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The Nov. 15 Village of Pemberton election will determine which current member of Council residents want to keep around. Mayor Jordan Study and Councillor David MacKenzie, both looking to extend their stint on Council past a first term, are this year’s two candidates for the single mayoral seat.
The Question asked them to weigh in on a few of the issues facing Pemberton today. Pick up next week’s Question for candidate essays from all of the Village of Pemberton mayoral, council and school board trustee candidates.
The Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce is hosting an all-candidates meeting tonight (Nov. 6) in the new community centre. A meet-and-greet session is scheduled to kick things off at 6:30 p.m., followed by the meeting at 7:30 p.m.
David MacKenzie
Q: What options do you see for the future of recreation in Pemberton?
A: It’s obviously a big concern for people in Pemberton… We’re obviously a fairly young demographic, young families that are here, and you know, everybody that I talk to keeps mentioning recreation as certainly a high priority.
You know, I think it’s wonderful that we opened the new community centre, it’s certainly a focal point of the community – and the establishment of more trails and programs. But I think people are also, as we grow, looking for facilities, and we may have some opportunities to develop more facilities in relation to other development projects that may be on the horizon…
I think if we were able to get behind the GEMS private school, they’ve made certainly a pitch to the community with an interest to provide recreation facilities in conjunction with their project, and they made mention in their proposal that they’d turn those recreation facilities over to the community…
There’s also the Signal Hill developments, that’s going to go behind Signal Hill school. (In) their proposal, you know, they’ve got kind of an enhancement on the other end of that, that could happen with the existing ball fields that are there. They’ve put that into their proposal, as well as a network of trails connecting the communities.
And so I just think we need to make sure we’re encouraging developers in the future to be including green spaces and recreation planning into their developments as well.
Q: What do you think the future is for agriculture in Pemberton?
A: I think Pemberton has a lot of opportunity now that we’re kind of on the global map from some of the things that have been happening in our community. I think it’s a given that we’re going to see an increase in agricultural tourism – that’s already happened.
We’ve got Slow Food Cycle Sunday, that happens as an annual event in Pemberton that’s drawn a lot of people from various parts; specifically we get obviously a large volume out of the Lower Mainland that comes up to partake in agricultural tourism products and visiting the farms and things like that.
There’s other opportunities. It’s exciting to see we’ve got a distillery that’s interested in setting up in Pemberton. Obviously they’d be relying on local potato producers for their product, so there’s opportunities that way.
These days there’s becoming more and more interest in and focus on getting produce closer to home, so people want to (buy) locally, and Pemberton obviously falls within that for Vancouver.
So there are currently opportunities for our local farmers and I think there’s going to be more in the future.
Q: What would you want to see introduced to make Pemberton more open to business?
A: Well, there’s a few things that we can do. I think one would be, we need to take a serious look at the potential to either flatline or reduce business taxes. I think when you look around at successful communities, everybody wants to be able to live in a community that’s vibrant, and you need a strong business sector in order to make it vibrant.
So if we have a strong business climate happening, it translates into a more vibrant community.
The other thing is being open for business, we can take initiatives like attracting new businesses into the community. We’ve got a lot of room in the (Pemberton) Industrial Park for small manufacturing companies that could employ people — encouraging them in, with perhaps tax holidays, different tax relief strategies that could be developed.
And then the other one is, for new businesses that are looking at development, we need to streamline our development process, making it easy and accessible for people when they come in, making sure that those steps are laid out and advertising as such, that boy, it would be great to come into a community from zero to 30 days you could have your development permit, and laying out what that process would be.
Jordan Sturdy
Q: What options do you see for the future of recreation in Pemberton?
A: That is a broad, broad topic… In terms of what I’d like to see happen, the immediate priorities in terms of recreation are the completion of our trail network – well, we’ll never be completed our trail network – but the completion of some basic elements of our trail network, including the 99 trail, including the Friendship Trail, because these are significant (community) connectors and commuter routes…
The other things that I think need to be priorities for this community are things that also focus around that community centre, and that is, we already have some ideas on how we can move forward with a water park on the community centre property, sort of on the side closer to Arbutus…
The other two components that already have community groups associated with them but they need assistance, and we’ve started to provide them with some of that assistance, are the skateboard park and the bike park, which are on the lots under the power lines beside the community centre…
And these are all things that are achievable, I believe, and will surround that community centre right in the heart of town, I think, and be long-term assets to us. And then we’ve got to get that youth centre open, and it will be open shortly, I’m led to believe…
(In terms of arena and/or pool complexes), absolutely anything is possible, and I know that there’s all sorts of proposals out there, and I think we need to look at all those proposals and assess them, both in terms of their capital and operating costs, and really understand what they mean.
And then when we look to accept any one of those proposals with an understanding of what it costs and who our partners are, we would bring it forward to the community to endorse it.
Q: What do you see for the future of agriculture in Pemberton?
A: That’s a good question… We’re lucky that we have this Agricultural Land Reserve, because it really does make Pemberton what it is. When you go up onto the hillside and you look down and you go, “Wow, that is a beautiful valley,” part of the reason that you’re able to say that is because of the reserve.
So that’s the preservation side of things. And we have really, I think, over the years, been very responsible in terms of our requests for either non-farm use or, more importantly, exclusion. In the time that I’ve been around, I don’t know of any land that’s been excluded from the reserve….
The other aspect, though — you can preserve stuff, like in a museum, but we also want to have an active, vibrant agricultural economy and community. And that’s the challenge.
There’s a couple of challenges – there’s the challenge of having people invest in agriculture in this valley, in active agriculture; and then the other (issue) is… succession, succession is another huge issue in the valley…
And I don’t have the answers for that. I wish I did. It’s a problem all around the province, especially this part of the province anyway, because the values are so high and the income from farming is just not there to justify those purchases…
We need to ensure that opportunities for agritourism are there. We need to look at ways of branding Pemberton, and taking advantage of our existing international reputation, not the least of which is from the festival, and building on that.
Q: What do you see are the business opportunities in Pemberton, or the areas where business could be encouraged?
A: I think that there’s ways that we as a government, as a municipal government, can look at ways of encouraging development… We need to, as a community, look at the opportunities that are out there in terms of different businesses, and decide what kind of businesses we want to attract to this community. And then when we’ve gone through that process, then we can actively go out and start looking to get them, to bring them into this community.
And then sometimes opportunities present themselves. So in terms of what’s presented itself, there’s obviously the Pemberton Festival, and that’s a great opportunity. I think that the community has certainly supported that, and I think that’s something we should want to see back…
Pemberton businesses benefited from it, and I know that some did more than others, but I guess where I’m thinking, more interestingly and more specifically, is that the festival could develop into the flagship of Live Nation’s festival circuit, and I think that’s really to some degree the intention, and that’s why I think it’s really important to get it back…
(Live Nation executive and Pemberton resident) Shane Bourbonnais has suggested that over time as a festival industry develops in North America, with Pemberton as the flagship, that we have a business in this community that is one of an expertise in hosting festivals…
Another opportunity, certainly, as I see it, is the one of the GEMS school. I think that, in my mind, that’s the type of knowledge-based industry that can bring a lot to this community.
