Roy Stewart is running for mayor of Prince George, bringing the number of candidates to five.
“My goal is to make the City of Prince George a better place to live, invest and raise a family,” Stewart said. “Often, we hear that you cannot change the world so why make the effort. This is the mantra of those who lack the ability to set goals and achieve them.”
Stewart practices law in Prince George. He has been an active member of the Prince George Golf & Curling Club for 46 years. Stewart became involved in public life by being elected as a school board trustee in 1981, and remained on that board until 1988. He was chair of the board from 1984-88. At the same time, he was the Canadian Bar Cariboo Representative on the provincial counsel from 1981 to 1987.
In 1988 Roy Stewart joined the Interior University Society as a director, and became president of that ground-breaking society in 1989. He guided the society until the University of Northern British Columbia was officially created by Act of the Legislature in 1992. The provincial government appointed him as the first president of the UNBC Foundation in 1992 for a three-year term. In 1998 Roy Stewart led a group of lawyers in their quest to have the new court house developed in Prince George.
Stewart, in private practise, was the solicitor for the City of Prince George for 20 years, until 2001. In that role Stewart advised the City of Prince George on all matters. In addition, Roy Stewart acted as solicitor for the Regional District of Fraser Fort George, the District of Mackenzie and other local governments.
He said his initial goals as mayor would be the following:
- To provide leadership, vision and ideas that will lead to a better place to live, invest and flourish;
- To tackle, without prioritizing issues, the following matters:
- Solving the “homeless” issue;
- Revising the attitude of the City to investment and development
- Changing the image of the City of Prince George, within the City, the Province and the world.
- Accountability of elected officials
- Revise current practices to ensure public spending on projects is controlled so as to avoid repetition of overspending.
- The “homeless” issue is a symptom of underlying addiction and mental health problems. To tackle this, certain short term, medium term and long-term efforts are required:
- Short term: increase police surveillance and foot patrols day and night in the downtown core. Too often we have had fires, vandalism, and other crimes taking place in the downtown of this city. Create housing options to give street people the ability to live with a sense of security;
- Medium term: increase the involvement of First Nations in efforts to deal with chronic problems for street people: my own observation is that the majority of the street people are indigenous in origin. We are our neighbour’s keeper and we need to involve First Nations in efforts to deal with these issues. We need to learn and adapt to take into account the ongoing efforts of First Nations who are trying to deal with this issue. We also have to politically motivate the Attorney General of BC to start dealing with prolific offenders because, presently, criminal activity generated by addiction is not effectively dealt with. Prolific offenders need to see consequences for their actions.
- Long term, in my opinion, involves finding an institutional framework for street people with addiction and mental health issues: to create with senior governments, First Nations and local government a refuge and treatment facility to deal with addiction and mental health problems for those who otherwise have no option other than to wander aimlessly and pointlessly on our streets. These wasted lives need to be redeemed.
- Revising the attitude of the City of Prince George respecting investment and development initiatives by business people is critical: the approach of the City should be “what can we do to help you do what you want to do”, not “how can be find ways and means of preventing you from achieving your goal.” Our hardworking staff at City Hall have not been given, in my opinion, the benefit of an over arching new positive philosophy which would facilitate a “can-do” attitude.
- Changing the image of the City of Prince George is long overdue. For all intents and purposes nothing has been done to positively introduce our City to the world: living in the ant hill of large metropolitan centers, with traffic congestion, unaffordable housing, polluted air, and long commutes; knowing that you cannot live a comfortable life when up to 80% of income is used to acquire accommodation, is just not a reasonable or viable way to live. Prince George offers affordable housing, which leads to having some disposable income, a good place to raise a family, local educational institutions of world class caliber, cultural aspects such as the PG Symphony, local playhouse, arts of all sorts, recreational venues, and the great outdoors at your fingertips. This is the best alternative. In this era, virtual learning, working and shopping means that people can live and learn anywhere, and setting out the many advantages of our City and actively promoting this image will change the perception of others who otherwise would not be informed enough to see their future in this region. Business investment would be encouraged because employees will see the opportunity if employed here, to live, learn and thrive in our beautiful City.
- Make administration of the City of Prince George transparent, to the degree compatible with issues of confidentiality, privilege or the law regarding protection of privacy. It is imperative for the business of the City of Prince George to be made open to public scrutiny in order for elected officials to be accountable to the public.
- To ensure that public spending on projects is controlled: a review of practices must be undertaken to avoid repetition of out-of-control spending on projects.
“I am an exponent for leadership, accountability and transparency in the operation of government,” he said. “I understand that to facilitate and encourage these wonderful life fulfilling choices, we need tax revenue. I understand that tax revenue cannot be obtained without business investment and the overall growth of our economy and population. I understand that as the city grows it must maintain and enhance quality of life options for its citizens.”
In 1992-1993 Roy Stewart, was chair of the Fund-Raising committee of UNBC, and developed a fund-raising plan, entitled North to the Future, which was presented to the Board and adopted by UNBC in 1993. The object of that plan was to create an endowment for academic positions and student support and enlisted the support of communities, colleges and business located primarily in North Central British Columbia.”
Chris Wood, Todd Corrigall, Terri McConnachie, and Simon Yu are also challenging for the mayor’s chair. Prince George residents go to the polls October 15.