Mayoral candidates Cindy Corrie and Andrew Laming were guest speakers at a meet the candidate forum organised by Champions Redlands Coast group on Monday morning. However, although mayoral candidate Jos Mitchell was invited to the event she did not attend.
The early morning meeting provided the opportunity for members of the public to meet and ask questions of the candidates.
Ms Corrie, who was asked questions about the growing population, housing availability and a stable workforce, said that a way to address the areas workforce issues would be to support the region’s young people as the future of the city.
“They are the next generation of our workforce,” she said.
“It is scary to think what industry growth is required to be able to have our young people build a life here in the Redlands the way we all have.
“It is an exciting time for the city, I can’t believe the investment pipeline has grown [so much].”
At the breakfast event, RCCC (Redland City Chamber of Commerce) provided an update on the Project Pipeline.
It was announced that it had reached $7.7 billion worth of investment towards multiple separate projects to transform the region.
Ms Corrie said it was good to see the pipeline grow and mature following concern for local projects.
“The pipeline gives us a lot of hope and a lot of inspiration for what’s to come,” she said.
Furthemore, she noted: “The community is not only unaware of the opportunities that are ahead of them, but they don’t understand them.
She added that: “At the same time, we’ve had local decision makers who haven’t been aligned in a vision for the city and investors are finding themselves at pains to embark on approval processes with any level of government talked about.
“We do have an incredible future but it relies on our ability to mobilise investment and deliver on those economic drivers.
“It’s going to rely on our ability to work with all levels of government and across the political divide.
For our community leaders to share a vision for the city and work together for the community.”
Mr Laming was asked by a guest how he would develop economic development strategies and noted the influential role leadership played in creating a “supportive environment” for business.
He replied that in a perfect world, should he be elected, he would regularly take advice from council officers,
“I would want to see requirements of developing applications to be provided upfront and not simply added in sequence,” he said.
“My approach will be twofold – is this the best possible utilisation of this land?
“Can we can look back on and this be very proud of what we did ….
And secondly, no surprises (to locals).”
Both Mr Laming and Ms Corrie spoke on Redlands Coast tourism promotion and recognised the Toondah Harbour as a potential catalyst for boosting tourism islands.
