As our region continues to grow, how would you balance the need for more housing with the infrastructure, transportation, and community services required to support complete, livable communities, while meeting provincial housing targets?  

Victoria needs more housing, but successful growth means building communities, not simply adding units. I support meeting our housing needs while planning housing, transportation, utilities, parks, public spaces and community services together. That requires everyone to work together. City Hall, for-profit housing developers, non-profit and community housing providers, the real estate community, neighbourhoods, Indigenous partners, the CRD, and the provincial and federal governments all have roles to play. We will not solve a housing crisis of this scale by working in separate silos or treating one part of the housing system as the enemy of another. I support substantially more housing and a more predictable development process, particularly in areas well served by transit, services and existing infrastructure. We need clear rules, meaningful public engagement and a City Hall that works constructively with people trying to deliver the housing Victoria needs. We also need to talk about housing completions, not simply approvals and housing starts. The measure that ultimately matters is whether homes of different types and tenures are actually getting built and people are getting housed. Growth also needs to protect the affordability we already have. When redevelopment replaces lower-cost rental housing, the City should be able to tell residents how many lower-cost homes were lost, what replaced them, what returning tenants actually pay and how many displaced tenants were ultimately able to return. That information should be publicly reported so we can measure whether our housing policies are actually protecting affordability. Finally, I believe every serious conversation about building housing in Victoria should include a shared social commitment to ending homelessness. Housing is fundamental to addressing homelessness. As we build up Victoria and reshape parts of our city, we should be working toward a community where everyone has a home and people who need health, mental-health, addiction, disability or other supports receive them appropriately. There is more common ground here than our politics sometimes suggests. People on the left, right and centre, businesses and community organizations, homeowners and renters, and people currently living unhoused all have an interest in ending chronic homelessness and building a healthier, safer and more affordable community. Victoria should do its fair share, but this is also a regional challenge. We can protect Heritage homes in James Bay a Jewel Community of all of BC, and build affordable future for South Island families. We need stronger cooperation with the CRD and neighbouring municipalities and real partnership with senior governments. My goal is a Victoria where we welcome new neighbours, protect existing residents from displacement, get more homes completed and work together to ensure everyone has a place to call home. 

What specific actions would you champion to increase the supply of attainable housing in your municipality, particularly for first-time buyers, families, and local workers?  If you do not agree with increasing supply to meet demand, how do you plan to ensure attainable housing long-term?  

I support significantly increasing Victoria's housing supply across a range of housing types and tenures. Supply matters, but simply increasing the total number of units is not enough. We need more homes that local workers, families, seniors and first-time buyers can actually afford, while protecting lower-cost housing that already exists. I would champion faster approvals, more predictable zoning and a simpler development process so appropriate projects do not spend years navigating unnecessary uncertainty. We should make it easier to build missing-middle housing, family-sized homes, purpose-built rentals, co-ops, non-profit housing and other forms of housing between a detached house and a high-rise tower. I also want us focused on the entire path from housing approval, to housing start, to housing completion, to somebody actually having a home. Success should not simply be measured by how many applications City Hall processes. We need to understand what is being completed, what it costs and who is able to live there. That will require partnership. City Hall cannot solve the housing crisis by itself, and neither can the private market, the non-profit sector or senior governments. We need for-profit developers building homes, non-profit and co-operative providers expanding permanently affordable housing, the real estate community contributing its knowledge of the market, community organizations helping us understand local needs, and provincial and federal governments bringing land, financing, infrastructure and supportive-housing resources to the table. At the same time, we need much better accountability when existing affordable rentals are redeveloped. Victoria has spent years responding to affordability pressures and renovictions, yet residents should not have to guess whether redevelopment is preserving affordability or eroding it. As Mayor, I would bring forward a motion asking City staff to publicly report how many lower-cost homes are lost through redevelopment, what replaces them, what returning tenants actually pay and how many displaced tenants are able to return. I also want Victoria to become a more active partner in creating permanently affordable housing. That means supporting community land trusts, co-operative and non-profit housing, using public land strategically rather than simply selling it, and exploring opportunities for the City and its partners to build housing that creates a long-term public asset. For first-time buyers, I am interested in innovative pathways into ownership, including appropriately designed rent-to-own and shared-equity models. We should be willing to test new approaches rather than accept that working people will simply be priced out of Victoria. And we cannot separate this conversation from homelessness. As we increase housing supply, we need a shared commitment across sectors and governments to ensure that people currently living unhoused have pathways into appropriate housing, including supportive and complex-care housing where needed. Ending chronic homelessness requires housing, prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction, health care and appropriate supports working together. We need to build substantially more housing, get more of that housing completed, protect the affordability we already have and work together toward ensuring everyone has a home. I believe that is common ground on which Victoria can build. 

What changes to municipal policies, zoning, permitting, or development approval processes would you support to help deliver new homes more quickly, efficiently, and affordably?  

Victoria can make the development process faster and more predictable without abandoning good planning, tenant protections or meaningful public engagement. I support clearer and more predictable zoning, simpler application requirements, reasonable and transparent timelines, better coordination between City departments and greater transparency so applicants and residents can see where an application is in the process and what is causing delays. We should identify unnecessary duplication and focus Council's attention on decisions that genuinely require political judgment rather than routinely requiring individual projects to navigate lengthy discretionary processes. Where the rules are clear and a project meets them, applicants should be able to expect a timely decision. I also want City Hall to work more collaboratively with everyone involved in getting housing built. That includes private developers, non-profit and co-operative housing providers, the real estate community, neighbourhoods, Indigenous partners and provincial and federal governments. A well-functioning housing system requires all of these partners, and City Hall should be a facilitator and problem-solver while continuing to protect the public interest. We should also measure the whole pipeline. Approvals and housing starts matter, but completions matter too. If projects are approved but homes are not ultimately being built, we should understand why and determine what barriers can reasonably be addressed. Where redevelopment removes lower-cost rental housing, our approval system should also track and publicly report what was lost, what replaced it, what returning tenants actually pay and whether displaced tenants were actually able to return. Faster approvals should not mean eliminating the public's voice. My approach is to engage residents early enough that their input can meaningfully shape decisions, while also giving housing providers greater certainty about the rules and timelines they are expected to follow. Victoria needs to become a city where good housing proposals can get to "yes" faster, homes move from approval to completion, residents know what is being built, developers know the rules, existing affordability is protected, and every sector understands that increasing housing supply is also part of our shared responsibility to get people housed and end chronic homelessness.