Marcel Tetrault, Comox Valley Echo
Published: Monday, November 10, 2008

Seven people vying for four seats on Cumberland council took questions from villagers Tuesday evening, challenged to provide their views on various issues facing the former mining town.
Incumbent Coun. Dale Frame was placed on the hot seat more than once for sometimes leaving an empty seat at the council table.

Frame said he had missed 18 council meetings in the three-year term - about a quarter of the total - primarily due to his employment commitments. Frame is an aquaculturalist who works out of town and he also had knee surgery that laid him up for four months during the council term.
"It's unfortunate that I missed as many meetings as I did," said Frame. "But I have to make a living, I have to work away."
He said it is not clear how often his job will interfere with his council duties should he be re-elected but, when necessary, he has flown in for important meetings in the past.

Others were quick to note that the seat would be more frequently filled should they be elected.
"I see a chair often empty," said candidate Carol Snaden, a former councillor who served from 2003 to 2005. "I want that empty chair."
Each candidate was asked to weigh in with their views on the large residential and commercial development along the Inland Island Highway, an issue that has divided many in the small community.

Sitting councillors Bronco Moncrief, Leslie Baird and Frame said they were all constrained in what they could say about the Trilogy project as it is before council.

Moncrief said the land needed to be developed and that he did not believe the distance of the highway from the existing downtown core would be a problem; Baird said that the residential component would ensure the area did not take on the appearance of a strip mall; and Frame rebutted others who were concerned that land meant to be working forest would instead see residential homes built upon it. "Why are we so worried about the working forest?" said Frame, noting that there are few jobs in the industry these days. "It's not working."

Candidate Leona Castle, a councillor from 2003 to 2005, said the current council has dropped the ball and ground should already have been broken on the project. "Unfortunately this should have started a while back," she said. "Our window of opportunity may be closing -- let's jump on it now."

Candidates Carol Snaden and Gwyn Sproule both said they would like to see commercial development along the highway but were concerned about the residential component, which they see as costly to service. "Commercial provides jobs forever, building houses is just a temporary money fix," said Sproule. "I do object to the residential component, it's urban sprawl and car dependency."

Candidate Kate Greening expressed clear opposition to the project. "It's not very good," said Greening, referring to the proposal. "What is it actually going to do to our village? I think it will wreck it." When the questioner followed up and asked Greening how she proposed to foot the bill for the infrastructure upgrades required in the village, estimated at $48 million, Greening admitted she didn't know. "But Trilogy isn't going to pay for it either," she said.

Another big issue in the small village, water meters, brought out different responses from the various candidates.
Clear supporters of metering included Greening and Sproule, while Frame and Baird expressed more cautious support.

Moncrief said the problem with water stems from the decommissioning of Hamilton Lake Dam and all the village needs is a good plan for the water system, while Castle suggested the problem was not with water supply but the delivery system.
Snaden said that the infrastructure should be fixed before hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on meters.

There was no clear front-runner after the questioning was concluded, although the applause was most often loudest for Greening and Sproule's positions in opposition to parts of the Trilogy project.

© Comox Valley Echo 2008