West Vancouver resident Scott Snider has announced his candidacy for council, citing taxes, infrastructure, traffic, and senior care facilities as reasons for his running for the seat.
Snider attended Chartwell Elementary School and is a graduate of Sentinel Secondary. His West Vancouver roots run deep as his grandparents moved to West Vancouver in the 1930s and went on to own Sinclair Dental on Bellevue in the 1970s.
His mother, Patricia Sinclair, attended Pauline Johnston and West Vancouver High School.
“I’ve always been interested in municipal politics but, like many others, life was always too busy, and I didn’t feel that I had the time to commit. Each election cycle I think about it again and this time, I’m ready to put my name forward. A large part of my decision to run this year is Mark Sager. Once I saw that he was running for Mayor, I knew this was a team I wanted to be a part of, and it was my time to give back and serve the community. With my background in mediation, I feel I can bring the experience needed to resolve conflicts and help come up with solutions that work for everyone,” he said.
Concerns that municipal taxes are too high and continue to increase each year with little to show for it is just one of the reasons Snider is running. “The maintenance of our roads and sidewalks, garbage collection, recycling programs, and general municipal services that our tax dollars pay for have not improved despite the annual tax increases.”, says Snider.
He continues: “Traffic is top of mind to everyone, and we need to find viable solutions that work for our community. If that means a benefit to the rest of the North Shore or Lower Mainland, that’s a bonus, but we need to put West Vancouver’s needs first.”
“The long wait times and red tape at municipal hall are unacceptable if we want to create a vibrant business community and is simply not fair to residents looking to do minor home renovations. And we need to improve what we offer to our senior residents, whether that is aging at home or our care facilities. We live in one of the most affluent communities in Canada, yet our care facilities are unacceptable.”
Why do all the candidates mouth the same platitudes without offering potential solutions. If solutions were easy or merely took the application of common sense, we wouldn’t be here.
West Van’s tax base is clearly too narrow so we need radical thinking and some sacrifice (by some) to widen it. Which candidate will make a suggestion to achieve this.
Otherwise, if we can’t afford current taxes and don’t want them to rise, which candidate will identify the cuts he or she would make?
Would adopting the RCMP be cheaper than paying a premium price for the West Vancouver Fire Department. I don’t know and assuming it is materially cheaper would the cost saving be worth the change to less “local control”? Again, I don’t know but which candidate will address concepts like this to at least show a preparedness to think outside the box.
Otherwise, it frankly won’t matter which platitude-mouthing candidate we vote for an elect – things will inevitably stay the same.
Scott is a West Van guy i would certainly think he would be a great candidate to tackle the issues concerning West Van residents .West Van needs to get back to basics we need to think hard about at growth in a smart way neighbor hoods need to be PRESERVED.Keeping are parks and schools boulivards lookinging good,need a hard look at garbage restrictions around holidays ,schools traffic patterns need to be looked at in mornings and afternoons push for volunteers to help manage this process.Paid parking at parks a big NO.I believe Scott is a person who will listen to practical input,good luck Scott