The roller-coaster that was 2017 seems certain to roll right into 2018. The people of Greater Victoria can only fasten their belts and hang on. For policy-makers on Greater Victoria’s municipal councils and the Capital Regional District, the job jar is as full as it was at this time last year, with some of the same tasks still to be completed.
The City of Victoria hopes the new Johnson Street Bridge will finally open — and close — so everyone can put that spectacle in their rear-view mirror. As long as the new bridge works, the arguments over landscaping the plazas and installing public art will seem almost relaxing compared with the anguish of the long delays and massive budget overruns.
Although the bridge project can be checked off the list, other issues are not so easily dealt with.
Housing is going to plague all levels of government because it plagues so many of the people they serve. The simple word “housing” includes everything from homelessness to affordable housing to the skyrocketing values of homes in Greater Victoria — all are connected.
The tent city is gone from the courthouse lawn, and many of its residents are in newly purchased housing scattered around the city. An infusion of cash from the province and innovative solutions such as the My Place shelter made a difference. But homelessness has not gone away.
The region and the province are each putting $30 million into the Regional Housing First program to create new affordable housing. With the provincial and federal governments acknowledging that this problem is too big for municipalities to handle without help, there is hope for progress. Politicians and staff at all three levels, in co-operation with dedicated non-profit agencies, must focus on housing this year.
Similarly, all governments are tackling the illicit-drug deaths that are sweeping across the continent and hitting B.C. particularly hard. More than 1,200 British Columbians died in the first 11 months of last year, compared with 922 in all of 2016.
The province declared a health emergency in early 2016, but the deaths continue to mount. As with housing, we can’t afford to let this one slide. Drug addiction often seems an intractable problem, but we can’t give up the quest for ways to save lives.
Compared with those challenges, the region’s sewage-treatment project seems almost straightforward. Unlike homelessness and addictions, it has a concrete outcome, and similar systems have been built all over the world.
The big questions are reminiscent of those with the bridge: How much will it cost? When will it be finished?
While the politicians can’t do the digging themselves, they can keep a close eye on both those politically charged variables.
As if their agendas were not full enough, local politicians will have to live with the fallout from the legalization of marijuana, set to take effect some time this summer. The federal government might dictate from above, but local governments will suffer the nitty-gritty of enforcing the laws and weathering the consequences, both foreseen and unforeseen.
And to make things still more exciting, all this happens during a municipal election year. As they debate these issues and many others, councillors can’t help but keep one eye on the campaign for October’s vote. Will it give them a reason to take decisive action, or will they play it safe?
With the challenges foreseen and unforeseen of 2018, we will need our local elected officials to work hard for their paycheques again this year.
