CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - The president of the UPEI Student Union said a lot of things were promised during The Guardian’s Charlottetown Mayoral Debate Wednesday night.
The question is, what happens after election day on Nov. 5.
“There’s a lot of promises being talked about and a lot of discussion on affordable housing, but until the (new) mayor gets elected we’re going to see if anything will actually change,’’ said Will McGuigan.
The debate was held at a jam-packed W.A. Murphy Student Centre at UPEI. After the debate, The Guardian waded into the audience to gauge reaction to the 90-minute event.
McGuigan was happy to hear the candidates talk about youth retention being one of the top priorities in the city.
“As a youth myself facing that very question as graduation approaches in a few months, I fit right into that category. It’s all 100 per cent true.’’
One issue McGuigan was hoping the mayoral candidates would talk about, transit, didn’t come up as a question although it was briefly touched on at one point.
“I was hoping to see more discussion about transit in the city because that is a big topic for students at UPEI and, I think, all Charlottetown residents.
Peter Rukavina was impressed with mayoral candidate William McFadden, who entered the race on the final day for nominations.
“I think that Bill McFadden made a fairly strong case that the job of the mayor is to be the chair of council and that involves active listening and I think he did that very well,’’ Rukavina said. “I don’t think (there was a clear winner). I think it was a good opportunity to hear approaches and styles, so we’ve got a lot to think about now.’’
Ron Dowling, one of five candidates vying for the vacant Ward 1 seat, said he found it informative and interesting.
“It was a little bit conflictual at times but not overly so,’’ Dowling said. “I think everyone had the opportunity to get their respective platform points across and, it was great to see such a large turnout and enthusiastic crowd as well.’’
Not everyone liked what they heard.
Zac Murphy wasn’t impressed that the candidates were asked, if they became mayor, if they would fire the city’s CAO Peter Kelly. Kelly’s hiring in 2016 was a controversial one has a report in Alberta concluded Kelly acted outside his authority while working for a municipality there.
“I felt the question around Peter Kelly was a little bit out of touch for this type of format and I felt that Kim really answered the question well,’’ Murphy said, referring to the fact that mayoral candidate Kim Devine said it was an inappropriate question and refused to answer it.
One woman told The Guardian that she’s decided to vote for Devine based on her handling of the Kelly question alone.
Other than that, Murphy said it was good to talk about some of the more pressing issues in the city.
“One of the issues that has sort of been on the forefront is affordable housing and it seemed to be brought up a lot tonight, so it was nice to hear the candidates making that a priority going forward.’’
Another woman said she felt candidates Cecil Villard and Philip Brown spent too much time focused on each other.
“I thought it was just astonishing, actually,’’ she said. “There wasn’t a lot of information.’’
Another woman concurred, saying she wished some of the candidates hadn’t spent so much time talking about what has happened in the past.
“I want to hear policies; I want to hear your vision of the future. I don’t want to go into the past,’’ she said.
Devine said the idea of a fancy new rink is exciting, “but I’ve heard a lot of mixed reaction at the door’’.
Devine said money might better be spent on neighbourhood rinks. She also pointed out that while user groups have been consulted the wider community has not been.
“Would (a new rink) mean a tax increase? We have to have talks with the provincial and federal governments,’’ she said, adding that it would take multiple parties to help with operating costs.
Larkin wants to know where the money would come from and noted that big infrastructure projects should be done in an open and transparent process. He also said such projects should be voted on by the people of Charlottetown.
Larkin, who talked often during the debate about the need for affordable housing, talked about it again during the arena debate.
“I know I sound like a broken record, but housing is more important than an $80-million arena,’’ he said.
Part of the reasons why a task force is looking at a new arena is that P.E.I. is likely hosting the 2023 Canada Winter Games.
Villard doesn’t think a new arena will happen but did stress that the city is in need of another sheet of ice. He talked about using a hybrid type of ice surface which would be eligible for Games funding.
Brown said like any project there would most certainly be cost overruns. He suggested looking at a new triplex for hockey, figure skating and speed skating.
Related: Charlottetown CAO Peter Kelly leads to heated exchange at The Guardian's Mayor's Debate
