The 麻豆社国产 sat down with Mayor Armand Hurford for our annual review of the year that was.
What follows is a version of that conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: As Mayor, what would you say were some of the biggest moments of 2024?
A: I think there were a few things that really stood out for me. We had our sister city [Shimizu] visit and they were here for Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Spending time with them is wonderful; there's so much to learn, but walking with them and the 麻豆社国产Nation down Cleveland Avenue and sitting together at the event was quite memorable.
I also have these giant scissors for cutting red ribbons, and I had the opportunity to use some at the new fire hall, which was really a great moment. Not just because of the comically large scissors, that's probably more for my amusement, but really these projects are really important for our community, from a safety and resiliency perspective, and then from council and the District overall, they're extremely challenging to execute. So I was really happy to see that project come online and be able to mark that with the community.
Q: What were some of your favourite events that happened in 麻豆社国产this year?
A: I think being together with the community at Sp'akw'us Feather Park for the 麻豆社国产Arts Festival was pretty amazing. I did the mayoral duties earlier in the day, because that was the official grand opening of the park. Then I went home and came back as a participant for the festivities. And it was just really cool to see it all working, and to see 麻豆社国产embracing our new status as a beachfront community.
There were so many events happening [throughout the year]. There were three different things happening the same day as the Arts Festival. Everybody thought that the event that they were at was "the" event, whereas, you know, in the past, any one of those things would have been the event of the month. So, I think that really speaks to the vibrancy that we're seeing in Squamish.
Q: What would you say were some of the biggest council decisions to affect the community?
A: I think the most impactful piece of work that we do is budget. Through that process, we work from our strategic plan, which is where council does a lot of work to understand the areas where we are aligned as a group, and those are the areas that we can move the furthest, fastest together. That process, I think, is really the most critical process for the municipality.
That should be true every year, and I think it has been in my time, but then you get the more site-specific or topic-specific pieces. We've had some big public hearings on some decisions related to the WLNG and Fortis projects. Those were important decisions and important processes. I don't know that they're the most impactful over time, but those were definitely the ones that got the most direct engagement from the community.
Q: Leading on from that, as a whole, how do you feel about the decisions made about Woodfibre and FortisBC this year?
A: I think that's an interesting one. With all these things, you can only run one scenario in real-time, so it's really hard to compare. When we're conceptualizing, when something's proposed, you have all these possible outcomes, and at the end of the day, only one path will be the one that the journey takes, right? So on the Fortis piece, which was the workforce accommodation and the laydown yard, I think that ... it ran its course, and the decisions were made, and I'm happy with that.
The WLNG floatel was a good process and then got complicated with the withdrawal of their application [for a Temporary Use Permit] and that's still something that needs resolving. So, that's still really an outstanding issue that certainly didn't run through to a conclusion and that doesn't leave me very content. We need to get to a conclusion of that process and figure out how, if it's possible, to have them come into compliance with our land-use regulations in some way.
Q: The topic itself caused a bit of a divide in the community. Is there anything that you wish you could have done differently to handle that?
A: [Public hearings for this topic] weren't required, it wasn't a legislative requirement. In other processes, we have a legislative requirement to do a public hearing and a process. And the council felt that the public engagement wasn't up to our expectations. A public hearing is not a very good tool for public engagement, but it's one that we had, and that we had some control over. I would love to have the community have more information about what's proposed, what's happening, and when, and also to see some more responsiveness by both of those proponents to the community's concerns.
It's really challenging to have nuanced conversations. I think in our world right now, you know, the simple binary this or that, which side of this are you on, is sort of the prevalent process. But very few things are that black and white. Especially when you look at the specific question we're contemplating, it's really challenging.
Q: How do you balance the community perception of transportation and parking needs versus future District goals?
A: I try not to challenge the premise of the questions too much, but I'm going to challenge this one a little bit. The District goals should, and in this case are, based on community feedback and community aspirations through many initiatives. I mean, the OCP (Official Community Plan) captures that, but the OCP doesn't drop from the District, the OCP is, and actually won awards for, public engagement in the process. So, the District goals are based on community feedback over time. Now, on this particular topic of parking, we've heard from the community the challenges. We've done a lot of work over time to look at what the parking situation is, what the capacity is, what the demand is, what that looks like, and what possible scenarios are available to us.
We hear this sort of narrative sometimes in the community and I'm like, 'Well, if you're not happy with how parking is operating, we're looking at what we can do to positively impact your experience, and these are the tools that are available to us.' And we don't have a time machine to go back and make different land use choices. We also can't change where the water table is, or where the flood risk is; these are the pieces we can move and that we have control over, and are deemed reasonable from an engineering perspective as well as a financial perspective.
The other piece is sort of more broadly, as a society, how do we want to get around in our town and how do we want to build our communities? I like thinking about things in extremes because it helps me understand where I am, and most things have a spectrum. So, on the spectrum of a city built where you need a car to participate in any way in society, and one where you do not need a car at all to participate fully in society, I think we're a little more towards the car than the other way at this point. I totally think that we're evolving in the right direction, but it's not, like, tomorrow.
You know, I'll hear, 'Well, I can't move a bale of hay around on the back of my bike, so I'm going to drive my truck.' That's fine. No one's going to come and take your truck; that's not what's happening. We're talking about having more choices on how we get around.
Q: When do you think we'll be at a place in 麻豆社国产where we have affordable housing?
A: All the housing needs reports articulate all the many ways that we need housing affordability, and that housing affordability is a problem. I'm also a renter, and I'm acutely aware of this challenge. I think that affordability means something different to almost everybody who you talk to.
We know we need below-market, we also know that there's a need across the whole spectrum. So, pushing on having the variety of forms of housing that will then have different values and be sitting at different price points, either for purchase or rent, and there's no end game to any of this. This is something that we need to be aware of at all times
I think every land use decision that's made, needs to have this affordability lens in it. However, the community and folks who are experiencing a housing crisis today look at almost every decision as like 'Well, that's not going to solve affordable housing' and it's not. But over time, we need to have this factor in front of mind, as we go forward.
But if there was one thing to do for housing affordability, it would have been done.
Q: You're halfway through your term now, can you reflect on the past two years and what hopefully the next two years will look like for you?
A: The last two years have been full of learning. In 2018, I ran for council, and I found right at the start of that, all the way through, to be really an introspective process. I think a lot of people live their lives, where they have their values there, but they're not necessarily checking in with them daily. And I feel like ... how I've been approaching this role has resulted in me checking in with that daily. So, you're learning about yourself like, 'What do I think about this and where do my values sit on that' as well as just the continued learning from everything. And I honestly don't expect that to change.
I've also really enjoyed working with my council colleagues. I come from an entrepreneurial background, and when you're a small business owner, and you make a decision, right or wrong, you're not only making the decision, you're usually executing the decision 鈥� So around the council table, there's just such a wealth of knowledge and perspective that it gives me a lot of comfort, even when I'm on the wrong side of a vote or something like that, because I know that everyone's given it a lot of consideration, and we've been advised by our professional staff, to really inform it. So it's been a really great process that way, and I expect that to continue.
Q: Is there anything that you would like to achieve in your next two years?
A: That's really articulated through the budget. So, I think some of the big pieces in there are the continued investment in Brennan Park. We hear from the community that there's a strong desire for more facilities, and we're working hard on that.
I'm also really looking forward to experiencing when downtown 麻豆社国产expands to the SEAandSKY. So that pedestrian bridge is supposed to be online ... this winter ... but I think that'll be really big. The new park over there [Miy铆w虛ts Park] on the water has a paved pump track, there's a kids' playground and I think there's a basketball court down the north end. I don't think that everyone really grasps that until they walk over there and see it. So I'm really excited about that.
Q: Last question: what are some of the lessons you've learned from the past year?
A: I've been reflecting on giving topics an appropriate space. We have the opportunity to see things at committee the whole, so before we vote, we give initial feedback and the vast majority of the time, we get it right about which ones need that before they come to a regular [council meeting]. But there's been a couple of times where things maybe didn't get the space that they needed, and then it became more challenging.
So, trying to give that space and take those lessons on and that's not just for council, it's also for the community. When I think about the times where the community had maybe a wave of interest or feedback or fears and concerns, perhaps some of those topics could have had an extra step there to make sure everybody understood what was happening.
