Fernie residents got a chance to hear from all of the city’s council and mayoral candidates running in this year’s Municipal Election.
The candidates took to the stage last night in a candidate forum at the Fernie Community Centre to talk about various issues in the community going into the election.
In the mayoral portion of the forum, Current Mayor Ange Qualizza spoke on the abundance of issues with infrastructure she’d like to continue to address if re-elected.
“Last term, we tried to focus on affordability. That’s where we chase things like a skateboard grant, $1.3 million to replace an end-of-life piece of infrastructure,” Qualizza says. “Active transportation is another thing that we chased, we did an active transportation master plan to support families that needed one car.”
Qualizza says city council has worked hard on responsible development throughout the community.
“This council tried to set us up to succeed. We took the tools available, the province has been trying to meet us as partners in local government,” Qualizza says. “We’re one of the first governments to do a complete rental zoning. We just amended our commercial services corridor, so 37 new units of dwelling can go into the commercial corridor. That’s creative opportunities.”
Mayoral candidate Nic Milligan spoke on ways he would like to involve the community in major city decisions.
“I’ll re-instate those committees of council with public participation. I’ll keep the public input period at the start of council meetings where its meaningful. I’ll hold twice yearly town hall meetings so the community can meet to discuss issues with council,” Milligan says. “Together, we can mobilize the intelligence and creativity of this community in a unified version of what Fernie can become.”
Milligan also wants to deal with the city’s housing crisis if elected with support from community stakeholders.
“A multi-stakeholder housing committee is essential to dealing with this complex issue,” Milligan says. “A table of local partners to help form a complete and inclusive plan. The primary issue for Fernie is to support the introduction of housing at every level of our economy.”
Some of the topics discussed included affordable housing, the infrastructure deficit and communication between the city and Fernie residents.
You can find a full livestream of the Fernie forum below.
– Fernie Mayoral candidate Ange Qualizza
– Fernie Mayoral candidate Nic Milligan
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