Featured Guest
You’ll find this guest among our growing roll of Urban Champions.
Lisa Helps
Mayor of Victoria
5 Key
Takeaways
A roundup of the most compelling ideas, themes and quotes from this candid conversation|
Additional Reading
& Resources
1. COVID has hit the most vulnerable the hardest
Victoria has been trying to tackle homelessness on many fronts, from many angles and for many years. This COVID-19 crisis has laid bare just how vulnerable the street community is and the systemic inequities that have made the issue seemingly intractable. The capacities of the emergency shelters and safe consumption sites were cut in half when the officer of health called for social distancing. And the mayor pointed out a staggering statistic: there have been actually been more deaths in the city from opioid overdoses than have died from COVID-19 during the crisis on all of Vancouver Island. Indigenous residents have also been disproportionately affected by the crisis – and key to the City’s response has been its partnership and support for the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness.
2. We are all in the connection business now
The pandemic response has made “connection” a central role for Mayor Lisa Helps. Connecting with local business leaders to foster ongoing feedback loops, keeping residents informed through daily Facebook Live sessions and animating the city’s Neighbourhood Teams to focus on supporting residents with mutual support and caremongering. Connecting with other mayors on the Island continues through biweekly online lunch meetings, and more broadly, through organizations like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which this week asked the Federal Government to deliver at least $10 billion in “targeted emergency operating funding” to all local governments.
3. Businesses supporting businesses and the community
It’s no surprise that Victoria’s economy relies on the two to three million visitors that arrive to the island by ferries, flights and cruise ships. “This summer, we have to be prepared for zero visitors,” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said. While that is a huge hit to the city’s economy, Victoria benefits from a vibrant tech industry, which has moved quickly to help local businesses get online. VanCity and Shopify, for example, helped the nonprofit Think Local First establish a gift card program to help small businesses. Another program, Boxes of Hope, was organized through the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness the and uses donations to support local restaurants that are providing hot meals to the city’s street community.
4. Responding with innovation and creativity
While Victoria has a population of 80,000, it serves a region of almost 400,000. And Mayor Helps says the city experiences many of the same challenges of bigger cities but without a budget to meet every need. Mayor Helps’ says her city has responded to the crisis with innovation and creativity. When tasked with finding emergency shelters that accommodated social distancing, city staff were redeployed to create outdoor sheltering areas in local parks for 350 to 450 of the city’s homeless. Grids were spray painted on the grass and tents provided through a combination of donations and purchases.
5. No going back: recovery and reinvention
“The lessons learned will be phenomenal” remarked Mayor Helps. As attentions turns to recovery, Victoria will be laser focused on ensuring that priority projects are creatively addressed through recovery spending processes. It is a time to reinvent how the city conducts its business, she said. Existing innovative partnerships such as the Coastal Communities Social Procurement Initiative and the regional Housing First program are examples that can be “easily replicated” by other cities. The Mayor also said the crisis is perhaps showing us the need for a “rewriting federalism,” a new arrangement to get cities the funding they need to deliver the services we’ve all some to expect from them.
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Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness
Boxes of Hope, Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness
Coastal Communities Social Procurement Initiative (CCSPI)
Strong Fiscal Futures: a Blueprint for strengthening BC’s local government finance system. Union of British Columbia Municipalities, (2012)
Protecting Vital Municipal Services: Urgent federal recommendations to address the financial crisis in our cities and communities due to COVID-19. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, (2020).
Full Panel
Transcript
Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software. Manual editing was undertaken in an effort to improve readability and clarity. Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to events@canurb.org with “transcription” in the subject line.
Full Audience
Chatroom Transcript
Note to reader: Chat comments have been edited for ease of readability. The text has not been edited for spelling or grammar. For questions or concerns, please contact events@canurb.org with “Chat Comments” in the subject line.
12:03:16 From Canadian Urban Institute: #citytalk
12:04:31 From Canadian Urban Institute: covidresponse@canurb.org
12:04:46 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Today’s conversation is with Lisa Helps, Mayor, Victoria, BC – https://www.victoria.ca/# https://twitter.com/lisahelps
12:06:10 From Canadian Urban Institute: Folks, Please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
12:07:02 From Allison Ashcroft to All panelists: Excited to hear Mayor Helps share the unprecedented collaboration but serious challenges! She hates ‘her worship’. first day in the chair, she shut down that antiquated terminology!
12:07:15 From Allison Ashcroft to All panelists: ha! told you!
12:10:48 From Sue Hallatt, CUI Staff: @allison – please re-post to all attendees!
12:11:35 From Alexandra Flynn: Lisa, thank you so much for joining. The City of Victoria and local First Nations have done a lot of relationship-building this past year. What are you doing now to maintain this building?
12:11:36 From Allison Ashcroft: Excited to hear Mayor Helps share the unprecedented collaboration in urban cities, and the very serious challenges! She hates ‘her worship’. first day in the chair, she shut down that antiquated terminology!
ha! told you!
12:15:21 From Richard Marshall: Did the City of Victoria supply the tents?
12:15:45 From Jenna Davidson: I heard many tents were donated by Victoria residents
12:16:32 From Allison Ashcroft: United Way victoria ran a donation drive for tents and gear and arranged a dropsite, cleaning and 72hr sterliziation.
12:16:49 From Abigail Slater: Every Mayor should be named “Helps”
12:17:04 From Allison Ashcroft: drugs are scarce, expensive, and cut with more crap than ever
12:17:31 From Abigail Slater: If you listen to the podcast Crackdown, you learn how certain epidemics/pandemics are totally ignored.
12:18:15 From Franc D’Ambrosio: Leveraging collaboration, blurring boundaries and steering with mind and heart: leading with strength and compassion, will be your legacy Lisa. The mindset and methods should somehow be entrenched in the future mayors’ job description and performance metrics.
12:18:20 From Abigail Slater: That statistic is quite shocking (overdose deaths)
12:18:57 From Gil Penalosa to All panelists: Leadership matters. City vision matters. Lisa Helps has been a great mayor before COVID, during, and will continue after. Too many mayors want ‘to be mayors’, others like Lisa, want ‘to DO as mayors’. Big difference. As example, in 5 years she has created one of best bicycle infrastructure in Canada.
12:19:16 From Abigail Slater: Mary…it all goes back to localization of decision making as has come up before in many of these sessions.
12:20:51 From Gil Penalosa to All panelists: No complacency in Victoria; they are good, but want to be great. They want to be the best small city in the world, not just better than Surrey… How? Equity, sustainability, healthy. Many mayors across Canada can learn from Lisa Helps, regardless of size of city
12:21:43 From Allison Ashcroft: and victoria has a beautiful equity-centred chief of police who espouses the role of servant leader and is a great collaborator with frontline orgs and speaks honestly and from the heart about the challenges.
12:25:39 From Allison Ashcroft: “Nobody is better prepared for this challenge than mayors,” said U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I know and really appreciate the mayors who are with us now and the work that they do,” Pelosi said, adding that she knows mayors “are the first line of defense in meeting the needs of the constituents in their cities.”
12:26:06 From Alexandra Flynn: Lisa, thank you for sharing the experiences in Victoria! How is the city maintaining connections with residents, including engagement efforts?
12:26:56 From Sue Campbell to All panelists: What happens when there is so much lost revenue? S
12:27:31 From Sue Campbell to All panelists: city buses running empty…
12:28:56 From Canadian Urban Institute: To new joiners: please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
12:29:03 From Allison Ashcroft: Community i’m pretty sure:)
12:30:02 From Andres Assmus to All panelists: what do you think about deploying Drones’ HUB to help logistics (retail, health, last-mile, emergencies, etc) to be deploy in Victoria?
12:30:03 From Canadian Urban Institute: #citytalk
12:32:31 From Alexandra Flynn: Mayor, do you think your city needs more power?
12:32:41 From Elizabeth Jassem to All panelists: CAN YOU PLEASE SHARE MORE ABOUT THIS PROGRA, FOR SENIORS?
12:33:58 From LATOYA WILSON: definitely need representation in decision-making
12:34:11 From Allison Ashcroft: How do we keep advancing our climate targets and ensure federal govt centres cities in their 2030 and 2050 plans and correspondingly how they fund and finance the transition to healthy, resilient climate neutral cities?
12:36:00 From Sue Hallatt, CUI Staff: https://wellandtrulygrey.com/
12:38:25 From Allison Ashcroft: Can we present a solution to federal govt whereby our older 70s apartment buildings can be purchased and put into affordable housing trust in perpetuity before REITs like Starlight Investment scoop up these suffering landlords with depressed cashflows and prop value uncertatinty. if govt doesn’t buy these, REITs will
12:39:16 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Here’s the conference that Mayor Helps mentioned https://www.buysocialcanada.com/symposium2020 All the webinars should be there.
12:39:24 From Mayor Lisa Helps: www.ccspi.com
12:39:42 From Brian Owen to All panelists: Thank you!
12:39:50 From Abigail Slater: That link did not work.
12:39:58 From TJ Maguire: https://ccspi.ca/
12:40:07 From Abigail Slater: THnaks!
12:40:50 From Canadian Urban Institute to Mayor Lisa Helps(Privately): Type what you like in the chat! It was just while the holding slide was up.:) Go for it.
12:41:32 From Abigail Slater: She absolutely is the most dedicated mayor in the country!!!
12:41:51 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short post-webinar survey https://bit.ly/3cJjhiV
12:41:57 From Brian Owen: It is .ca
12:41:57 From Amarjeet Sohi to All panelists: It is always nice to hear from you Mayor. What are your thoughts on building/energy retrofits and what role provincial and federal gov’ts can play?
12:42:20 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
12:43:37 From Brian Owen: A very engaged and engaging Mayor!
12:43:41 From Sue Campbell: Can we clone Lisa Helps? Need this strong leadership across Canada…
12:43:46 From Carolyn DeLoyde: Amazing Mayor!!! A real inspiration!!
12:44:05 From Alexandra Flynn: I am so surprised BCMC doesn’t include Victoria
12:44:12 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short post-webinar survey https://bit.ly/3cJjhiV
12:44:34 From Erica Sangster to All panelists: Lisa is equal parts thoughtful and fearless – we don’t take her for granted here in Victoria!
12:44:46 From Brian Owen: I am in Hamilton and I took a big ‘bit’ to get to that table!
12:44:46 From Sue Hallatt, CUI Staff: City of Victoria proper is 80,000.
12:44:49 From Alexandra Flynn: Isn’t Victoria THE big city on Vancouver Island?
12:45:00 From Augusto Mathias to All panelists: The Federation of Canadian Municipalities doing any coordination of this information sharing of mayors across the country?
12:45:19 From Mayor Lisa Helps to Canadian Urban Institute(Privately): 92,000 not 80,000 population
12:45:26 From Augusto Mathias: The Federation of Canadian Municipalities doing any coordination of this information sharing of mayors across the country?
12:45:43 From Allison Ashcroft: re suswtainability and affordability from Vicotria to Parkdale, we need to bailout and buy up these old apartment buildings for anyone looking to sell. Starlight Investments as one example of a REIT with large US backing, has $10B of assets under management and has bought up 400+ apartment buildings and 33,000units. just in Victoria over last 5 yrs have acquired 16 buildings and more than 1500 units. In our most unaffordable cities, we need to acquire, upgrade, and preserve these buildings as affordable. The trend of losing affordability one unit turnover at a time will be accelerated by COVID if landlords are in a tough cashflow position and concerned with how their retirement. let’s give them taxfree rollover of their capital gains upon sale to a non-profit housing provider, community land trust or govt?
12:46:10 From Brian Owen: It is great that the Mayor sees that synergy in the West, whether it be south of the border, there is a great degree of commonality.
12:47:18 From Brian Owen: I would hope that our IESO in Ontario can maintain the demand side reduction energy efficiency programs.
12:47:23 From Abigail Slater: This is a really smart idea…. let’s give them taxfree rollover of their capital gains upon sale to a non-profit housing provider, community land trust or govt?
12:47:34 From Abigail Slater: @allison
12:48:52 From Abigail Slater: These landlords need a reason to cash out at market or close to market values if they have been holding these properties for years and years and hold their retirement int them. Or the gov/city needs to prevent non-resident/hedge fund Reits from acquiring…
12:49:08 From Allison Ashcroft: @augusto FCM has set up a COVID page https://fcm.ca/en/resources/covid-19-resources-municipalities and they also issued municipal recommendations to govt yest too https://fcm.ca/en/news-media/news-release/covid-19-municipalities-seek-emergency-funding
12:51:00 From Frank Murphy: Nanaimo’s population is about the same as the City of Victoria’s, bigger by 5 or 10k but Nanaimo’s physical footprint is about 4 times bigger than Victoria’s.
12:51:04 From Allison Ashcroft: FCM urges at least $10 billion in emergency operating funding. This includes at least $7.6 billion in direct federal allocations to all municipalities, plus $2.4 billion for those with transit systems.
12:52:26 From Allison Ashcroft: municipalities are facing a minimum of $10-15 billion in near-term, non-recoverable losses due to COVID-19. That figure includes foregone property taxes, utility charges and user fees—including an estimated $400 million each month from lost transit ridership alone.
12:53:15 From Allison Ashcroft: Preach Lisa! municipalities are innovative/creative, most responsive and most in touch!
12:53:46 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short post-webinar survey https://bit.ly/3cJjhiV
12:54:33 From Sue Hallatt, CUI Staff: https://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Resolutions~and~Policy/Policy/Finance/LocalGovernmentFinance_Report_Web_Final.pdf
12:55:12 From Canadian Urban Institute: #citytalk
12:56:02 From Alexandra Flynn: Love the rant on Canadian federalism!
12:56:16 From Alexandra Flynn: Let’s have a talk focused on this issue:)
12:57:29 From Allison Ashcroft: this is a good one from Enid Slack and others The paper we did on Who Does What: https://on360.ca/policy-papers/in-it-together-clarifying-provincial-municipal-responsibilities-in-ontario/.
12:57:41 From Carolyn DeLoyde: the shoes!!
12:57:44 From Elizabeth Jassem to All panelists: such absolutely great – best interview with the Mayor! FUN OF MAYOR HELPS!! Fabulous CDI work, Mary!! You’re terrific!! Thank you.
12:58:07 From Abigail Slater: They ar SOLD OUT
12:58:38 From Allison Ashcroft: and Enid’s Op-Ed in Toronto Star https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/04/06/covid-19-crisis-creates-chance-to-re-examine-provincial-funding-of-cities.html
12:59:28 From Allison Ashcroft: Women invest in relationships and networks before crisis – every day all the time
12:59:33 From Alexandra Flynn: Thank you so much, Mayor!
12:59:56 From Alexandra Flynn: Great talk
13:00:14 From Abigail Slater: Thank you for the red reminder
13:00:15 From Sue Campbell: Thank you for another great hour, Mary and Lisa.
13:00:22 From Allison Ashcroft: #betterthannormal
13:00:23 From Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short post-webinar survey https://bit.ly/3cJjhiV
13:00:24 From Carolyn DeLoyde: Thank you so much!!!
13:00:25 From Frank Murphy: Thanks Lisa, thanks Mary.
13:00:38 From Abigail Slater: Awesome topics
13:00:39 From Mash Salehomoum to All panelists: Thank you! Always an inspiration Lisa
13:00:40 From Jenna Davidson: Thank you!
13:00:43 From Aimee Gauthier to All panelists: thank you
13:00:46 From TJ Maguire: Thank you Mayor Helps and Mary!
13:00:48 From Allan Kean: Thank you!
13:00:51 From Allison Ashcroft: Nicely done!
13:00:54 From Abigail Slater: Stay safe and healthy
13:00:54 From Samira Farahani to All panelists: Thank you so much for inspiring speech. cant wait to vivt Victoria soon
13:01:11 From Lisa Mactaggart: thank you from Guelph
13:01:30 From Sarah T: thank you both!
13:01:31 From Sue Hallatt, CUI Staff to All panelists: HELPS! sorry for the zoom bomb!
13:03:11 From Laurel Davies Snyder: Fantastic session – thank you so much. Great to see such phenomenal leadership.
13:03:19 From Elizabeth Jassem to All panelists: So proud to be a Canadian woman! BRAVO ALL!
13:06:42 From Elizabeth Jassem to All panelists: My daughter works with/for BCCDC as microbiologist/immunologist/virologist. KUDOS to all brave women, also best young mothers!
13:08:40 From Canadian Urban Institute: If there aren’t any other comments (please share links and references now if you like!) we will close the chat in two minutes.
