With nominations closed, election season is in full swing and candidates got right into the fray with their first all-candidates' meeting Saturday afternoon.Eighteen out of the 26 candidates for mayor and city council gathered in front of an audience of a few dozen in the Firepit Cultural Drop-In Centre for the event hosted by Community Partners Addressing Homelessness.
Mayoralty candidate Bruce Fader and council candidates Brad Grantham, Brad Gagnon, Cameron Stolz, Scot Affleck, Harry Ulch and Tony Ferreira did not take part in the forum with a focus on the issue of homelessness in Prince George.
"I think it's really good that first things come first," said forum moderator Julie Kerr, chair of Community Partners Addressing Homelessness. "One of the ways we measure society or a government is how they treat their most vulnerable members."
The forum was a polite affair, with each candidate given an opportunity to reflect on how the next mayor and council could address the homelessness issue before answering submitted questions drawn from a basket.
The majority of the candidates seemed to be in agreement with each other over the need to work together as a community and with the two upper levels of government to find the resources necessary to battle homelessness.
"For any one person or group to make a claim they can solve homelessness is unrealistic," said mayoralty candidate Alex Huber.
Some candidates formed their opinions on solutions through the lens of their own work. Incumbent councillors Shari Green, Debora Munoz and Murry Krause sit on the city's standing committee on homelessness and talked about the partnerships currently being created through the city.
"[The homeless] are not a faceless seas of people. They deserve to be acknowledged as survivors," Krause said, while council candidate Dorothy Freisen, a former executive officer of the BC Northern Real Estate Board, said she could help address the issue of safe, affordable shelter.
Other candidates, such as incumbent mayor Dan Rogers and council candidate Lyn Hall, shared their personal connections to homelessness. Hall said he had a cousin suffering from mental illness who has lived on the streets for the better part of his life. Rogers told the audience about his brother who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction before losing his life to AIDS and his niece who is following in the same path in Victoria.
"One of the personal things that drives me are issues around those marginalized in the community," Rogers said.
Other candidates expressed a belief the resources for addressing homelessness were there, but it was a matter of prioritizing.
"We have to really find out where's the money and it comes down to decision making. How can we finance for the homeless? How can we tackle the root cause of homelessness and drug addiction?" said council candidate Albert Koehler.
Four-time mayoralty candidate Eugene Fetterly said the city would have more money available to deal with the issue if the municipality made a move away from the provincial government and toward city states.
After the opening round of introductions, it was the luck of the draw for the candidates as they each answered two questions pulled from a basket. Many questions touched on the issue of affordable housing and shelters.
Huber said he would be in favour of opening closed schools to use as shelters or other buildings where the city is already the landlord.
Incumbent councillor Dave Wilbur said he was in favour of a secular drop-in facility in theory, but that looking for the city to fund one on its own was "a bit over the top."
Munoz said there are methods which can work for a local government to get more affordable housing in place, but that it takes a concentrated effort.
Mayoralty candidate Brandon Lewis and council candidate Jordan Gadsby both received questions about support for a local safe-injection site and came down on opposing sides. With his involvement with the Cadet progam at the Connaught Youth Centre, Lewis said needles laying around is a large problem and would be in favour of such a plan with proper set up and proper staffing.
"I'm not saying that drugs are the way to go, but some people do need help. They're not going to be able to make it through unless we provide somewhere for them and they can, without knowing, endanger other people at the same time," he said.
But Gadsby said he was not in favour of the idea. "There's a lot of models for treatment and to help people get to a healthy place in their life. I don't think a safe injection site is the best way to do that," he said. "I am in favour of programs that would help people get past issues in their life that are pushing them towards drug use, that are pushing them towards being in a place of homelessness."
The next all-candidates meeting for councillors will be hosted by the UNBC political science department on Oct. 19.
