PLATFORM - Homelessness / Mental Health

Slogan

Tough Love Is Still Love.

Philosophy

I'm a nice guy. I care about people. It really does bother me that there are so many people who are having a really hard time in life. We thankfully still have enough resources that everyone should have a good quality of life. The challenge lies in figuring out how to provide that. 

Solutions : Homeless People Who Commit Crimes

This is where the "Tough Love" comes into play. It is important to continuously remind ourselves, that for all of its faults, our Society is a compassionate one. Despite most people have plenty of their own problems, they still care about the welfare and well being of others. No one likes to think about someone else suffering, not having a place to live, to call their own. 

That said, Homeless people who commit crimes must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

Homeless people who commit Destructive or Violent crimes cannot be allowed to live in the City of Nanaimo with Law Abiding Citizens. 

Solutions : Understanding Nature of Person's Homelessness 

It has been said often, but it bears repeating here because it is a critical concept to understand. Each person affected by Homelessness has different reasons for being in that trying state. 

It is the same concept as mixing any materials that do not mix well together. One never gets a desirable result. For example, there is a reason plastics are separated by type. If new plastic is attempted to be created with 2 or more different types of plastics mixed together, the end result is unusable. Lumping together Homeless people with different root causes results in no resolution to the underlying issue. 

As I understand it there are 4 Root Causes of Homelessness which can sadly overlap. 

1. Substance Abuse
2. Mental Health
3. Severe Financial Difficulty
4. Personal Choice (enjoy the lifestyle)

Solutions : Interview / Engaging Proper Service to Help

• Each Homeless person needs to be interviewed to understand the nature of their Homelessness. 
• Following the Interview, the proper Service needs to be engaged. 

Solutions : Homelessness - Personal Choice

For those individuals who enjoy Homelessness as a "Lifestyle", I can appreciate the spirit of Freedom this might give someone, but Vagrancy is not an acceptable way of life in a City with Law Abiding citizens. 

Public Property is to be used as a public space within designated hours of operation. 

Private Property is private and it is unacceptable to impugn its ownership with Vagrancy. 

If one chooses to be Homeless as a "Lifestyle", I respect your decision. 

You cannot practice that Lifestyle in Nanaimo. 

I wish individuals who want to be free in this way all the best in their journeys, but Nanaimo will not be a long stop on that journey.  

If elected to City Council, I will do everything in my power to insure that Nanaimo is a City of Law and Order.  

Solutions : Temporary Shelter using Army Surplus

• The Army is well versed in preparing Emergency Shelter for soldiers
• The City could purchase these types of Shelters and set them up in Vacant Lots
• If the Homeless people have Criminal Histories, Histories of Violence, than they cannot be housed near Law Abiding Residents. They would need to be in Temporary Shelters away from other Citizens. Fairly, they should be in Jail or in Treatment. 
• For Homeless people who are peaceful, they can be housed in Temporary Shelters on Vacant Lots within the City Limits. Every effort must be made to secure them the Services they need to get their life back on track. 

Solutions : City Purchases Unused Buildings

• The City could purchase Empty Buildings and convert them into Temporary Housing
• The cost to the Taxpayers would be very high
• Full disclosure of the costs would be on the My Tax Money Nanaimo App / Website. 
• Nanaimo Taxpayers would have to decide whether they wanted to foot the bill with likely significant increases to their Taxes. 

Solutions : Reopen Riverside Hospital or Another Psychiatric Hospital

• Everyone knows it. Closing Riverside because of Woke, Progressive ideas about allowing people to be free to live their lives when they do not have the Mental wherewithal to do so was madness (literally). 
• Riverside needs to be reopened. Improved of course, using the best practices in modern Psychology, but large facilities that are equipped to treat people with Mental Health issues are an absolute necessity. 
• People who need Medications to be stable, require constant supervision to insure they are taking their medications and not posing a threat to themselves or to others. 
• It is categorically unfair to have Peaceful, Law Abiding citizens enduring the civil disorder, and potential threat to their safety from people who demonstrably need help that cannot be provided in regular Society. 
• In fact it is NEGLIGENCE on the part of the Healthcare System, to not have people with severe Mental Health in a proper Psychiatric facility. 

PLATFORM - Crime / Police Empowerment / Citizen Self Defense / Nanaimo Safety Action Plan $2.5 Million & 1% Property Tax Increase for Glorified Guidance Counsellors

My Commitment

Nanaimo is a City for Law Abiding Citizens. If someone is breaking the law, they must be prosecuted for their Crimes. If someone is breaking the law, and endangering fellow Citizens, they must be removed from the Society of Law Abiding people. 

If elected City Councilor, I will do everything in my power to make Nanaimo a City of Law and Order.  

Personal Philosophy

Civil Society depends on the Social Contract. We all agree to live together, and obey the rules, obey the laws. This is how we can coexist peacefully. We don't always agree, but we maintain a level of respect and civility. 

When someone commits a Crime, they are breaking the Social Contract. As a compassionate Society, we want to try to understand why a Crime has been committed and rehabilitate the person who committed the crime. But, this healing process takes time. In the interim, someone who commits a Crime needs to experience consequences, and, especially when the crime is of a destructive or violent nature, the person needs to be removed from congress with law abiding people, whether that be a treatment facility or jail. 

Analogy : The Household

If a member of the household is threatening, stealing, engaging in acts of violence, and the members of the household wish to preserve a harmonious home life, then the individual who is being disruptive must cease their destructive behavior or they must leave. People who want to live in a peaceful home deserve that state of calm and order. It is perfectly reasonable and right for anyone who is ruining that pleasant home life to be asked to stop, and if they don't stop, then to leave. This isn't cruelty, this is fairness. This is everyone's right to a happy domestic life. 

Police

• Hiring : It is not possible to hire more Police Officers when no one wants the job. 
• Demoralized : Police Officers are demoralized because their arrests don't result in convictions and due punishment. 

Police : My Commitment

Whatever I can do within my power as a City Councilor to empower our Police to make arrests that stick, I will do. 

I will lobby the Provincial Government, the BC Court System, and speak publicly on the need to give our Police the power and authority to do their job and keep Law Abiding Citizens safe.  

Solutions

• Treatment for people with Addictions
• Housing for the Homeless
• Lobbying the Provincial Government and the BC Court System constantly to change policies to insure that people who commit destructive and violent crimes are put in the proper facility, whether that be treatment center or jail. 

Solutions : Jails

My understanding is that many Jails in BC have plenty of capacity. 

These facilities can have sections be converted into Detention / Treatment Centers. 

We don't have to build new facilities, when we have those that are under utilized. 

Solutions : Broken Windows Theory

Nanaimo needs to do what Mayor Rudy Giuliani did in New York in the 1990's. Small Crimes need to be prosecuted regularly, and consistently, so that a clear message is sent to anyone who considers committing a Criminal Act in Nanaimo. 

If the Small Crimes are prosecuted vigorously, than the larger crimes will be discouraged by virtue of the discouragement of the Criminal Element in Nanaimo. 

Solutions : Pepper Spray for Residents Who Wish To Carry It

A fellow Candidate proposed the idea, and I think it is an excellent one. 

Pepper spray is painful, and it's a shame to use it, but it is non-lethal and will stop an aggressor. 

Plenty of women, and many men, would feel safer to walk around Downtown Nanaimo if they were carrying Pepper Spray with them. 

I am a strong believer in the United States 2nd Amendment. 

I don't believe Nanaimo Citizens need to be armed (yet, hopefully never), I do believe, very strongly, that Nanaimo Residents should have the option to protect themselves in an effective, non-lethal manner if they feel threatened. 

I believe that Governments which discourage Citizens from having the tools and training to protect themselves are trying to train their Citizens to be weak and easily controlled. 

No Law Abiding Citizen should walk their City streets in fear, and until Local Government imposes Tough Love on people who are making the City unsafe, Citizens deserve the right to be able to defend themselves effectively. 

Thought : Nanaimo Safety Action Plan

The Action Plan calls for the hiring of 12 Community Safety Officers, 2 permanent cleaning teams, downtown ambassadors, vandalism relief grant money, more parkade cleaning, parks ambassadors and more. 

The Plan will cost $1.5 million in 2022, $2.8 million in 2023, and $2.5 million in 2024 and beyond. 

This will result in 0.9 percent tax increase in 2022, and a 1.0 percent tax increase in 2023. 

I loathe band-aid solutions to problems. Nanaimo needs Tough Love. People who commit crimes, especially violent ones, need to go to jail. People with substance abuse problems to Rehab. People with Mental Health problems need to be in Psychiatric Hospitals.  We are a caring people, but we do not like to waste money on solutions which DO NOT fix problems, but merely alleviate symptoms. Reminds me of the Pharmaceutical Industry. They profit from "managing symptoms", not from actually curing illness. Curing illness is not profitable long term.

By NOT effectively solving Nanaimo's Homelessness and Substance Abuse problem, the Incumbent Council has created more City Staff positions, and MORE burden on Nanaimo Taxpayers. 

Safety Officers are toothless! All they can do is recommend services and ask someone to move along. Herding cats with feathers.

Thought : Nanaimo Is For Law Abiding Citizens

It doesn't take a genius to see that Nanaimo's Crime  problem stems from Homelessness and Substance Abuse. 

The solution is these individual's issues need to be addressed. 

The question is do City Politicians have the Guts and Political Will to make a tough call : if someone wants to live in Nanaimo, they will follow the law. Otherwise, they are NOT WELCOME in Nanaimo. Law Abiding Citizens follow the law. Homeless people and those with Substance Abuse problems must be no different. 

ENOUGH with spending Tax Payer's money to continue enabling people. 

Jail for those who are criminals.

Rehab and Treatment for those with Substance abuse issues. Solved.

PLATFORM - Transit

 Main Idea : Shuttles for Low Volume Routes / Increase Frequency of Trips / Shuttles are Cheaper Than Buses

• Nanaimo Residents find the Transit system painfully slow for Routes other than the Main Ones
• The Solution is to increase the number of trips Transit can make along Routes
• Increasing the number of Trips, when the Bus often has hardly any passengers is not cost effective
• The Solution to this is simple : smaller vehicles than buses. Those would be : Shuttles. 

Shuttle Drivers

• It's not pleasant to talk about, but Shuttle drivers would logically be paid less than full Bus Drivers, since their vehicles are easier to operate and they are responsible (theoretically) for fewer passengers
• The lower salary, would help to mitigate the cost of the increased number of trips

PLATFORM - Against the OCP (Official Community Plan) / Smart Cities / Donut Economics

Expert Debate : Is Nanaimo Becoming a Smart City In the best Interest Of Its Residents?

• To its Credit, the previous Council did engage in a 3 Phase consultation process with Nanaimo Residents before passing the Official Community Plan (OCP)
• The issue is that only a fraction of the Residents actually provided feedback. It is hard to get a firm figure on individual, verified feedback on the different phases of the plan, but it was still only a relatively small percentage of the population
• For such a serious decision, that significantly impacts the planning of the City and the impact on Nanaimo Tax Payers, Experts should have been invited and the public had the benefit of a proper debate, with tough questions and rigorous defense of ideas
• Far too few Residents have any idea about the ENORMOUS impact on their lives the decision to make Nanaimo a Smart City will have

Cities of Surveillance : Sensors in Everything

• The central goal of Smart Cities is efficiency. But this is efficiency achieved through the massive collection of data from Sensors embedded in infrastructure throughout a City. Sensors on Traffic Lights, Street Lamps, Garbage Cans, Park Benches, Buildings.
• All of these Sensors will be collecting data constantly with the goal of making sure that all aspects of the City are operating with greater efficiency
• But, Smart Cities will also encourage Citizens to wear Smart Devices. Citizens will regularly be giving feedback to the Smart City. Heart beat. Temperature. Eventually, the goal is for Smart Cities to be able to measure Citizens mood with Sensors. Eventually Citizens will be encouraged to have Sensors implanted inside their own bodies. 

THOUGHTS - Workplace Education Incentivization / Adult Self Improvement and Self Confidence Augmentation / Investment Training

 Affordable Housing Is A Major Problem

• Is the Solution really to build more Affordable Housing? 
• Is the Solution really to build Housing for people so they can merely subsist at the least ambitious state possible? 
• Or is the Solution to empower, educate and embolden people to better themselves and their lives, so they can afford to live in a place of their dreams. 

Workplace Education

• Companies should Incentivize employees to improve their Education and Job Skills through the traditional routes of Promotions and Increased Pay, but also reward them for increasing Education on their own time

THOUGHTS - School Choice : The Solution to The Majority of Society's Ills

 Pick A Problem, Let's Say Housing

• How do people who afford a comfortable home do so? They find the means to secure funds to pay for that housing. How do they find the means? Through careers with sufficient compensation, smart investing, creative side businesses. 
• What do these paths to wealth generation have in common? Self Confidence. A sense of Purpose. 
• Confidence is acquired by doing things which challenge oneself, through having a variety of experiences
• Much of those aspects of a person's personality are formed during the School Years of a person's life. 
• With School Choice those formative years are spent with a child being in an Educational Environment which is best suited to their temperament and learning style, resulting in them having a more satisfying and rewarding scholastic experience, where they are genuinely learning, growing, and gaining self confidence.

PLATFORM - Arts and Culture

 The Port Theater

• How much did the Port Theater cost the City?
• Has the Port Theater ever been a Net Revenue Generator for the City? 
• Does the Port Theater operate at a yearly deficit that Nanaimo Tax Payers need to pay for? 
• I highly encourage all Nanaimo Citizens to demand the creation of the My Tax Money Nanaimo : Smartphone App and Website, and Residents will be able to see for themselves how much the Port Theater is costing them every year

Nanaimo Art Gallery

• I like Arts and Culture
• My Mother had a Masters Degree in Art History and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Museums and Cathedrals with her in Spain and hearing her speak about the history of paintings, sculptures and architecture
• But, I want Nanaimo Tax Payers to know how much Arts and Culture is affecting their bottom line
• People spend money on what they use and what they value
• Residents will need to ask themselves how often they visit the Art Gallery, and whether they are willing to foot the bill for an expansion 

Expert Debate : Arts and Culture Spending in Nanaimo

• It is