By Don White.

If you haven’t watched local politics lately (and why would you with the pandemic, US election fallout, and impending holidays going on) you may have missed a watershed moment on Nanaimo Council. In the Special Council Meeting on December 14, dominance at the table passed from the business-as-usual members to the think-about-coming-generations group.

The transition occurred when Councillors Bonner, Brown, Geselbracht, Hemmens, and Maartman stood up and exercised their collective, political legs in voting on five key issues.

On motions that the City hire a buyer for sustainable purchasing and a Manager of Sustainability, opposition by Armstrong, Thorpe, Turley came to nothing. Nor were these Councillors more successful in voting against a motion to increase the budget for a bike lane on Albert Street to establish a minimum city grid.

Even when Mayor Krog’s joined Armstrong, Thorpe, and Turley in opposing the “doughnut” economic model for all city plans, the model was adopted. Same thing when these four argued against budgeting ongoing funding for Health & Housing Task Force initiatives.

All five motions passed successfully because of the new solidarity and dominance of the now united front of Bonner, Brown, Geselbracht, Hemmens, and Maartman. Five Councillors to four: a functioning majority. Even before the 2018 election, these five showed the greatest potential for embracing new directions. Just as they did last Monday. Likely more to come.

(And, in case you didn’t notice, on November 10, 2020 Councillor Tyler Brown was elected Chair of the RDN. It will be interesting to watch the effects that engenders. The winds of change … as they say.)

Back on Nanaimo Council, this power shift arguably represents an increased commitment at City Hall to develop different approaches and priorities than are typically embraced by the status quo/endless-growth proponents. It represents a rejection of past models that contributed significantly to the mess we are in today. Which is no small thing. Especially if you’re under forty since you and your children are the ones who’ll be most impacted in the coming years.

Perhaps it’s fitting that the shift on Council comes at the middle of the current term. Two years to learn the process, two more to implement new policy. But that doesn’t mean the new majority will be coasting along from here. They must learn not to proceed blindly, guided mainly by their own enthusiasm. Or the fact they now have power. Wise action needs a solid rationale.

Some factors stay constant and apply equally to new models. Resources are always limited. There is never enough to satisfy or provide for everyone. We may dump the increasingly challenged GDP as an economic indicator, but we still need a received measure to track well-being. After all, failure to accurately account for well-being is the argument for GDP rejection.

I’ll admit I do worry a bit about a possible unbridled willingness of the new majority to take on unnecessary risk. Was it really necessary to avoid delaying a month or two until the final report was in from Turner Strategies before creating budget line items for funding Health and Housing initiatives? Nothing is certain in the current nor the coming world. And the COVID-19 pandemic adds more layers of uncertainty. Not a great climate for venturing down new paths, but then it never is. And the world, even without the pandemic, speaks to that necessity.

This worry may be shared by others. Uncertainly about the propensity of Council’s new majority to underestimate risks and ignore relevant factors may be the cause of what looked like fleeting, not-quite-concealed concern appearing once or twice on the faces of CAO Jake Rudolf and Director of Finance Laura Mercer during discussion on some motions.

The answer, of course, is to consult, listen, and understand before acting. Some important principles and insights need always to be kept in mind. At the meeting on December 14, both the CAO and Director of Finance clearly signalled their intention to serve the wishes of Council, whatever course those wishes take, and whomever comprised the voting majority. Rudolf and Mercer, along with other City managers will doubtlessly prove invaluable sources of information, cautionary notes, and guidance, particularly on Nanaimo’s human and financial resources.

Nor are these five councillors the only ones needing to come up to speed. Rudolf, Mercer, and other senior managers also have their own learning curves to conquer. They now need to learn how best to work with this new Council majority and how to assist in appraising, developing, integrating, and implementing novel approaches. And when, and which to jettison. Undoubtedly, the City will be working with some new values and guiding principles they didn’t have before.

With Bonner, Brown, Geselbracht, Hemmens, and Maartman functioning as the new majority – even if only on issues of this nature – we have at long last at least a possibility for change. The perspectives of this group are broader than a knee-jerk wish to return to and/or defend a problematic past. They appear less bound than others on Council by the status quo.

Members of this new majority recognize that our current economic model is flawed. Omitting factors like clean air and water and climate impacts as “externalities” produces the problems we see now. They also understand that blindly continuing with this model echos Einstein’s working definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The new functioning majority on council represents the voices of tomorrow. Because of their long-term focus, their actions may better all our futures along with those of our descendants. Do we need another reason – at least for now – to give them our support ?

Updated December 21, 2020