Healthcare, infrastructure and growth top Sun Peaks election forum

With four council seats and five candidates on the ballot, Sun Peaks residents had the opportunity to hear from prospective councillors during an all-candidates forum ahead of the Oct. 17 general local election and advanced voting Oct. 7 and 10. 

Council candidates David Burnham, Kelly Dye, Rob O’Toole and Liz Wilkinson answered questions from the community on healthcare, infrastructure, municipal finances, population growth and communication during the forum hosted by Sun Peaks Independent News on Oct. 1. 

Brian Gillespie, the fifth candidate running for council, was unable to attend the forum.

Jason White, who will become the next mayor by acclamation, also spoke at the end of the evening about his priorities heading into the next four-year term. 

Healthcare remains a priority

When candidates were asked what they believe is the top issue Sun Peaks needs to address at the municipal level, Wilkinson pointed to the Sun Peaks Community Health Centre. 

The health centre has now remained closed for a year, while the reestablished Sun Peaks Community Health Association continues to work toward reopening the facility. 

“I would love to have that opportunity to get in there to have a look at all the information that there is, everything that’s happened with regards to the medical center, and find out where the opportunities are, where the issues have been, and then work with the people that are there to support that system, and come to an answer that actually works for everyone, that provides us with the healthcare that we need,” Wilkinson said.

For Wilkinson, communication between the municipality and residents is another crutial piece of the issue. 

“There’s a lot of things that people are asking about, and they’re wanting answers, and they’re not really getting that visibility,” she said.

Dye also identified the health centre as one of the community’s biggest priorities. 

During an audience question later in the evening, a former health association member raised concerns about whether the association’s proposed model will be financially sustainable. 

Dye was asked if he would be willing to look at other options if the model does not work.

“I certainly am,” Dye said, adding that one of his regrets from the current term was not moving forward sooner after the Sun Peaks Health Centre Working Group recommended against selling the building.

“There was definitely two or three different things that came out of the working group and different options that could work and different models,” Dye said. 

O’Toole said he also wants to give the newly reestablished health association an opportunity to make the model work. 

However, he said if the health centre remained closed six months to a year down the road, he would be willing to consider other options if elected to council. 

“I want to give this group the opportunity,” O’Toole said. “That being said, if we got to a place a year, six months, a year down the road, and we weren’t operating, and I was on that new council, I’d be happy to sit down and look at other options.”

Burnham said he looks at the issue as two separate pieces; the building and the provision of healthcare. He said he is interested to see what the community-led health association brings forward, but agreed that there needs to be a timeline for finding a financially viable use for the space. 

“They only have a certain amount of time, and then municipal councils got to deal with it.” Burnham said, “It’s a community. It’s a municipal building.”

Paying for infrastructure

For O’Toole, the biggest issue facing Sun Peaks is the community’s tax base and how the municipality will pay for the services and infrastructure it needs. 

“A lot of our challenges stem from a lack of finances, and that includes the medical clinic,” O’Toole said.

He said Sun Peaks is heavily reliant on the tourism industry and argues the community needs to find ways to keep more tax revenue within resort municipalities to support infrastructure, healthcare and more services. 

Dye said the municipality has already developed a long-term list of infrastructure needs, but the challenge will be paying for them.

During an audience question about municipal debt and the development reserve fund, Dye said the municipality may need to borrow for future wastewater infrastructure. 

“I do feel we need to take on a loan because we are stuck, and whatever percentage of DCCs or anything else of zero is still zero. And when we’re going to start that growth happening again, if we’re not ready to move forward, we can’t grow, we can’t collect,” Dye said.

Rather than placing the cost entirely on wastewater users or residential tax payers, Dye said he wants to see staff look at different funding sources, reserves and tax classes to spread the cost amongst different areas. 

Burnham also pointed to wastewater as a priority, but said the broader challenge is deciding what the municipality can afford and when. 

“There’s too many things to do with a limited amount of money,” Burnham said. For Burnham, there is no simple solution. “There’s no silver bullet here,” he said. 

“The more growth we get, the more money we have, the more we can do, the more the community can benefit. So I really think the wastewater is sort of my number one from okay that’s the infrastructure piece we’ve got to get done, but we have to find a way to pay for it,” Burnham said.

Candidates reflect on past council decisions

Candidates were also asked what they believe has been the municipality’s biggest missed opportunity or misstep. 

Looking back, O’Toole said he wishes previous councils had increased taxes slightly above inflation to build municipal reserves. 

“I wish we’d been maybe a couple of points above inflation so that we would have built some reserves, because it’s way easier and cheaper to go out and build infrastructure and replace infrastructure when you’ve got money in the bank versus having to borrow,” O’Toole said. 

He also pointed to the pipeline project, saying the original design and budget presented challenges and that the council could have better communicated the increasing project cost to the community. 

Dye said communication and accountability are areas where the municipality could have done better. He also returned to the health centre, saying the council waited too long to move forward after the working group made its recommendation. 

Wilkinson said one missed opportunity has been not making greater use of the expertise and experience already present within the residents of the Sun Peaks community. 

“We have that information here. We have the expertise. We don’t need to employ. We haven’t got money to employ a whole breadth of staff. But what we do have is we’ve got keen, enthusiastic residents that want the best for themselves and for the rest of the community, and we should be engaging them,” Wilkinson said. 

She suggested using working groups and community members with relevant knowledge to help the municipality work through infrastructure and other challenges. 

Burnham pointed to communication as well. 

Rather than simply telling residents information cannot be shared, Burnham said council should be clearer about what can be discussed whilst still following legal and confidentiality requirements. 

Growing the permanent population

Another question raised by a resident in the audience was about how to grow Sun Peaks’ permanent population. The question pointed to several businesses that have closed and asked how the population growth could support local businesses, bring more young families to Sun Peaks and strengthen the case for a permanent school. 

O’Toole said the federal foreign buyer ban has affected real estate activity and development in the community, adding that the municipality needs to address infrastructure constraints over the next two years to allow development to continue. 

Dye said the community has already grown significantly since he arrived in the early 2000s, but growth does not happen in a straight line.

Even with a larger permanent population, he said Sun Peaks will continue to depend on visitors. 

“As much as we all like locals in our businesses and we want to be here, we still are always going to rely on tourism.” Dye said.

Wilkinson said the community should also rethink how commercial areas such as the West Village are used, pointing out that transportation is a challenge for businesses in the area, particularly for visitors who arrive without a vehicle. 

“We need to start thinking differently for that area,” Wilkinson said. 

She suggested businesses that do not rely on prime village retail space could potentially be encouraged to relocate to other commercial areas, opening central spaces for businesses serving residents and visitors. 

Burnham agreed that the location and accessibility of services should be considered. Drawing from his work with adaptive sports at Sun Peaks, he pointed to the challenges wheelchair users can face travelling between the Grand Hotel and other restaurants and services. 

“Solve that problem,” Burnham said. “We need to do those things.”

Relationships moving forward

The candidates were asked which relationships the council should prioritize, pointing at the connections between Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality, Sun Peaks Resort LLP and Tourism Sun Peaks.

Burnham said all the organizations need to work closely together to accomplish their goals. 

Dye said there are different responsibilities between the municipality, Sun Peaks Resort LLP and Tourism Sun Peaks that can sometimes be confusing for residents. While the organizations regularly work together, he said a lot of the work on these committees has become strained during the past council term and needs to get back on track. 

O’Toole also identifies the relationship with Sun Peaks Resort LLP as an important one.

“The relationship with the resort is probably the most important one,” he said.

Wilkinson said collaboration between all three organizations, along with residents, will be important going forward. 

“I think it all comes down to communication, collaboration, knocking down those walls. Stop working in silos. Let’s all work together and make Sun Peaks the best that ever can be,” Wilkinson said.

Mayor elect White looks toward the next four years

At the end of the forum, White spoke about his priorities as he prepares to take over as mayor. 

White pointed to water, wastewater and hydro capacity as infrastructure challenges that will need to be addressed as the community continues to grow. He also said finding a solution for the health centre and moving toward a permanent brick-and-mortar school will be important. 

White acknowledged there will be a learning curve when it comes to municipal politics and said he has spoken with O’Toole, Dye and Gilespie about supporting him if they are elected. 

“I’m going to need that,” White said.

O’Toole was also asked during the forum whether he would help White navigate relationships with other municipalities and levels of government. O’Toole said he has committed to supporting White whether or not he is elected to council. 

“My goal is to make sure that that transition, whether I’m on council or not, is as smooth as possible,” O’Toole said.

For White, relationships between the municipality, Sun Peaks Resort LLP and Tourism Sun Peaks will be one of his focuses as he takes on the role

“I think one of the biggest things that I’m going to work on is relationships,” White said.

While he acknowledged he has plenty to learn, White said he is ready to begin.

“It’s going to be a long road, and I know I’ve got a lot of work to do. But, I’m ready to get down to work.”