THANK YOU!

...For making Victoria Votes a success for its second year! We managed to reach about 10,000 individual voters this year, which is over half of the voters in this city. We hope that Victoria Votes has helped you to become more informed about the municipal election, and look forward to our next election together!

In the meantime, we will be looking for ways to sustain Victoria Votes throughout the Council term, so if you have any suggestions just email us!

Here is the City of Victoria election summary.

And here is B Channel's final report on the election.

And a Monday Magazine article on the election.

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Results

Click here for detailed results!

The new council is, in order of most votes: Geoff Young, Charlayne Thornton-Joe, Lisa Helps, Ben Isitt, Marianne Alto, Pam Madoff, Shellie Gudgeon, and Chris Coleman.

More on this later!

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Marianne Alto Q&A

Marianne Alto is running for her first full term on Council after being elected to serve the remainder of Sonya Chandler's term in the 2010 by-election. Alto ran unsuccessfully in '05. She is a business consultant and facilitator - her website is here and here are her answers to our survey:

Q: Why are you running and why should I vote for you?

A: I bring people together, find common ground, balance competing interests and get
results. I think those are good skills to have at the city council and CRD tables. Elected just last fall, I’ve already secured city council approval for an integrated plan to help vulnerable residents get the health services they need, and a comprehensive open government initiative that will give easy access to information and bring city hall to TV.

I’ve scheduled regular Open Door sessions in my liaison neighbourhoods, made planning
decisions that preserve heritage and promote appropriate development, and made Victoria a ‘Blue Community’ to keep water resources public. I’m an activist Councillor and I'll get a lot more done with a three year term.

Q: What issue is most important to you and why?

A: I’d have to choose 5 issues, because they are inter-related and solving just one still leaves a gap for our residents. And I think they can all be achieved in the next three years:

1) mitigating the high cost of living in Victoria by facilitating more affordable housing (including co-ops and co-housing), more jobs and decent wages;

2) continuing to reduce homelessness, particularly for vulnerable people who need housing that comes with supportive social services and integrated health and harm reduction services;

3) regional planning and delivery of primary services, like transportation, police services and emergency preparedness;

4) implementing the open government and open date strategies recently endorsed by Council, and

5) finding new sources of funds so we can continue to deliver high quality municipal services and limit tax increases.

Q: What's something people don't know about you?

A: I love Canadian football.

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Conservation Voters of BC Announces Endorsements

The full list of Conversation Voters of BC endorsements is here, but here are the names for Victoria:

Victoria
John Luton
Philippe Lucas
Lynn Hunter
Lisa Helps
Ben Isitt
Rose Henry

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Release form Paul Brown's Campaign

Sent out this morning:

Paul Brown’s Vision

If I am elected Mayor of Victoria, my key pledge is to deliver a Council and City Hall that is open, accountable and transparent to the public.

Here’s what I mean by that:

· Victoria will have a realistic and public plan for restoring or replacing its crumbling infrastructure, including its sewers, roads and public recreational facilities.

· Future city budget plans and financial forecasts will share with the public all the assumptions they are based on, not just those that make the numbers look better than they are.

· When taxpayers are told their rates will increase by only 3.9%, they will not get a tax bill later saying 7%.

· When city projects are budgeted, that is the amount taxpayers can expect to pay, not double or triple that amount due to a lack of financial controls at City Hall.

· City Council will devote itself to creating realistic and measurable targets and monitoring results, not micro-managing every issue and project that comes along.

· City Hall will be seen by the public as a collaborative partner in the development of proposals, plans and initiatives that address the stated objectives of the City Council and the community at large.

· City Hall staff will be non-partisan, free of political influence and perform to the universal standard of a professional public service.

· Council and City Hall will operate to a publicly-recognized standard for open government transparency and the timely sharing of information. By default, all information will be made public unless there is a sound and defensible legal reason for not doing so.

· City Council will not conduct in camera meetings without a legally sound reason. And if Council goes in camera, the specific reason will be shared with the public.

Paul Brown’s Action Plan

Here are 13 actions I will take to achieve this result:

· I will conduct an independent review of the City’s financial affairs and position

· I will eliminate the City’s Corporate Communications Office

· I will order a review of the City’s executive, management and administrative functions

· I will re-examine and re-structure the City’s public advisory committees if necessary

· I will develop and publish a list of the City’s infrastructure needs and conduct a public consultation to prioritize and build them into the City’s annual budget plans

· I will order the public disclosure of the financial status of the Johnson Street Bridge replacement and the prioritized list of risks associated with it

· I will open an immediate discussion with Esquimalt to determine possibility of renewing the Policing Agreement

· I will open discussions with Oak Bay, Esquimalt and Saanich to determine the feasibility of sharing garbage and organic waste collection services

· I will request the CRD to consider funding the Johnson Street Bridge replacement on the same basis as the replacement of Craigflower Bridge (92%)

· I will fund the implementation of the Official Community Plan and the Downtown Core Area Plan

· I will that Local Area Plans be updated

· I will order a review and public report on the City’s efforts to mitigate homelessness and the results to date

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