Courtenay council race draws 19 candidates for six seats

There are 19 candidates vying for six council seats on Courtenay City Council in this year’s municipal election, and among them are 3 incumbent councillors.

Housing, affordability, growth and infrastructure are among the issues facing the city. CHLY reached out to candidates for their perspective on the race, and heard different ideas about how Courtenay should move forward. 

Davina Singh has 15 years of local government experience. She has worked for the City of Prince George in a support role to the RCMP, as well as a public servant with the Comox Valley Regional District and the City of Courtenay, before moving into strata management.

Singh is running for public office for the first time, and said managing the city’s rapid growth would be a major priority if elected.

“I feel like the biggest issue facing Courtenay right now is this rapid state of growth that we’re in. With that, we’re seeing impacts on housing and availability of housing, affordability, but increased concerns about water consumption and access to public services, and then traffic congestion,” said Singh.

Singh talked about how she plans to address these issues. 

“I feel like we do need to look at densifying residential areas. A good plan as to how that’s gonna work with a focus on diversifying land use so we can create varied usage in little community nodes where services are available in, with shorter distance to travel. I think that could increase people’s use of active transportation and reduce the need for traveling across the whole community to get what we want. And then also see increased opportunity of jobs and businesses available closer to home,” said Singh.

In a survey by the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition, Councillors David Frisch, Evan Jolicoeur and Wendy Morin all expressed support for active transportation in the City of Courtenay. Morin said the city should continue building its Cycling Network Plan, while candidate John Dacombe said he would prioritize closing gaps with the city’s sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks.

Water conservation is also an issue this election. Councillors and candidates Frisch, Joliceour and Morin supported the city’s plan for the Residential Water Metering Program, which passed unanimously in March this year. The program plans to install water meters at single-family homes, allowing water bills to be based on the actual usage rather than a flat rate. On his website, candidate Dacombe supports an accelerated process to establish universal water metering, urging that the process be reduced to a 5 year timeline instead of 12 as the city plans to currently.

According to a 2025 study from UNBC, the Comox Valley Glacier, alongside other B.C. glaciers, are receding at an accelerating pace, “doubling the pace observed in the previous decade”. Research lead Dr. Brian Menounos said at the time “the melt rates over the last four years far exceed anything we’ve observed in the past six decades, posing serious implications for freshwater availability, increased geohazard risks and the loss of cultural and tourism values tied to mountain landscapes.”  

Housing is also a major issue. Kitty Pitt, a new candidate who owns a local barber shop, explained her position on building permits.

“Okay, so the first thing that I’d really wanna work on immediately is certainly to do with housing. What we need to do is we need to mandate a permit process that lasts at most six months. So it would take six months maximum to rezone a property, four months for a development permit, and then two months for a building permit,” said Pitt.

Responding to a questionnaire by the Comox Valley Social Planning Society, Councillor Morin said that she would “push for more below-market housing”. Morin was also recently appointed as a director of the CVRD’s new Comox Valley Housing Authority, which supports the creation of non-market rental housing in the region. 

Pitt also listed council transparency and responsible budgeting as part of her concerns. 

Candidate Thomas McDevitt said affordability, essential infrastructure, and local food security would be some of his top priorities if elected. He said he’s hearing concerns from residents about property taxes, particularly as people continue to face a high cost of living.

“I think property tax is one that everybody is kinda nervous about, especially while we’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Everybody’s pinching pennies, and I think the city is no different. There’s been some controversial expenditures over the last couple years, and just given that the economy’s not great, people are questioning whether non-essentials should be prioritized right now,” said McDevitt.

He said the city should look for ways to increase revenue without relying on property taxes and development fees, and find efficiencies in the existing budget.

“So I wanna look at alternate sources of revenue, besides kinda just development fees and property taxes. Wanna look at other ways the city can generate revenue and make money. So kind of being a little bit entrepreneurial. And then also I kinda wanna look through the books and look to see where we can have some efficiency and spend less money,” said McDevitt.

Pitt said transparency is another key priority she hopes to address. She said she wants residents to have easier access to information about council decisions and spending.

“With the city council, they are able to do a lot of in-camera meetings, which makes the minutes from those meetings unattainable to the public. So we’re really running our government here on a need-to-know basis, and the public really feel as though they are being left out of the equation, and they don’t need to know, and they certainly don’t need to be a part of these decisions. So in 2006, the [B.C.] Ombudsman actually did a report and was asking all municipalities that had in-camera meetings, which are ones that are not available to the public, to go over those minutes and release what they possibly could, everything they possibly could, and Courtenay is in deficit of that,” said Pitt.

Singh shared similar sentiments regarding transparency, and said she wants more opportunities for residents to participate in local decisions.

“What I would maybe do a little differently is an increase in transparency of communication, and that’s sort of one of the tenets of my platform. So, I’d really like to see more information that’s readily available to the community, whether through online posts or engaging web content through the city. Just an increased engagement between council, the city, and the public,” said Singh.

Asset management for infrastructure was another shared theme.

Singh said another priority would be maintaining the city’s existing infrastructure before taking on more assets.

“What I really believe we should be focusing on and spending money on is asset management. Coming from the lens again of a strata manager and assisting strata communities in planning asset maintenance, it’s almost always more cost-effective to plan for maintenance ahead of time rather than end up dealing with emergency maintenance measures. There’s a lot of assets that are managed by the city, and we should really be focused on maintaining those assets in advance of adding more assets to the maintenance list,” said Singh.

McDevitt also wanted the city to plan ahead for aging infrastructure such as water and storm management systems. 

“We need to go through and see what exactly needs to be done right away and what has, three more years of life still, five more, maybe even 10 years if we’re lucky. Because also all the pipes and everything that were put under the ground 30 years ago were not designed for climate change and everything that it’s bringing with the increased level of water, and rainwater and storm water and flooding that is coming,” said McDevitt.

Pitt said Courtenay needs a definite plan for growth.

“I think that we could be spending more money on our infrastructure with the SIIP tax. I think that we’ve got a good proposal, but we also need to have a definite plan for growth,” said Pitt.

According to the City of Courtenay, the Sustainable Infrastructure Investment Plan is a strategy for paying for the renewal or replacement of aging infrastructure. Approved in 2024, it calls for a cumulative 1.5 per cent increase in annual taxation contributions set for infrastructure reserves over a ten year period.

“Our Official City Plan needs to be finite. It needs to be translatable so people are able to read that. They’re able to see where their money is going to next. They need to see what sewers are gonna be built next. They need to see what sidewalks are gonna be built next,” said Pitt.

Responding to the social planning questionnaire, Councillor Joliceour said that he would “support restoration partnerships and infrastructure that helps absorb and filter rainwater, such as rain gardens and suitable permeable surfaces.”

Courtenay voters will choose six councillors in this year’s municipal election, along with one mayor, and two school district trustees for the Comox Valley School District (SD-71) board. 

Other candidates for council were reached for comment, but did not respond by deadline. Sitting councillors Will Cole-Hamilton, Doug Hillian, and Melanie McCollum are not seeking re-election.

Voting day is on Saturday the 17th from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Voters can cast their ballots at Florence Filberg Centre at 411 Anderton Avenue, or Queneesh Elementary School at 2345 Mission Road. More information can be found online at Courtenay City website at courtenay.ca.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.