Mayor David Screech Inaugural Address, View Royal, December 2, 2014

Inaugural Address,

View Royal, December 2, 2014

Good evening,

Firstly let me express my deep gratitude to the voters of View Royal for the trust they have placed in me. I am extremely honoured to have been elected to serve as the fourth mayor of View Royal and will work hard to earn and retain that trust.

There are five of us that have been elected to guide our community for the next 4 years and I would like to acknowledge all of them beginning with Councillor John Rogers, sitting on my right. John is starting his seventh consecutive term on Council. When this one is over he will have served his community for 22 years. On John’s right is Councillor Ron Mattson who is also beginning his seventh term. On my left is Councillor Heidi Rast who is beginning her third term and on my far left is Aaron Weisgerber who is newly elected and who I know will bring some new perspectives and ideas to Council. In recent days I have met with all of Council individually to discuss their hopes and ambitions for the next four years and I have been impressed by the thoughtful input I have received. I know we have an excellent Council moving forward.

As we look ahead I know there are high expectations of what we shall accomplish in the next four years. The first order of business will be a strategic planning session to be held early in the New Year. Some of the priorities that will be brought forward to that session are.

• Completing a comprehensive review of our reserve funds and developing a plan to fund then properly.
• Completing a long overdue review of the Town’s DCC bylaw
• Creating an economic development committee to focus on specific areas within the Town, such as the hospital precinct and the Island Highway from Helmcken out to the Six Mile strip.
• Creating and implementing a 10 year strategic plan for our park system.
• Moving Council towards a paperless environment through the use of electronic and digital data for meetings.
• Creating a heritage plan for the Town.
• Continuing to build safe pedestrian and cycling routes throughout the Town.
• Completing a review of the Towns services that is already underway.
• Strengthening the roles of our advisory committees in the decision making process and strengthening the process for involving the public with major decisions.
• Continuing to build a Volunteer View Royal program.
• Developing a plan where each member of Council would act as a liaison for specific areas of the Town.
• Working with our partners across the region to develop and implement a climate change action plan that will be lasting and effective.

As we spoke with residents during the campaign there were some consistent themes that we heard.

• We heard that we need to do a better job of communicating with the residents and we will be exploring ways to do this.
• We heard genuine concern about the slow but steady increases in property taxes and the potential increases that lie ahead with the major regional projects that are on the horizon. We need to be very aware of the impacts these increases have on our residents, especially those on fixed incomes.
• We heard from the business community that they would like to see more support and resources from the Town and we shall explore this.
• We also heard concern from residents who wanted to be sure that the Town is using casino revenue and other resources to their best possible advantage and this again is something to reassess.

View Royal is bordered by 5 other municipalities and two first nations' bands. We acknowledge and respect the fact that our Town occupies the traditional territories of the Esquimalt and Songhees bands. It is my hope that we will work diligently at building mutually respectful and productive relationships with all of our neighbours and with this in mind I would like to see some Council to Council meetings arranged early in the term.

At the regional level we clearly have some work to do. I am a strong advocate of the CRD and like to emphasise the many successful programs of the CRD, such as Parks, Water Board, Arts, Regional Housing, recycling and waste programs, and many more. We must work collaboratively with all of our municipal partners to find a solution to the impasse we now find ourselves at in regards to sewage treatment. I am confident that by working together we will find a path forward.

We know that some type of study on the governance of our region will be taking place during this term. While we have no idea what form this study will take it is incumbent on us to be involved and to represent our Town's and resident's interests. It is clear across the region that residents expect to see more cooperation and integration between communities. I believe this is something we should be working on ahead of the study and will be meeting with local mayors to discuss.

Before I close my address I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of the Town's staff for their individual and collective contributions to the smooth operation and well being of the Town. Over the last 12 years, as a Member of council, I have had to at times depend greatly on the assistance and advice of the management team and I have been consistently impressed with the professionalism and competence that they bring to their respective roles. I would also like to give special acknowledgement to the people who keep our community safe. We are fortunate to have a dedicated group of highly trained, volunteer and career Fire Department personnel. We also appreciate the high standard of policing that our RCMP detachment provides us.

Thank you to all of the Town staff led by our Chief administrative officer Kim Anema. It should also be noted that many individuals in our community volunteer their time in a variety of different ways, all of which contribute to making our Town a better place. You know who you are and you should also be aware how much we appreciate all of the contributions you make to our community.

I look forward to the next four years and to our Town's continued progress. We have accomplished much and I know we will continue to do so. I am sure there will be challenges along the way but I have every confidence that with a strong Council and staff working together in a respectful and productive manner that we will continue to build and sustain View Royal as one of the best places to live, one of the best places to call home.