Every decision I make at the Council table is informed by your feedback. I ask the same question every time: does this decision work for the people who usually aren’t in the room — renters, newcomers, seniors, people with disabilities, kids? I’m on Council on your behalf, and I want to be confident that any City decision or service is going to work for the people who need it most.

You can reach me at   to tell me about issues you’re facing, problems you see in the community, or ideas you have to make the City of North Vancouver better.

A consultation process that only reaches the people who show up to Council meetings isn’t consultation. It’s playing to the voices in the room, and I’ve sat through enough of those meetings to know how easily it happens. So I ask who’s missing — who can’t get to a public input period on a weeknight, or a public hearing — and I go find them, because they’re residents too and their voices matter just as much.

Sometimes that changes an outcome. When residents came forward with concerns about how the City was implementing the Province’s new housing rules, I moved to send the proposed changes back to staff for revision rather than pushing them through. That’s what listening is supposed to look like: not a comment box, but a different decision at the end of it.

Two minutes is not long enough. I’ve watched residents run out of time mid-sentence trying to explain something that took them a week to prepare. I’ll bring forward a motion to extend the public input period, because a process that cuts people off partway through isn’t really asking.

The City’s Community Engagement Strategy is a good start — making sure that when a large project affects a specific area, the people who live there are genuinely engaged before it’s built, not after.

I want to go further than that. Vancouver piloted participatory budgeting in the West End using parking revenue — over 8,600 people voted on what got built, and anyone who lived, worked or volunteered there could take part, down to age twelve. Renters, newcomers, young people, not just whoever can get to a council meeting on a weeknight. I want to bring a motion to explore the same idea here: take the net revenue from paid parking and reinvest it in the corridor where it’s collected, with residents and businesses deciding what it funds.

The City is younger and more diverse than our council chambers usually reflect. Roughly four in ten residents were born outside Canada, nearly a third identify as visible minorities, and a quarter of us are under 25. Those residents have as much at stake in a housing decision or a bus route as anyone, and often more. Reaching them isn’t a courtesy — it’s how you get the decision right.

That’s part of why I point young people toward North Shore Community Resources’ Democracy Café and its North Shore Young Civic Forum, which brings together a diverse group of young people to learn how municipal government works and bring real projects to their councils. When they come before us, I want Council to listen properly — not politely.