Housing took top billing at Tuesday’s all-candidate meeting held at Richmond’s Minoru Centre.
From a call for large-scale change to ensure next generations can live in Richmond, to building on city-owned land, to the need for more rental and co-op housing, candidates pitched their vision of what Richmond should look like in the future.
Even questions on supporting businesses or the food bank circled back to the housing crisis.
And, sometimes, candidates got emotional on the topic.
Independent candidate Evan Dunfee called for “foundational change” to reach the city’s housing goals, instead of just “tinkering around on the edges.”
“I heard so many of my fellow candidates say how they raised families here in Richmond,” Dunfee said, then choked up.
“I want to raise a family here in Richmond and that is getting so untenable,” he added, his voice wavering.
(Click here to see the full video including the half-hour mayoral debate.)
One audience member asked about the Caring Place, which has a proposal to redevelop the city-owned land it leases to include affordable housing.
Coun. Bill McNulty said the proposal the board brought to the city wasn’t “palatable,” although, in principle, he agreed city land should be used for low-income and co-op housing.
Sheldon Starrett, running for council with the Richmond Community Coalition, said he’d like to see rent-to-own housing as well as co-op housing.
In the meantime, RITE candidate Jerome Dickey said businesses are hurting because they can’t get employees, largely, because they can’t get housing.
“We’ve heard from a lot of business people that if we don’t create affordable housing, they’re not going to have employees here.”
He added many current councillors are saying a lot is being done for housing, but that’s “delusional” and very little is being done because of the divisive nature of city council.
Independent candidate Adil Awan agreed that the unavailability of housing is a big problem for employees.
“Employees couldn’t live in the city they lived in,” he said. “The affordable housing crisis has been going on for years”
In response to a question about allowing six-storey buildings outside of city centre, incumbent Coun. Alexa Loo said this should be based on consultation. While it makes sense to have commercial with residential on top, some single-family home areas might not be ready for more density.
“I think we need to, as a community, decide what we want, what we’re willing to live with, and what sacrifices or changes we’re willing to live with,” Loo said.
Day’s response to the question was “yes, yes, yes,” however, she didn’t think it would necessarily work in subdivision areas, that is, single-family home areas.
“We keep voting for developments that under-utilize the land,” Day said. She noted a “luxury” townhouse development at No. 2 and Blundell roads, which, instead could have been towers.
“I think we need to squeeze out of every single development everything we can,” Day added.
Many candidates tied the housing crisis to the climate crisis. RCA candidate Jack Trovato, however, focused on the need to expand Richmond’s tree canopy.
Richmond’s has dipped to 11-12 per cent coverage from 15 per cent because of development, he said, compared to Vancouver’s tree canopy at 22 per cent.
Trovato wants the city’s tree planting program accelerated to help build the tree canopy.
“Otherwise we might not have much of a climate left,” he said.
‘Divisive inertia’
Richmond Rise candidate Kash Heed, former MLA and solicitor-general, called the atmosphere at the current city council table one of “divisive inertia.”
Some of that was on display at the meeting with sniping between sitting city council members.
While Coun. Michael Wolfe, who has served one term on city council, said he sometimes gets “under the mayor’s skin,” Loo criticized another councillor for voting against projects that were too big for their own neighbourhood.
Derek Dang, who lost a re-election bid to council four years ago and joked about this round being a “bit of a rerun,” agreed with his running mate, Heed, on the need for more collaboration at council. Generally, in Richmond, however, he said he wants more dialogue and understanding to fight racism.
Shortly after, Laura Gillanders, a member of FarmWatch, said the last council was allowing mega-mansions in the ALR, but, after lobbying from FarmWatch, provincial changes were made. Dang and then-councillor Ken Johnson were defeated in 2018 and “we got two pro-farm candidates (on council),” she said.
Flag debate raises tensions at meeting
The city’s flag policy was challenged by an audience member who asked what candidates would do for Truth & Reconciliation Day.
RCA candidate Mark Lee said this has already been discussed at council and they should figure out how to change the policy and “get it done.”
“I think that we just really need people on council to do the work instead of bouncing around emails asking different people in different departments what the policy is, just read the policy and then figure out what needs to be changed,” Lee said.
In response, McNulty said he takes policy seriously and got testy as the audience heckled him after he said the issue is being looked at by city staff. He shot back saying he was “hurt,” further saying he was accused on Twitter of supporting Communist China after attending the opening of a Richmond restaurant.
“We’re not Republicans in Richmond – we’re not Republicans,” McNulty said. “I’ve lived here 52 years, and I built you a swimming pool, I built this bloody centre, and I get this crap from people out there. I built your library. I’ve done a whole slew of things for people in this community. And I’m standing here again because I believe in my community.”
He was interrupted by Awan, who told him not to take credit for building amenities, saying “the community built them.”
McNulty, later, offered his “firm and humble apologies” for his outburst.
Meanwhile, Coun. Chak Au said First Nations have been ignored for too long and everyone needs to be educated on the subject.
“We can’t have a truly harmonious society until we recognize we have to face that issue and actively work on it,” Au said.
Coun. Andy Hobbs, speaking on anti-Asian hate, said he’s been participating in an educational event, adding “It’s important, frankly, for people who look like me to participate in those talks.”
However, more importantly, he said it's important to get to know other people and try to walk in their shoes.
No safe-injection site planned for Richmond
Prior to the all-candidates meeting, two of the three mayoralty hopefuls, incumbent mayor Malcolm Brodie and RITE candidate John Roston, had a half-hour debate. (Wei Ping Chen was not at the debate.)
When asked if there should be a safe-injection site in Richmond, Brodie said this is something that should be done if Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) deems it necessary; however, he added, most drug-poisoning deaths in Richmond have happened in private homes.
Later in the debate, RCA candidate Lee noted that those deaths happen in homes exactly because there is no safe-injection site, which was greeted by applause from the audience.
“The reason people are dying in their homes is because there aren’t overdose prevention sites existing for them to use in the city,” Lee said. “So, how could they possibly be dying anywhere else?”
In response to a query from a Richmond resident, VCH said it’s not currently planning to open a safe-injection site in Richmond.
Twenty-three people died of drug poisonings in Richmond between January and August.
