Mayor & Council
Mayor's Inaugural Speech
Mayor Barb Desjardins
Monday, December 5, 2011
Council Chambers, Esquimalt Municipal Hall
Welcome to this 99th Inaugural Meeting.
I would like to acknowledge and respect that we are within the Coast Salish traditional territories.
Esquimalt is on the eve of being one hundred years young. There have been 46 previous councils and as of tonight, another new Council will be sworn in.
I am very proud and humbled by the support of the Esquimalt community allowing me to continue as your mayor for a second term, and through this next special year.
I want to express my thanks to my husband and family for their support of me taking on this role for a second term.
The events of next year would not be possible without the previous councils who have stewarded Esquimalt to what it is today, the best place in the CRD to live, work and play.
I want to first acknowledge the members of the immediate past Council for their hard work and success in achieving much of their Strategic Plan set out three long years ago. That plan was ambitious. Council’s Strategic Plan set goals for economic, social and environmental changes for Esquimalt.
There were other issues that arose to add to the challenges and to the successes.
Councillors McIldoon, Gaul, Garrison, and Linge , the community thanks you for your service these past three years and the sacrifices you made to be here on behalf of your community.
I would like to make special acknowledgment to the 21 years that Councillor Don Linge has given for Esquimalt. Don has the record of the longest consecutive serving Council member in the first 100 years of our township. Congratulations and you will be missed in the next term Don.
I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our Esquimalt staff under the leadership of Mrs. Laurie Hurst, our CAO, in helping Council reach its many goals.
Esquimalt is on the eve of its centennial celebration. A formidable history of Coast Salish Nation settlement, Hudson Bay farms and the Royal Navy had already occurred by 1912. Esquimalt village was a growing community with a major shipbuilding operation, hotels, stores and residential areas scattered around them. It was the desire to access services such as water and sewage disposal that led the community to incorporation on Sept 1, 1912.
Esquimalt’s birthday celebration will start with the Levee and continue throughout the year, with all community events having a centennial focus. There are events for every season and every month, too many to list, so please go to the Esquimalt website for more information! The grand event will be held on September 8th , at Esquimalt Gorge Park. It will be a feast for the senses with attractions for all ages as we recreate the activities and celebrations of old with today’s flare. It will honour Esquimalt’s rich history, celebrating who we are now, and what is yet to come for our community!
The Memorial Park Centennial Walkway of paving stones, with your names, memories, and thoughts, will be a legacy for all to participate in, especially this year but also for future generations.
The Centennial Book will be a must for Esquimalt families for their home library.
These projects, like the 2000 Time Capsule which has only 88 years before being opened, will be legacies of Esquimalt today, for the understanding of tomorrow’s community.
A third project, which I term Project: Esquimalt Shines, (taken from the name of our Esquimalt centennial song) is a contest to show your pride of community through home and garden enhancement. We hope for participation from all sectors of the community and are working on ways to assist you to ‘dig Esquimalt’, and make ‘Esquimalt Shine’ through discounts at local stores.
Three years ago the Centennial Celebrations Select Committee was established. I want to acknowledge the members of this Committee who have completed 3/4 years of their mandate, the mandate to give Esquimalt a centennial year to be proud of. This group of people, initially led by Jennifer Parlee and carried on by Janet Jones and Bruce Devitt, are deserving of our thanks, and I know the community will be proud of its centennial year activities and legacies.
This past fall gave many decisions that will shape Esquimalt’s future.
The announcement of the Seaspan National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is a major one for Esquimalt. This announcement and contract will ensure 30 years of consistent work for our dockyard. It gives 800-1000 new jobs, and the needed infrastructure investment of $30 million.
This is only one contract on which others will springboard because of the ability to train and keep a skilled work force and have the infrastructure for other jobs and shipbuilding.
Esquimalt is well positioned by its proximity to benefit from the spin off economic development that will occur as a result of this change at dockyard.
The fact that four new businesses have opened in Esquimalt suggests that there is already a new optimism about doing business in Esquimalt.
This Council will be aggressive in working to secure these spin off bonuses for our business and industrial communities.
The referendum question of this past election gave clear indication that the community supports moving forward with the Village Core Project. This is an opportunity to turn liability into asset. It is my hope that we can see changes on this property within this term.
It is unfortunate that only 2300 residents chose to voice their thoughts on this question, however, eligible voters exercised their right, through their decision to vote or not to vote. We must try harder to get voters engaged but we cannot ignore the voters that did respond and make their preference known.
It is my desire that Esquimalt follow UBCM in supporting online voting for the next election in 2014.
There has been an increase in interest for development in Esquimalt and we must continue to provide quality service, reduced red tape, and minimize processing times to encourage reputable developers to look to Esquimalt for their next projects.
We are changing the focus of our future Development Services Director position to include a strong economic development and tourism focus. This change will provide the leadership and knowledge for Esquimalt to take advantage and improve our competitive edge. As part of this change in focus for Development Services I have decided to restructure committees slightly. These changes will also assist Esquimalt in furthering our Sustainability Strategy.
The Access Awareness Committee will no longer be a standing committee of Council; however there is an ongoing and increasing need for focus on accessibility both for our community facilities, infrastructure, and for new development in Esquimalt. It is because of this that Council will be appointing two persons to participate at the Advisory Planning Committee (APC) meetings with an accessibility focus.
I am also appointing one member of the Environmental Advisory Committee to participate at APC with the same attention toward environmental aspects of planning that comes forward.
These special lens toward access and environment will ensure greater interest from development to providing best practice and smart growth development.
The appointment descriptions for both accessibility and environment appointments at APC will be developed over the next year. It is my hope that the current members of the Committee will take on and assist to develop these roles during 2012. I am also recommending that a former member of Access Awareness Committee be appointed to Parks and Recreation Committee to ensure the accessibility lens is used there as well.
This Council will develop and implement tax policies which enhance the business climate of Esquimalt.
These policies will help our business community to thrive and diversify, thus reducing the tax burden on residents of Esquimalt. These policy changes have not moved as well as I would have liked during my first term, so I intend to be very focused with this goal in the next one.
It has been almost a decade of police amalgamation for Esquimalt. This marriage has been a challenge from the beginning but was necessary. It was initially thought that the promise of further amalgamation was imminent.
The Victoria Police Department Audit which was completed in 2010 gave recommendations to assist us towards resolving our ongoing concerns regarding the funding model, governance, and service delivery of policing in Esquimalt.
The Esquimalt Police Advisory and Law Enforcement Panel formed through an Order in Council of the Province spent the past year and a half consulting our public, developing criteria for service, and an evaluation matrix, going out to service providers for options, and finally, providing Police Services with a report as to the findings and the preferred service provision for Esquimalt.
We are continuing to work with the Solicitor General’s office in this process and awaiting the Solicitor General’s response to our recommendation. Upon receiving this, a public process will be started to ensure understanding and continued confidence in the safety, and police service provision for Esquimalt.
There have been concerns voiced about the In Camera meetings and lack of information. Council and the Advisory Panel are bound by the Community Charter Section 90(1) (2) and by the Request for Proposal provision to proponents to hold this information In Camera until decisions have been made at the Solicitor General level. We have conducted a process of integrity and high quality and will see it to completion.
I have heard from my new Council that there is a desire to move Council towards a less paper intensive medium for both council meetings and for community access.
I support this direction towards greater access and look forward to developing goals for this within Strategic Planning in January. Council meetings and agendas must move out of the past 100 years and toward the future, using tools of social media and internet where possible.
Esquimalt Council will continue to provide strong policy direction for regional challenges such as transportation, waste management, treaty resolution, and the regional sustainability strategy development.
It is my view that priority one as a region is the need to solve the issue of our transportation gridlock, quickly and cost effectively. We are losing productivity, and that turns into a loss of competitive edge for economic development. Governments do not have large amounts of money to fund projects so priorities must be chosen and it is my view that transportation should be that priority. Roads, public transit, multimodal infrastructure are public domain; let’s focus on getting these systems working for our region.
It is my view that Integrated Resource Management, IRM, has become a proven way forward for waste management. We cannot continue to landfill and look to secondary liquid waste treatment as the standards. There is a private sector ready and willing to take on IRM and provide benefit back to our communities. Let’s continue to encourage these solutions while ensuring no risk or increased cost to taxpayers. Some IRM methods are proving to reduce costs to taxpayers; we need to encourage these strategies.
Three years ago climate change was still being significantly challenged, the economy was facing a downturn, and social issues such as homelessness were being measured for better understanding.
The world is facing significant challenges.
2010 was named the year of natural disaster, homelessness is significant no matter where you are in the world, and countries, not banks are now going bankrupt.
We cannot continue to do things the same old way at any level of government. Creative thinking will be required and we all must recognize there will be some uncomfortable changes required. Opportunities are there as well, big opportunities for our municipality.
We want to ensure that present and future children of Esquimalt can enjoy the benefits that the past 100 years generations of Esquimalt families have had.
Esquimalt and your new Council will work hard to ensure our municipality is the preferred place for families, seniors, students, to live, work and play.
Respectfully submitted by,
Mayor Barbara Desjardins
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