Skip to content

Big crowd, lots of questions for Trail mayoral hopefuls

Advance voting will go Oct. 10 and Oct. 17, then on general voting day, Saturday Oct. 20
13731476_web1_180927-TDT-M-forum-candidates
Trail mayoral candidates (from the left) Bryan DeFerro, Casey LeMoel and Lisa Pasin, took questions from the audience during Wednesday’s all-candidates forum at the Cominco Gym.

If there was any question about Trail at-large being engaged in what’s going on around them, then the Wednesday night forum should lay that to rest.

For a full hour, timely and thoughtful questions from an audience of 150-or-so, were aimed at one or all of the city’s three mayoral candidates.

Vying for the head seat are first-time candidates Bryan DeFerro and Casey LeMoel. Rounding out the table of three, is sitting Trail councillor, Lisa Pasin.

With so many queries that covered issues from affordable housing and economic development to policing and of course, the Trail acid spills - electors were given good insight into the direction each candidate is hoping to take the city.

And with so many questions - some submitted beforehand, others were taken from the floor - the logical place to pick up the story is with a general inquiry to all candidates that came at the 20-minute mark.

“What are the most important challenges facing our community and how do you propose to address them?” asked moderator Bill Profili. (there was no open mic, questions were jotted down from the crowd and Profili presented them)

“Right now it’s policing,” began DeFerro. “Obviously we’ve got to get a policing program in place. And the next issue, long-term, is going to be housing. And government at the municipal level has the power to deal with that, other than zoning.”

Candidates were seated alphabetically so next up was Casey LeMoel.

“I feel that housing is a huge issue, there are lots of new people coming in to town and there’s just nothing for rent,” said LeMoel. “And the rent that there is, is sky-high because of the need, so we definitely need affordable housing. Policing definitely needs to be improved, theft is so bad now, the RCMP don’t even have time to come and look at it half the time. It’s definitely showing.”

Mental health is another area that needs to be looked at, he continued.

“The Daly Pavilion, it’s great but these people need more than a couple of nights sometimes, to be safe and get on proper medication. And as you see, they just keep coming back out and not getting the help they need and deserve.”

After a repeat of the question by the moderator, Pasin was up.

“So the first one for us, is economic development,” she replied. “I think we really need to concentrate on moving away from a single entity as our major taxpayer, which is Teck, who pays 61.33 per cent. We need to focus on economic development to bring in new business,” Pasin said.

“With that, we are looking at housing development and safety. And making our community safe and appealing so that we can bring in outside investment because, realistically, we can’t do it all on our own.”

Following that line of interest was a question about the acid spills in Trail.

“What will be done to prevent further acid spills in Trail and surrounding areas?” Profili asked on behalf of an attendee.

With mic still in hand, Pasin was first to respond.

“Clearly this is a huge issue for the community,” she began. “And from a city council perspective, I just want to say what’s happened is very, very unacceptable. Teck and its corporate partners have a corporate responsibility to do better for our community and they also have responsibility to up their communication so our citizens are well informed whatever happens at that plant,” Pasin said.

“So what the partners have done, we just met with them on Monday, they are stopping hauling of acid. They have got four new trucks and new inspection procedures and they now have a zero tolerance culture for spills. And from a council perspective, we have to really engage with them to ensure that communication and the culture of safety persists and that we are not left in the dark as citizens, and as a city, when any incident happens.”

Next in line was LeMoel.

“This is a huge issue that people of Trail deserve to be updated on. And I think the city needs to do more to help the people in this situation, it’s a big deal. This kind of stuff shouldn’t happen, it’s never happened in the past. Teck and the trucking companies, they all need to work together and the Ministry of Highways to make sure this never happens again. Basically, it’s unacceptable and been a huge disaster for Trail, the citizens, and anyone else visiting Trail.”

DeFerro said he hopes Teck would have a handle on the situation by now.

“It’s happened three times,” he continued. “And it causes undue financial hardship on people that are least able to afford to replace their vehicles. They have an issue they have to deal with somehow, and it’s going to be up to their management, their people, to deal with it so it doesn’t happen again,” DeFerro stressed.

“It puts Trail in a very bad light that undoes all the hard work that this council, and previous councils, have done to enhance the image of the City of Trail.”

Right out of the gate, a few on-the-spot questions were directed at individual candidates.

For Pasin, it was the very first question of the evening. The query revolved around how she, as a full time worker, would find time for the mayor’s job.

“During Mayor Martin’s term, he’s been averaging 30 to 40 hours a week at city hall,” Profili began. “Since you have a full time job, how are you going to give the same time and dedication to the mayor’s position?”

Pasin replied she knew the question was going to come up, but she was taken aback that it came up first.

“It’s no surprise that I am the Director of Development and the KBRH Health Foundation,” she said. “In order to go through with the position in council and as mayor, I have full support of my board. We have a contingency plan at the foundation whereby one of my employees will be stepping up in time and I will be stepping back slightly. Please note that we have never had a full time mayor in Trail before, to put in as many hours as Mike did, and he did a fabulous job. But that does not mean it’s the only way to do it,” Pasin added.

“And I would much prefer having an experienced person at the helm with slightly less time than a person with no experience doing the job full time.”

The second question of the night was directed at Casey LeMoel.

“Mr LeMoel, if you are elected to council, will you stand behind an overall clean up of the issues plaguing the Gulch, with examples being vagrancy, garbage and drugs,” Profili asked. “In essence, what will you do to enhance the Gulch?”

“Yes I fully support enhancing the Gulch,” LeMoel began. “It’s gotten to the point where there is a lot of illegal activity as well as, you know, it’s not like it was in the old days. It’s very important to me because it’s definitely the first area of Trail and we need to restore it back to the way that it was in the old days. As far as what we can do about it, we need to install more cameras, we need better security and maybe fix up the buildings that are long overdue of being fixed up. But yes, I fully support revitalizing the Gulch (for attraction) as well as for security purposes.”

The third query was for candidate DeFerro.

“I’ve heard you mention on a few occasions that it is time for a blue-collar mayor,” Profili asked. “Please expand on what you mean by this.”

“I think a blue-collar mayor understands the need to work together,” said DeFerro. “You have to work collaboratively with your fellow councillors and you have to work collaboratively with your partners in the region. You can’t do it alone. And if you make a decision and it’s not going the way you think it should go, you should be able to change your decision to keep moving in the direction you want to go. Also, get a feeling for how the public works and the people that work for the city, how they feel about their jobs and the way they want to contribute. It’s not ‘my way or the highway,’ let’s work together and go in the same direction.”

Trail voters only have to choose a mayor this time around because all six councillors have won their seats by acclamation.

However, there is another decision to make at the polls, whether its during advanced voting on Oct. 10 and Oct. 17 or on general voting day, Saturday Oct. 20.

A referendum will ask if electors approve that Trail take ownership of certain sewer lines that have historically been maintained by the regional district.

The exact ballot questions are as follows:

Do you assent to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary disposing of those portions of the sewer service infrastructure that are located within the City of Trail to the City of Trail?

And

Do you assent to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary disposing of those portions of the sewer service infrastructure that are located within the City of Rossland and that portion of the sewer service infrastructure located between the boundary of the City of Rossland and the boundary of the Village of Warfield, to the City of Rossland?

13731476_web1_180927-TDT-M-180929-TDT-forum-crowd-crop
Trail mayoral candidates (from the left) Bryan DeFerro, Casey LeMoel and Lisa Pasin, took questions from the audience during Wednesday’s all-candidates forum at the Cominco Gym.


Sheri Regnier

About the Author: Sheri Regnier

Read more