Bill Holdom - Candidate for Mayor

My vision for Nanaimo is the community’s vision, as expressed in Plan Nanaimo. What we need now is Action Nanaimo!

We’ve been consulting, imagining, and planning for 20 years and have produced an abundance of excellent documents, including the Successful Cities initiative undertaken by the Chamber of Commerce and the City’s most recent Strategic Plan.

Now we need to embrace the spirit of creativity, and ensure we’ve enacted the conditions that will encourage the outcomes we’ve envisioned. As just one example, our plans call for greater population density downtown, so let’s remove onerous parking requirements that may be blocking new residential development there.

Environmental Responsibility - Let’s give priority to proposals that creatively address this fundamental issue – energy-efficient buildings, more walking and cycling pathways, protection of sensitive natural areas and parkland, to name a few.

A Vibrant Economy - Let's strengthen transportation links to other communities. We need to energetically pursue expanded air service from the Nanaimo Airport and a passenger ferry to downtown Vancouver.

Poverty - As is often said, “A society should be judged by how well it treats its most vulnerable and disadvantaged members.” Poverty persists in Nanaimo. We need to access all available provincial programs and find creative local ways to ensure Nanaimo is livable for all of us. Attracting employers and businesses who pay a “living wage” will help.

While much of what needs to be done in Nanaimo requires private or outside investment, there’s much we can do ourselves to improve infrastructure and enhance services. We are blessed with an incredible seaside setting, an increasingly diverse culture, an established university and regional hospital, strong commercial centres, a fascinating downtown, and ongoing industries. We already have many of the building blocks for making Nanaimo the most attractive and livable community in the country – and we can do more.

            

As mayor, I will devote myself to seeking out creative and imaginative ways to fulfill Nanaimo’s potential while keeping taxes affordable and protecting what we treasure in our community. The more we make Nanaimo livable and attractive for ourselves as residents, the more it will be attractive to families and businesses thinking of locating here.

Action Nanaimo – enhancing and sustaining our quality of life – the future we will create together.

If elected, I will do my very best to serve you effectively and enthusiastically as your next Mayor.  

For more information, please go to my site: http://billholdom.shawwebspace.ca or phone me @ 250-729-8983.