helps reduce brain damage. We can also start by creating a non-profit organization through the municipality to expand real-time overdose outreach services through volunteers.

— We need to look at ways to work towards a greener North Cowichan where we will burn less fossil fuels. This will start through environmental initiatives. Fossil fuel burning is in part based on human actions. As a community we need to look at better ways to sustain the environment and reduce fossil fuels such as taking more energy efficient measures in the community will help with this. For example we should look at converting some of the municipal buildings to solar power and get more electric vehicle parking in the community such as charging stations, and we must look at methods and actions that we can take to lower our carbon footprint. Increasing transit service frequency will also help with this.

— Yes, I will respect the public’s wishes which were the result of the consultation process because many hours of dedication and hard work have gone into this process. Therefore, I must accept that the people have spoken as we can see through the fact that 76% of the public supported this plan.

— Then we will need to bring the public and the Quw’utsun Nation together to discuss how we can work through the conflicts to come up with the best solution that works for both the public and the Quw’utsun Nation.

— I feel it's important that the public be provided with regular updates on this consultation. As a councillor, if elected, I would like to set up open town hall meetings with the rest of council and the public to discuss the updates further so that we can keep working towards solutions that will work for both sides.

— I believe the North Cowichan citizens should have a say in the co-management process. I also feel we should have open townhall meetings with council, the band council, and the public where we can all come together to discuss any issues and see how we can work towards the best solutions for all sides. As this is a project that we are all working together on, we all want the best outcome for the protection of the municipal forest reserve.

Read more on Farmers: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/c341be86-67b7-44f3-866c-3fc055c21ff6