I was concerned to hear Mayor Armand Hurford talking about paid parking as the only option for the parking challenges in downtown Squamish.
I work in health care and health care equity, and I am very concerned about this, and the trajectory that the District is taking with regards to infrastructure and how paid parking and other aspects of gentrification negatively affect equity in marginalized communities here, some who have been here for many years.
If we look into the issue, the District has engaged in rapid densification that is straining our aging infrastructure and leading to a host of challenges, such as the lift gate/sewer pipe failure and subsequent release of sewage into Howe Sound, power outages, cellphone disruption, an increase in highway fatalities, significant traffic safety concerns, the overflow of the dump, and parking is now the most recent issue to come from this.
Health care and social equity is also being affected by the population increase, with a significant number of Squamish residents without access to a family physician (literature tells us this leads to poorer health outcomes), and increased wait times for laboratory services such as ultrasound, X-ray, MRI and blood samples, also associated with poorer health outcomes. While some of this responsibility lies with the provincial government, the DOS should prioritize increasing services for residents before encouraging population increase. Squamish is still considered to be “rural” in the provincial health framework, and as such rapid development strains resources.
Developers seem to have been able to develop without sufficient requirements to increase infrastructure such as parking structures (other than to pay a fee to the District) leading to inequality for residents. From a lens of equity, charging for parking disproportionately affects lower income and marginalized residents, many who have support systems such as doctors and pharmacies downtown. The increasing barriers to care and offloading District costs onto lower income residents is unconscionable.
These residents also have mobility challenges and are unable to use the active transportation options that are being presented as the solution to discourage vehicle use. While I, as an able-bodied person, fully support more bike lanes, and bike wherever possible, this will not increase equity for those residents with low incomes and mobility challenges.
Even more concerning was his conversation about allowing parking only for residents of downtown; this would further exacerbate inequality in our community. Preventing tax paying citizens from parking downtown and leaving it for those who can afford million-dollar condos is unjust. Many folks also need to have multiple people per household just to pay the bills, and need a car to get to work—there is no good public transit to the city as of yet.
Where will multifamily households park their cars? In addition, this will negatively affect businesses that depend on vehicles to transport clients downtown, and a woefully inadequate public transportation system will not be able to fill in the gap without significant investment.
The cost of living is crushing for many Squamish residents, and it seems like the District is pandering to the wealthy and taking a “let them eat cake” approach when some speak up about the daily struggle that many Squamish residents experience. I hope that the District can find a balance between increasing housing stock while still doing so in a way that is just and equitable for the lower income residents and those with mobility challenges in our community. Development should not come at the cost of equity for current residents.
Matthew Smith
Squamish
