top of page

2022-2026 Term Accomplishments

This is a summary of key City of Nanaimo and Regional District of Nanaimo accomplishments I supported and initiatives where I played a leadership role during my second term, organized around my 2022 campaign commitments.

1. Results-Oriented City Government

Strengthen an innovative, results-oriented culture at City Hall and Increase accountability for key initiatives

  • Council endorsed the final IAP in June 2023. It organizes actions under five community goals: Green, Connected, Healthy, Empowered and Prosperous Nanaimo, and links City Plan priorities to departmental work, resource allocation and annual budget decisions. Council receives annual progress reporting showing whether priority actions are complete, in progress, ongoing or not started.

  • The IAP and subsequent business-planning process identify priority actions alongside departmental initiatives and capital investments during the annual budgeting process, making the connection between community goals and funded City work more visible.

  • Proposed public service standards, a performance dashboard, a 60-day implementation plan and quarterly reporting on processing times, backlogs and service improvements. The motion was defeated 3–6.

Strengthen Nanaimo’s Provincial Advocacy

    • Advanced regional and provincial advocacy on housing, health-care access, transportation, regional-district legislative reform, watershed protection, climate resilience and solid waste.

    • City and Regional District advocacy priorities included a new patient tower and cath lab at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.  The Regional District Hospital Board (7 councillors sit on this including myself) resourced a focused advocacy strategy to lobby provincial government which included hosting a provincial election all candidates meeting with questions specifically centered on expanding NRGH and held a Health Care Access summit in 2025 to raise political awareness.

  • Through the Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities Committee on Solid Waste and Circular Economy and the RDN, supported stronger diversion systems, provincial approval for Mandatory Waste Source Separation, waste-hauler licensing 

2. More Affordable Housing

Expand housing choices

  • Nanaimo incorporated expanded housing permissions into the Zoning Bylaw on June 17, 2024, aligning local zoning with City Plan density goals and provincial small-scale multi-unit housing requirements. Nanaimo has a provincially mandated target of 4,703 net new completed homes between 2024 and 2029.

  • This included the 29-unit Universal Place co-housing proposal at 5180 Universal Place and further work on family-friendly housing through the comprehensive Zoning Bylaw update.

Make affordable housing easier to build

  • Council gave the bylaw third reading on July 27, 2026. The proposed overlay applies to about 2,100 properties, roughly 7% of parcels in Nanaimo, in Urban Centre and Corridor areas. Eligible projects must include at least 20% social-housing rental units and secure affordability through a 60-year housing agreement. Final adoption was scheduled for September 2026.

  • These include housing agreements, density incentives, City-owned land, BC Housing partnerships, pre-zoning and Development Cost Charge reductions. In March 2026, voted for a 75% DCC reduction for non-profit rental housing; Council ultimately proceeded with 50%. The bylaw received three readings on April 20, 2026 and requires eligible units to remain below average market rent and protected for at least 60 years.

Build stronger partnerships with non-profit housing providers

  • As of July 2025, 318 below-market or supportive homes were completed and occupied, another 411 were progressing through planning, rezoning or development, and the broader pipeline included 683 homes at varying stages.

  • Examples include 51 supportive homes and 14 shelter beds at Cornerstone, 50 temporary supportive homes at 1300 Island Highway, 51 permanent supportive homes at 702 Nicol Street.

  • City data identifies an estimated need for 12,962 new homes from 2021 to 2031, including 7,001, or 54%, that would need to be non-market housing.

  • The city of Nanaimo put forward underused City-owned land available for housing aimed at middle-income workers, helping fill the gap between subsidized housing and market housing.

Create a new model for non-market housing

  • Council gave the bylaw third reading on July 27, 2026. The proposed overlay applies to about 2,100 properties, roughly 7% of parcels in Nanaimo, in Urban Centre and Corridor areas. Eligible projects must include at least 20% social-housing rental units and secure affordability through a 60-year housing agreement. Final adoption was scheduled for September 2026.

Improve permit performance

  • Nanaimo introduced a Certified Professional (CP) program as an alternative to the conventional City-led plan-review and construction-monitoring process. Under the program, appropriately qualified architects and engineers provide professional assurances of compliance with the BC Building Code and other applicable safety requirements, allowing the City to streamline review for eligible projects. Click for link

  • The City’s Fast Track Building Permit program is designed for relatively simple alterations within an existing tenant space and aims to issue eligible permits in as little as 15 business days after a complete application is accepted. Applicants are contacted within five business days to arrange a completeness and eligibility meeting. The stream excludes changes of use and certain higher-risk occupancy types, while incomplete or ineligible submissions must be redirected to the regular permit process. Click for link

  • The City had undertaken a broader review of its building-permit function and moved ahead with staff recommendations intended to improve workflow, coordination, application review, and customer service. Council directed staff to implement the Building Permit Function Review Update recommendations in May 2026 which included:  1. Separate civil Design Stage Acceptance from the building-permit process 2. Add one full-time Development Engineering Technician.3. Create internal service agreements for development approvals.4. Audit a sample of Certified Professional Program files.5. Explore more risk-based application reviews with industry.

  • Council approved adding a full-time Senior Engineering Development Technician to the 2026–2030 Financial Plan. The position is intended to increase development-engineering review capacity and help reduce delays where servicing, site-civil, and related engineering reviews affect building-permit timelines. Click for link

  • In 2026, I moved a motion calling for clearer service standards, a public-facing performance dashboard, a 60-day implementation plan, and regular reporting on processing times, backlogs, and service-improvement efforts. The proposed measures would have made permit performance more visible and established clearer expectations for reducing timelines; however, the motion was defeated on a 3–6 vote

3. Health, Housing and Community Safety

Strengthen coordination on homelessness

  • Council endorsed the final IAP in June 2023. It organizes actions under five community goals: Green, Connected, Healthy, Empowered and Prosperous Nanaimo, and links City Plan priorities to departmental work, resource allocation and annual budget decisions. Council receives annual progress reporting showing whether priority actions are complete, in progress, ongoing or not started.

  • The IAP and subsequent business-planning process identify priority actions alongside departmental initiatives and capital investments during the annual budgeting process, making the connection between community goals and funded City work more visible.

  • Proposed public service standards, a performance dashboard, a 60-day implementation plan and quarterly reporting on processing times, backlogs and service improvements. The motion was defeated 3–6.

  • This includes partnerships among the City, BC Housing, Island Health, Snuneymuxw First Nation, United Way BC, Island Crisis Care Society and non-profit housing and service providers.

Advocate for treatment, supportive housing and complex care

  • The project is expected to provide approximately 20 to 22 homes for people with complex mental-health, substance-use, brain-injury, chronic-health or disability-related needs. Council gave first and second reading to the rezoning in June 2025, with rezoning and development-permit approvals reported in August 2025.

  • As of spring 2026, Nanaimo had 258 supportive homes operating, including 222 opened since 2017, with 167 additional supportive homes underway. Planned projects included 35 homes at 355 Nicol Street, 50 at Terminal Avenue and 60 near McKenzie Avenue and Old Victoria Road. The 250 Terminal Avenue redevelopment is planned to include 50 supportive homes in its first phase and 37 affordable homes later.

  • This includes partnerships among the City, BC Housing, Island Health, Snuneymuxw First Nation, United Way BC, Island Crisis Care Society and non-profit housing and service providers.

Support evidence-based responses to addiction

  • Opposed placing undue blame on overdose-prevention services when treatment and recovery services remain severely under-resourced. Advocated for a balanced response that expands treatment, recovery and mental-health care while maintaining overdose prevention and neighbourhood safety.

Improve community safety and cleanliness

    • Community Safety Officers, RCMP, cleaning, outreach, housing and health interventions are treated as complementary tools rather than relying on policing alone.

  • In December 2024, Council approved nine new full-time CSO positions and one Senior CSO. Five CSOs and the senior position were scheduled for 2025, followed by four more CSOs in 2026, supported by two additional fleet vehicles and EV charging infrastructure.

  • Council approved four additional officers per year for three years, adding general-duty and mental-health capacity while building on earlier crime-reduction and downtown-safety investments.

4. Climate Action and Environmental Protection

Implement City and RDN climate plans

  • Nanaimo’s Integrated Action Plan translates City Plan climate commitments into operational actions across City departments. These include updating standards for City-owned facilities to reflect current and future energy and greenhouse-gas requirements, improving energy efficiency, reviewing lighting practices and advancing green-building practices.

  • Nanaimo was named to CDP’s 2024 Cities A List, one of only two B.C. communities recognized that year. Only 112 cities worldwide and eight Canadian communities received the designation. It was Nanaimo’s second A List appearance after 2022.

  • RDN climate work includes constructing energy-efficient facilities, incorporating sustainable infrastructure, adding zero-emission vehicles to its fleet, pursuing watershed protection and integrating climate considerations into operations and capital planning

Lead the transition toward zero waste

  • The target is equivalent to approximately 109 kg of disposed waste per person annually. The region had already reached approximately 68% diversion.

  • The Waste Hauler Licensing Bylaw received provincial approval in April 2024, and Mandatory Waste Source Separation took effect January 1, 2025. Together they require more consistent separation and collection of recycling, food scraps and residual garbage across multi-family, commercial, institutional and industrial properties throughout Nanaimo, Lantzville, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and RDN electoral areas.

  • The RDN provides annual funding for projects that reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, compost and recover materials before disposal, helping extend landfill life and develop local circular-economy solutions.

  • The adopted motion advanced a precautionary approach and called for moving toward thermal treatment before land application. This could produce biochar while addressing persistent contaminants such as PFAS compounds and pharmaceuticals.

Protect parks and environmentally sensitive areas

  • The RDN Board approved $21.2 million in long-term borrowing and committed more than $4 million from capital reserves toward the $28-million acquisition, with support from the Province, Government of Canada, Nature Trust of BC and Sitka Foundation. The acquisition will create the RDN’s thirteenth regional park and conservation area, adding to more than 2,814 hectares already protected.

  • Nanaimo’s Official Community Plan monitoring framework sets a minimum 30% tree-canopy target in every City monitoring area and identifies 40% as an ideal level for stronger cooling benefits. Achieving these targets will be supported through an update to the Urban Forestry Management Strategy.

  • The original design would have removed 29 mature trees and displaced significant existing public green space. Reconsideration led to a revised approach that preserved the mature-tree grove and located the public facility on newly acquired adjacent parkland.

  • These efforts aim to protect connected forest, riparian, wetland and recreational lands as permanent public assets, while safeguarding sensitive ecosystems, wildlife habitat and the long-term ecological health of the region.

  • The specific referral request I moved: That Council refer “Zoning Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 4500.249” back to Staff for further discussions with the applicant on amendments to improve compatibility with surrounding lands and address environmental, recreational, and community interests, including:

    ​

    1. Narrowing emission-intensive permitted uses, including removing petroleum processing and non-biomass waste-to-energy facilities;

    2. Improving the Cable Bay Trail buffer, including a consistent minimum 100-metre buffer where it is reduced to 50 metres and including adjacent environmentally sensitive areas within the buffer, 

    3. Increasing the width of lighter industrial transition areas adjacent to residential lands and the Cable Bay Trail, with electoral area residential setbacks equal to city residential setbacks

    4. Ensuring adequate servicing and drainage to protect surrounding parkland, wetlands, and the adjacent marine environment from spills, contamination, stormwater impacts, and toxic substances. 

Expand sustainable transportation

  • Service increased from roughly 137,000 annual transit hours in 2022 by approximately 16,000 hours, representing an increase of about 12%.

  • The RDN approved fare-free transit for youth aged 18 and under beginning in September 2026, covering Nanaimo, Lantzville, Parksville and Qualicum Beach and expected to remove fare barriers for approximately 8,000 young people. Before the change, youth aged 13 to 18 paid $45 for a monthly pass, while children 12 and under already rode free.

  • Collaborated in expanding the trail beside the E&N rail corridor south from Hecate Street to Seventh Street, with a commitment to continue the expansion to Extension Road.

  • Since 2022 city has doubled its annual investment into unallocated pedestrian safety and active transportation upgrades not including planned capital projects.

5. A Strong Local Economy

Improve permitting and development processes

  • As an alternative process for complex Part 3 buildings. It enables greater reliance on certified architects’ and engineers’ professional assurances, with the intent of reducing the depth of City review and allowing phased permit issuance where appropriate. Nanaimo amended its Building Bylaw and created local CP procedures, forms, and a manual supplement

  • Developed with industry through the Joint Building Permit Advisory Working Group and launched in 2022. The City’s target is permit issuance within 15 business days after a complete, eligible application is accepted; applicants are contacted within five business days to arrange the intake meeting

  • Supervisor and building-official capacity. The City also received a $500,000 provincial grant for development-approvals improvements, including building-permit review implementation, planning-process review, and technology investments. The 2026 review nevertheless found ongoing staffing shortages in Development Engineering, a major source of referral delay, and recommended adding a full-time Development Engineering Technician

  • Simple permits shifted to an e-apply platform; remaining permit types are scheduled to transition in 2027. The City also adopted Bluebeam for collaborative and identified Power BI for internal and applicant-facing application-tracking dashboards.

  • The review assessed implementation of the building-permit improvement recommendations originally brought forward in 2020 and identified opportunities for further improvement.

  • Proposed public service standards for each permit stream, a performance dashboard, a 60-day implementation plan and quarterly reporting on processing times, backlogs and service improvements. The motion was defeated 3–6.

Support health-care investment

  • The Nanaimo Regional Hospital District identified a new patient tower, cardiac catheterization lab, long-term-care capacity and a cancer centre as priority projects. It committed to paying 40% of capital costs for the patient tower, cath lab and long-term-care facility while advocating that the Province fund 100% of the cancer centre.

  • The 2026 NRHD budget included a 21% tax increase over 2025 to transfer $46.8 million into reserves for major capital projects. This was intended to ensure local funding is available when provincial approval and construction decisions proceed rather than delaying projects while financing is assembled.

  • The Province committed in fall 2024 to proceed with a new patient tower and cardiac catheterization lab at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. In Budget 2026, the Province confirmed initial planning for the NRGH expansion—a necessary first stage before detailed business-case approval and construction funding

  • The NRHD offered to fund concept and business planning for both the patient tower and cath lab, and to fund construction of the cath lab up front as part of its overall cost-sharing commitment. In December 2025, the Board unanimously approved up to $50 million from reserves toward the cath lab, seeking to remove a potential funding barrier and accelerate provincial approval.

  • Expansion of NRGH services is an economic as well as health issue: local cardiac and cancer treatment capacity can reduce travel to Victoria or the Lower Mainland, improve recruitment and retention of health professionals, and provide Central and North Island residents with care closer to home.

Strengthen local food security

  • Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank is developing a major food-distribution facility on East Wellington Road. The project received land from the City, funding and support from the RDN, The warehouse will increase Loaves and Fishes’ ability to receive, store, sort and distribute food across Vancouver Island

  • Community-farm planning to create opportunities for local food production, education, volunteer participation, intergenerational activity and ecological stewardship. Integrating food-growing spaces into park planning also helps make food security a visible, local part of community infrastructure rather than relying solely on emergency food provision.

Invest in recreation, arts and culture

  • Improvements included Westwood Lake Park, the Stadium District, Marie Davidson BMX Track, Beban Park pickleball facilities, Nanaimo Aquatic Centre and the Maffeo Sutton Playground.

  • The 2026 budget includes operating grants for cultural venues, the Temporary Public Art Program, and artwork or renewals in the Stadium District, Colliery Dam Park, Mansfield Park and Harewood Park. This support recognizes arts and culture as part of community wellbeing, downtown vitality and the local visitor economy.

  • A large-scale immersive art installation could attract residents and visitors, support hospitality and downtown businesses, and broaden access to cultural experiences that are often concentrated in larger urban centres. A pilot approach allows Council and community partners to assess attendance, local economic impact, cost and long-term feasibility before committing to a recurring program.

  • Council approved a revised, single-storey Loudon Park Activity Centre and boathouse design in April 2025. The approved project includes a publicly bookable 150-square-metre multipurpose room, boat storage, athlete-training space, accessible washrooms and changerooms, an inclusive playground, accessible waterfront improvements and tree replacement and replanting under the City’s tree-protection bylaw

  • In December 2025, Council directed staff to update the Loudon Park Improvement Plan to include the expanded park area and layout, and allocated $1.3 million in 2028 for non-building park improvements such as landscaping, a picnic shelter, children’s play equipment and interpretive signage

Protect industrial land responsibly

  • New industrial capacity is important for local jobs, trades, manufacturing, clean technology, warehousing and service businesses. The challenge is ensuring expansion occurs in appropriate locations, with environmental assessment, infrastructure planning, forest retention and meaningful consultation with affected communities and Snuneymuxw First Nation.

  • The Cable Bay proposal would rezone approximately 74.7 hectares for heavy industrial use and dedicate approximately 11.3 hectares as parkland along the Cable Bay Trail. The proposal includes an average 100-metre forested trail buffer, but its scale and location generated substantial concern about mature forest loss, industrial impacts, ecological protection and the trail experience.

  • A large-scale immersive art installation could attract residents and visitors, support hospitality and downtown businesses, and broaden access to cultural experiences that are often concentrated in larger urban centres. A pilot approach allows Council and community partners to assess attendance, local economic impact, cost and long-term feasibility before committing to a recurring program.

  • The public hearing extended across three sessions and approximately 11.5 hours, with more than 900 written submissions and significant public participation. Referring the matter back for staff work created an opportunity to strengthen mature-forest protection, parkland dedication, trail buffering, industrial-use conditions and consultation before any final decision

  • Council directed staff to examine excluding emissions-intensive heavy industries, including petroleum refining, chemical processing, waste-to-energy incineration, thermal-electric generation and LNG export facilities, from existing industrial zones unless site-specific rezoning is approved. This would ensure public notice, Council review and tailored conditions for proposals with significant potential impacts.

  • The industrial-zoning review was deferred in August 2026 for additional consultation with Snuneymuxw First Nation, heavy-industry landowners and other stakeholders. Although consultation is important, opposing delay reflects the view that Nanaimo should move promptly to ensure that the most emissions-intensive industrial uses require transparent, site-specific public review

  • Council unanimously advanced a rezoning application to public hearing for 25 hectares of light-industrial land between East Wellington Road and the Nanaimo Parkway. The proposal prohibits heavy industry and high-emission uses, preserves approximately 50% of existing tree cover and maintains a 50-metre buffer along the Parkway and Parkway Trail.

  • The East Wellington proposal illustrates a practical distinction: Nanaimo can add job-supporting industrial capacity while restricting highly polluting uses, retaining substantial tree cover and protecting public trail corridors.

Grow the circular economy

  • Nanaimo defines a circular economy as an approach that retains resources and products in use through reuse, repair, redistribution, reconditioning and recycling, rather than the traditional “take-make-waste” model. This reduces waste, emissions and demand for virgin resources while supporting local green jobs and more affordable material flows

  • The City partnered with the Vancouver Island Coast Economic Developers Association and Synergy Foundation to deliver the Circular Economy Accelerator Program. It provides practical support to businesses north of the Malahat seeking to reduce waste, improve resource efficiency and adopt circular business practices; partners are exploring a second phase.

  • The RDN’s 2026 Zero Waste Recycling Funding program provides $300,000 for non-profit projects that divert materials from landfill, develop circular-economy markets and improve local reuse, recycling and composting systems.

  • Continued advocacy on Extended Producer Responsibility, disaster-debris planning, conserving landfill capacity and stronger provincial circular-economy policy. These issues require provincial action because local governments cannot independently regulate product design, packaging, producer take-back programs or many end-of-life material streams. Stronger EPR shifts a greater share of recycling and disposal costs from local taxpayers to producers.

  • Mattress recycling is a practical example of Extended Producer Responsibility: mattresses are difficult to compact, consume scarce landfill space and contain recoverable materials such as metal, wood, foam and textiles. A province-wide stewardship program could create collection and processing systems while reducing costs and disposal pressures for local governments.

6. Standing by My Commitments

Several votes and interventions this term demonstrated a willingness to stand by commitments to environmental protection, accountable government, public health and responsible planning, including when in the minority.

Cable Bay

  • The proposed heavy-industrial rezoning involved approximately 74.7 hectares of industrial land and about 11.3 hectares of parkland, including an average 100-metre forested buffer. The public hearing ran for roughly 11.5 hours over three sessions and generated more than 900 written submissions, with extensive public opposition and concerns about environmental protection, Snuneymuxw consultation and compatibility with the Cable Bay Trail.

Loudon Park

  • Opposed the original boathouse and activity-centre design and supported reconsideration, which led to a revised design preserving the mature-tree grove and expanding the park. In December 2025, also supported deferring the $10.2-million funding decision until other capital priorities were considered. That deferral motion failed 6–3, and voted against the final funding decision.

Data Centre

    • In 2022, was the only Council member to oppose third reading of the rezoning for 2086 and 2090 East Wellington Road. When the project returned in 2026, continued calling for water-use, electricity-demand and conservation information to be available at the rezoning stage. Reported projected peak water use was 55,000 to 69,000 litres per day.

Linley Valley wetland

  • Opposed rezoning for large multi-family buildings adjacent to the Linley Valley bog wetland and called for stronger environmental review and due diligence when significant new environmental information emerges.

Drug Policy

  • Advocated for treatment, recovery, mental-health care, supportive housing, overdose prevention and neighbourhood safety to be addressed together rather than attributing community-safety challenges primarily to overdose-prevention services. The City subsequently received $442,752 in federal Emergency Treatment Fund support for overdose-response capacity and assistance for unsheltered residents.

High-emission industry

  • Supported requiring emissions-intensive industrial uses to undergo site-specific rezoning and public review rather than being automatically permitted. Proposed changes included petroleum refining, chemical processing, waste-to-energy incineration, thermal-electric generation and LNG export facilities, and opposed indefinite delay in establishing these protections.

Biosolids

  • Advanced consideration of thermal treatment and biochar as potential circular-economy options, subject to independent testing, lifecycle assessment and regulatory review.

Building permits

  • The proposal sought published baseline and ongoing performance data, clearer responsibility and regular public reporting. The motion was defeated by the Council majority.

bottom of page