Minoru Place Activity Centre was packed Tuesday night with around 300 people attending Richmond’s first all-candidates meeting.
Five mayoral candidates and 25 council candidates were in attendance at the meeting hosted by the Richmond Centre for Disability, the Richmond Poverty Response Committee and the Kehila Society.
Issues such as affordable housing, mega homes on ALR, housing for the homeless, transportation, and community division topped the discussion list.
The atmosphere became tense when council candidate Adil Awan said incumbent Bill McNulty had been quoted saying he was concerned about developers’ bottom line in the media.
Awan asked if council is more worried about developers than everyday citizens.
“Housing affordability has been a problem for a long time. Have they (council) been sleeping? Let’s vote in a different council,” said Awan, who received an enthusiastic response from the audience.
Incumbent Derek Dang, a developer, was asked why real estate developers should be on city council, describing it as “letting a wolf be in charge of the sheep.”
“I think the accusation was put out by the RCA (Richmond Citizens’ Association) group, implying that the city council is under the thumb of evil lobbyists and developers,” he said.
“When you look at Richmond at large, do you see a problem with Richmond? There has been nothing that’s been underhanded. That implication is just wrong.”
However, Kelly Greene, from RCA, responded that if elected, she would like to have a “conflict of interest” law, an independent officer overseeing the new rules and a lobbyist registry to keep lobbyists on record.
Some incumbents emphasized the city’s Affordable Housing Strategy, which in the past 10 years has created 1,500 affordable rental units, with plans to build more.
Mellisa Zhang endorsed the city’s plan to densify city centre area so ”more affordable units are built,” but Niti Sharma said it only produces ”unaffordable density.”
Independent council candidate John Roston said the city should be more creative and take advantage of NDP government’s various funding programs for building affordable housing.
Judie Schneider, meanwhile, suggestted the city incentivize home renovation rather than demolishing.
Mega houses on farmland was also a concern for audience members. Incumbent Alexa Loo was asked why she voted to keep the current maximum sizes of houses on ALR along with other five councillors in May.
“When I got on council, we stopped the 20,000 sq. ft. houses. We had nothing and now we have something. The size, 10,700 sq. ft., was chosen after a lot of consultation. It’s a start,” said Loo.
Someone then asked incumbent Harold Steves, who said he was “appalled” by the mansions on Richmond’s farmland, to explain “how come your ALR property was developed for four mega homes?”
Steves responded, “the houses were built on my brother’s land, not mine. I’m not my brother’s keeper.”
The mayoral candidates’ meeting was also heated when Hong Guo was questioned about an association listed in her application document that is allegedly to “establish a platform to network and connect with Chinese communities.”
“Whoever is elected as Richmond mayor is expected to work for everybody, not one group. Can you be justified with this approach?” asked an audience member.
Guo, however, said she doesn’t recognize the name of this association and she “would like to represent everybody in the community and build it with everybody.”
When Malcolm Brodie and mayoral candidate Cliff Wei were asked if they will endorse an empty homes tax like in Vancouver, as some council candidates have proposed, both of them answered “no.”
“The province has only allowed Vancouver to implement such a tax...Richmond doesn’t have the jurisdiction to do it…And I believe this tax is unenforceable and undefinable,” said Brodie.
Wei said “this tax will only make homeowners painful." He believes the answer to housing problems is to reduce the trade deficit between Canada and other countries so “we have the money to purchase properties in their country.”
Asked for the solution to ease the traffic on Highway 99, mayoral candidate Roy Sakata said the fastest way is neither a Messy tunnel nor bridge, but a commuter ferry between Richmond and Ladner.
Another mayoral candidate Donald Flintoff argued that the Olympic Oval was an unwise way of spending Richmond taxpayers’ money, but this was opposed by Brodie.
Mayoral candidates Lawrence Chen and council candidates Andy Chiang, Dennis Page, Patrick Saunders, Manjit Singh and Sunny Ho were absent.
Next meetings:
-- All-Candidates Meeting - Candidates for School Trustee
Thursday, Oct. 4 at J.N. Burnett Secondary School, 5011 Granville Avenue from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
-- All-Candidates Meeting - Candidates for Mayor and Councillor
Wednesday, Oct. 17 at Steveston Community Centre, 4111 Moncton Street at 7 p.m.
