Excerpts of Stuart McNish’s interview with Rebecca Bligh. Look for excerpts of other candidates in coming weeks.
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These are excerpts from Stuart McNish’s interview with Rebecca Bligh, the mayoral candidate for Vote Vancouver. We’ll be reporting on the interviews with the other candidates in the coming weeks. You can watch the entire Conversations That Matter interview at vancouversun.com/conversations.
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Stuart McNish: I want you to use your imagination. It’s four years from now. You’ve been the mayor for four years. What does Vancouver look like after your first term?
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Rebecca Bligh: In four years from now, … Vancouver is focused on delivery. … I understand why it’s not happening and what we need to do. There’s a clear plan and it’s underway in terms of delivering affordable housing. We are known for picking up good ideas. … I feel heard and represented in the decisions that they make and that truly city hall is more productive, less partisan and functioning as a local government is meant to do.
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McNish: How do you foresee being able to remove (obstacles) and get to what your vision is?
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Bligh: Well, I mean literally open city hall. City hall has more locked doors than open doors. … It’s so illustrative: City hall has locked doors that are closest to the path that gets to the rapid transit and the parking lot and the ways people access city hall. … We know that there’s a population of seniors that need to be able to come into city hall and get their questions answered that don’t use technology.
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The counter that’s open all of the time is the counter where you pay your property taxes. Maybe we need a counter that’s open for the small businesses that are needing to navigate city hall. What I see is the need for a small business concierge style of a service.
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McNish: Can you make that change?
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Bligh: That’s exactly what the mayor and council is supposed to do, to set the priorities and have that level of focus and discipline. This issue around a strong local economy and small business that’s the backbone of Vancouver. …
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Right now, small businesses are spending years, not just months, years, in navigating these processes that can be better laid out. I have a small business I was just chatting with the other day. She wanted to open up a back patio, and it’s taken her five years and it’s because they had to pass through the kitchen. …
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The city is not a place where people can thrive, and that is the job of city hall — to make sure that we get out of the way, we remove those barriers.
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We have 10 councillors and the mayor. But the mayor sets the tone. And so, I’m committing to you now that that is in our platform, because it is what’s needed.
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McNish: Vancouver has been branded as impossibly unaffordable. How do we change that affordability equation?
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Bligh: We need to stop talking about affordability as only a housing cost. There’s lots more that goes into affordability. We know that child care is a massive cost, often on par with housing costs in our city. We know that the day-to-day costs that add up are contributing to affordability. But also on the other side is that if you can’t find a job that pays you enough to be able to afford life in Vancouver, that impacts affordability.
