Mayor Popove says Chilliwack will stay the course debt free, while challenger Ian Carmichael says residents deserve better

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Mayor Popove said the City of Chilliwack has done its part to keep its fee structure and tax rate low for developers.

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“We have allowed for suites and carriage houses to be used for lower rental ideas,” Popove said. “We have done our bit and we’ll continue to do our bit to keep things as low as possible by way of our fee structure. The step code that’s being introduced in the province, the developers will have to embrace. They have to navigate their way through that. We’ll work with the developers. We do subsidize our supportive housing units. Affordable housing is a challenge with the amount of growth that we’ve had. We’ll continue to try to tackle this issue.”

On the issue of taxation, Popove said he was proud of Chilliwack’s low tax base.

“Our tax base is the lowest in the Fraser Valley,” he said. “I’m proud of that. We have taken on a pay-as-you-go philosophy that was instituted before my time. The strategy has kept us moving forward. Keeping taxes low attracts people to this area. Our commercial base is growing. I’m sure you’ve seen what’s happening downtown. We’ll endeavour to keep our taxes low for personal households and for businesses as well. We want to attract everybody to keep coming to Chilliwack.”

Carmichael said revenue wasn’t so much an issue as expenses were, and argued that Chilliwack doesn’t spend enough on its fire protection. He said the first duty of elected officials is to protect the safety and security of its population.

“Revenues are not the challenge as much as the other side of the ledger, the expenditures,” said Carmichael, who promised to one day get a new suit. “The public safety portion of our budget… is insufficient for fire protection issues. We have less than 30 full-time firefighters ready to respond today in an emergency. Just last week we had an interface fire in Promontory. This poses an unacceptable risk.”

Carmichael added that on-call firefighters have asked for additional resources and not received what was needed.

Mayor Popove rebutted those statements about public safety after the debate.

“We have over 40 full-time firefighters,” Popove said. “We’ve given the on-call firefighters the best equipment money can buy. We’ve spent money on ladder extensions, we purchased more of those [self-contained breathing apparatus) the firefighters wear. We support our firefighters to the ends of the year and back.”

The City of Chilliwack website states it has 40 full-time firefighters and 135 paid on-call firefighters.

When a debate question about transportation arose, Carmichael said, “One of the ways we can reduce our traffic problems and transportation issues is to build a compact and complete city where walkability and cycling and public transit are able to take much of the burden. I’d like to work towards that.”

Carmichael added that he supports a regional rail link that would connect the Fraser Valley to Metro Vancouver. However, he said it would take significant investments from the provincial and federal government.

Conversely, on the topic of transportation, Popove estimated the City of Chilliwack had spent at least $15 million on the Vedder Road corridor and improving Promontory Road.

“In the past couple years we’ve spent an unprecedented amount of money,” Popove said. “We’ve tried to capture the growth that we are experiencing. The biggest challenge we have is we’re landlocked. We need to purchase or expropriate lands. It’s a challenge as all of you know. We’ll continue to work on local infrastructure, we’ll improve the intersection of South Sumas Road and Vedder Road, we’ll continue updating Prest Road, and we’ll do the Watson Road widening.”

Popove added that a regional rail line would be a costly initiative to move forward, and he would rather see the city spend money on cycling infrastructure and carry the Valley Trail into Yarrow.

“Talks are ongoing with B.C. Rail,” Popove said of extending the north-south Valley Rail Trail. “I hope to see that come to fruition in my next term.”