Claire Moglove
INTRODUCTION
Hi everyone I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person but I’ll be watching the live feed.
My name is Claire Moglove and it’s been my honour to have served on city council for 10 years. Before becoming a city councillor I worked as a family law lawyer for over 30 years.
I have a deep connection to Campbell River. It has been my pleasure to volunteer on the board of the Community Foundation, the Willow Point Seniors Housing Society and the Campbell River Museum. I was also heavily involved with organizing the original Relay for Life and the Terry Fox Run. Recently I have volunteered at the Hama?elas Kitchen.
Campbell River is at a crossroads. What I mean is that the decisions this new council makes will have significant ramifications for the next 10, 20, 30 and even 50 years. In particular, decisions about whether we continue to spread further and further south or further and further north or whether we try to densify. These decisions will make a really big difference as to what our community will look like, what the sense of community will be, how our downtown will be able to survive and whether we will be able to afford all of the infrastructure costs associated with geographic expansion.
These are very big decisions indeed. It’s important that council is made up of people who have experience AND new people who have fresh ideas. It is the combination of these two that creates the best council. We also need a council that represents the diversity of opinions and viewpoints in our community. Compromise and collaboration are the keys to a long-term healthy and vibrant community for everyone.
HOW will reconciliation and de-colonization inform your approach in working with our Indigenous Communities??
In many ways, reconciliation is a personal journey and without having taken some steps in that personal journey, it is difficult to have an “approach” at the Council table. As a member of the Board of Directors of Island Health for 6 years, I was privileged to take part in the San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training program. It opened my eyes to many things and I will continue to take those learnings to the Council table.
Specifically, it is crucial that decisions of Council include a consideration of First Nations perspective – as a Government to Government – not as stakeholders.
One of the first steps is to get to know each other, not only as political representatives, but as people, as neighbours.
At the Council to Council meeting with the Wei Wai Kum in late 2021 (our first and only), as the first Campbell River Councillor to introduce myself, I took the liberty of speaking at length – where my parents and grandparents came from, where they landed in Canada, how I ended up in Campbell River. All my colleagues on Council took the opportunity to do the same, as did members of the Wei Wai Kum Council. At the end, Chief Roberts thanked me. It was a small first step.
If you are elected, what will be your top 3 priorities, and which one would focus on first?
Housing, public safety, infrastructure renewal
They are all related so I do not believe we can prioritize one over the other. Besides, at a recent event, I heard Margaret Atwood say – we can have more than one front burner – just like on our stoves.
Please provide an overview of your professional background and how you feel it contributes to you being a good candidate for councillor?
I practised as a lawyer for over 30 years. My legal training and practice provides me with certain skills – the ability to read and understand lengthy and complex documents, critical thinking, the ability to speak in public and to advocate on a particular issue.
In addition, partway through my legal career, I made a conscious choice to eliminate litigation from my practice. I chose to concentrate on Mediation and Collaboration. I took courses to become certified as a Family Law Mediator and later in Collaborative Law. I take the skills learned in mediation and collaboration to the Council table, always trying find a middle ground when there are two opposing views. I firmly believe that a Council must be collaborative and all of us must be willing to compromise once in a while, for the good of the community.
The number of citizens without a family doctor is growing exponentially, what would you propose for recruitment and retention of new physicians and their families to come and live in Campbell River?
As a member of the Board of Directors of Island Health for 6 years, I can attest to the fact that this is an issue Island-wide and Province-wide. There are a variety of factors and each factor require a different possible solution. Most of the solutions are at the Provincial level or at the College of Physicians and Surgeons level – for instance, subsidies to assist new physicians with the ever-increasing overhead costs, relaxing some of the restrictions on foreign-trained physicians, promoting more multi-discipline medical centres.
As for the City itself – we can make sure there is sufficient housing and recreational amenities so that physicians and their families will see Campbell River as the place they will want to live.
What role should Council play in protecting and restoring Campbell River hospital services such as restoring the lab to full local capabilities?
I believe that the provision of health services at our hospital should be left with the experts in the field – doctors, nurses, medical health officers, etc.. If the Chief of Staff at our hospital or the Executive Medical Director of this region believes that there is a problem with services being taken away and thinks that Council can assist by advocating to either Island Health or to the Province, absolutely we should do so. But any role to be played by Council must be based on science, evidence and expert analysis.
Regarding the lab services in particular, as one can imagine, there have been very significant advances in medicine in the past 10 years. Medical knowledge and treatments are constantly evolving. A procedure that once necessitated an operation and a 4-5 day stay in hospital is now done as either day-surgery or sometimes at the doctor’s office. Similarly with pathology. The technology has evolved to such a point that the equipment and medical training has become much more specialized. This means that in order to obtain a precise “read” – sometimes a sample must be sent out of Campbell River to Victoria or Nanaimo where they have the most advanced technology. This is better for the patient and the turnaround times have been shown to be as fast as or faster than in the past.
Due to an impending apartment development there will be an eviction on Jan 31 of an individual on disability and her sister who is retiring from their mobile home — at the moment have nowhere to go due to no available affordable housing. BC Housing has told them it is more than a 5-year wait for subsidized housing. Over the last two decades countless municipalities throughout North America have gathered evidence that CLEARLY demonstrates that preventing homelessness is way more cost effective than addressing homelessness after housing is lost. What would you do to encourage a more diversified and affordable housing supply such as requiring a certain percentage of new units in ANY building be subsidized and affordable?
Inclusionary zoning – such as requiring a certain percentage of new units in any building be subsidized and affordable is not allowed under current Provincial law. So advocacy on that issue is needed.
As for encouraging a more diversified and affordable housing supply – A) blanket secondary suites (I was the only member of the current Council to vote in favour of this policy) B) pre-zone for 3rd dwelling units on lots that are a minimum size; C) pre-zone areas for missing middle, preferably around services and village centres and schools etc and where the housing stock and lot patterns are older and lend themselves to this type of infill D) lower development costs charges and site upgrade charges for housing that is affordable E) lobby for changes to the building code as it relates to tiny homes so that people can get insurance F) study and possibly regulate the use of suites and homes as vacation rentals
This is a Yes or No question: Are you in favour of a long and short term Mental Health facility being built in Campbell River?
Yes
Food Insecurity has become a daily challenge for many families due to the astronomical inflation — what ideas do you have to address increased small agriculture to feed our community?
Dust off the City’s Agricultural Plan, update it if need be and prioritize the recommendations contained in it. More partnerships with community groups for community gardens. Look at incentivizing the including of food garden spaces in new multi-family developments. Emulate programs from other communities – for instance the Food Rescue program in Victoria which recovers and redistributes fresh food to insecure communities
As most are aware — competition for potential employees is fierce — for many salary amounts alone are no longer the single motivating factor for staying in a job. Given the number of vacancies at City Hall and the number of professionals who have left recently, WHAT will be YOUR approach to create a culture at City Hall where staff feel valued, inspired, and motivated to stay?
Number one – Council must take ownership of their own behaviour and ensure that all interaction with City staff is respectful. One might disagree with staff, and I have disagreed from time to time. But being disrespectful at the Council table or in any other dealing with our staff – that is completely unacceptable.
If re-elected, I would like to sit down with our senior staff and look at ways that we can empower all City staff to “think outside the box”, come up with unique and bold ideas, to know that their input is valued. BUT this cannot happen unless staff feel “safe” when interacting with Council.
Reducing car dependency and improving options for different modes of transportation has been proven to have economic, health, environmental and livability benefits — and in light of a growing climate emergency, what SPECIFIC actions would you support to increase active and alternative transportation in Campbell River such as an increased number of Public Electrical Charging stations, E-bike rentals, etc
After being elected in 2018, I asked staff why Campbell River did not receive Provincial grants for active transportation, when other communities did, to the tune of upwards of $1,000,000. I was told it was because we did not have “shovel ready” projects for which to apply for grants. So I made a motion to increase the budget for cycling infrastructure from $15,000 to $200,000 annually. The purpose was to enable design work which would lead to grant applications.
I also made a motion to have active transportation incorporated into the design work of any City project which involved the digging up of roads. Again this was so as to enable “shovel ready” projects and to be proactive and not reactive.
These are first steps.
In addition to cycling lanes, we also need much better safe bike storage, whether it be downtown, at shopping areas, or at city facilities. There was a pilot project in Victoria this past summer, called Bike Valet, and we should look the results and perhaps emulate.
We should look at not only more public EV chargers but also requiring EV chargers and proper, safe bike storage in all new multi-family developments. This will require consultation with the development community to see what the ramifications are in terms of cost and feasibility.
Regarding sidewalks, we have $250,000 in the budget for the expansion the sidewalks network, however, we are usually unable to complete identified projects. We need to figure out a way to complete the sidewalk expansions annually.
I recently visited the lovely town of Sidney and was quite impressed with all of the public art. The City of Campbell River currently has not had a Public Art Policy for years — for those currently serving — WHY? And, will you work towards creating one if elected?
The Public Art policy has been on the books in one form or another for years. Roughly 10 years ago when it was first brought to Council, the main stumbling block was financing. The suggestion at the time was that a fund for Public Art be built into the budget for any new large development. So for instance, say a $10 million project, there would be an additional 1% required to be added – $100,000.00. That concept did not pass the Council of the day.
When I returned to Council in 2018 after a 4 year absence, the Public Art policy had a budget of $25,000 per year – from general taxation I believe. The stumbling block at that time was more about the composition of any Public Art Committee and how it would function. I think it is fair to say that it was not a major priority of Council – Council went through a Strategic Priority session to identify our priorities – housing, the Urban Containment Boundary, issues downtown, infrastructure renewal and replacement. Then of course Covid hit in March 2020 and we had to make sure that the City could cover its necessary expenses. Since COVID has eased, Council has been preoccupied with public safety issues, housing issues and the Public Art Policy has not gotten the attention it deserves.
One of our city department managers (since retired) said once to think of Public Art in the same way as decorating your home. Can you imagine a house with 4 walls, a roof and no decoration? That has always resonated with me.
Now with regard to sports — The decisions around sports fields in the city since May of 2021, as one example —900 plus Slo-pitch Members are without a place to call home, having to limit the number of teams each night that can play and unable to run their usual charity tournaments, etc. What will be your approach to restoring fairness to all sports teams ?
As most people probably know, Council made the decision to move the younger children playing baseball from Nunns Creek Park to Willow Point Park due to safety concerns. I believe this was the right decision, but it has put enormous pressure on all our other field users. Until Nunns Creek Park is back to full usage, the problem will remain but The City is working very hard to get Nunns Creek Park back to full capacity.
Looking to the future, our recreational facilities have not kept up with our population growth. We will be doing a Parks and Recreation Master Plan in the near future and there must be very wide-ranging and extensive public engagement, in particular with all the user groups.
One way forward to try and alleviate the shortage of ballfields and fields in general, is to collaborate more and partner more with the School District and our First Nations neighbours. Can we do more to pool our resources, in terms of available fields, ball diamonds etc.
I know our City staff are tireless in trying to accommodate all the different user groups and sports teams. It is very challenging. The Parks and Recreation Master Plan will identify gaps in our available facilities and recommend ways to fill those gaps.
IN CLOSING
I am sorry to have missed the live event. Covid seems to be everywhere these days. I want to thank all the candidates who have put their names forward to run in this election. I know from experience that it is not easy and so I applaud all of you.
When you make your choice as to who to vote for, I hope you will take into account the candidate’s commitment to a collaborative approach, a demonstration of an open-mind, someone who understands that he or she needs to know what questions to ask and not purport to have all the answers. If you know the questions, we can get the answers from the experts in the field. None of the candidates are experts in any field of the services provided by the City.
It would also be my hope that any new Council represent the diversity of our City – and that includes some with experience and some without, some from the baby-boomer generation, some much younger. It is the diversity of our City that is one of its greatest strength and that should be reflected on Council.
Thank you!