PoCo mayoral candidates get down to business at Chamber of Commerce debate

It was business and a little personal as Port Coquitlam’s three mayoral candidates faced off in an hour-long Q&A in which the answers occasionally strayed from the questions.

Challenger Connor Fesenmaier took the opportunity to emphasize the need to boost business through better transportation.

“Congestion is an operating cost,” he said, highlighting the challenge of getting in and out of the city.

While there have been new left-turn signals and intersection improvements, the city needs something more substantive, according to Fesenmaier.

“We need to be looking at much larger infrastructure projects,” he said.

Those projects are underway, contended Mayor Brad West.

“The Kingsway upgrade that’s happening is a very significant construction project, it is a major reconfiguration of an intersection that has flummoxed many of us,” he said.

He also noted work on the Mary Hill Bypass and the replacement of the Coquitlam River bridge.

Challenger Pasquale Zampieri noted transportation challenges on the north side of the city.

“Because the Fremont Connector provides transportation benefits beyond Port Coquitlam, I would aggressively pursue cost-sharing,” he said, adding that he would seek funding from senior levels of government.

“I would prioritize practical measures to address north side congestion,” he said, discussing the need to review intersection performance, turning movements, and transit service.

The Fremont Connector is very much on the city’s radar, West countered.

“The reason why the Fremont Connector has not begun construction is because the city has been unable to achieve a fair and reasonable cost share with the City of Coquitlam,” explaining that he wouldn’t have PoCo residents paying a disproportionate amount.

Fesenmaier underscored the need to: “Make Port Coquitlam easy to reach, easy to invest in and easy to do business with.”

If elected mayor, Zampieri said he would look to cut red tape and review the permitting and development approval processes.

He noted the strain that growth can put on infrastructure, mentioning the provincial housing legislation that allows for multiple dwellings on a single lot.

“We’re still behind the hole on that,” he said. “How are we going to get this affordability . . . that still needs to be determined.”

Fesenmaier said the city should put a price on its own accountability.

“If businesses are not receiving things in a reasonable amount of time . . . I do think we should be reducing costs to that business,” he said suggesting the city could reduce the price of a business licence by a set percentage based on the delay.

Overall, city hall needs to be more transparent and better attuned to the needs of businesses, Fesenmaier said.

“Government should understand that dead time has an economic cost,” he said.

In addition to protecting key industrial land, the city should look to spur businesses ranging from manufacturing to tech, he added.

There has been “tremendous pressure” for municipalities to convert industrial land to residential, West said.

“Port Coquitlam has resisted that temptation,” he said, listing several employers that have moved to the city including Saputo and Lordco Auto Parts.

Those investments mean good-paying jobs, the mayor added. West also highlighted the hospitality roundtable, in which the city worked directly with businesses on a policy that included loosening special event liquor rules and eliminating out-of-date regulations

Zampieri and West each offered different versions of a meeting between the two of them.

“It took me almost two months to get a meeting with him,” Zampieri said of West. During that meeting, Zampieri said West told him everyone was too scared to run for mayor against him and that if Zampieri tried, “you’re going to have a hard time at it.”

Zampieri said he decided to run for mayor at that meeting.

“I said what? A mayor saying this to me? OK, you got a challenge. So that’s why I’m here, I want to make a difference.”

West, who noted that he regularly meets with residents and business owners, said he didn’t act in the manner Zampieri described.

“The reason why it took two months to meet with Mr. Zampieri is because he had a number of bylaw violations and was in the process of disputing those bylaw tickets,” West said. “What he did seek is my intervention to cancel his bylaw fines which is not appropriate for a mayor to do, which I explained to him.”

The fines were ultimately upheld, West added.

The election is scheduled for Oct. 17.