Mayoral candidates differ over crows, planning

Candidates for the mayor of Charlottetown met for the first time in a debate Tuesday night.

'I'd rather have the report created by the citizens of Charlottetown, as opposed to by someone from out of province.' Clifford Lee

The Downtown Charlottetown Residents Association challenged incumbent Clifford Lee and former councillor Philip Brown to the face off, and about 60 people showed up to hear the politicians' views on such diverse topics as building permit variances to the never-ending problems of crows roosting in neighbourhoods.

The one-hour debate was quite tame.

Lee managed a bit of a shot over planning. Brown suggested there were too many building permit variances being approved, and the way to curb that is to bring someone in from outside to update the city's land-use map.

Lee agreed change was needed, but took issue with Brown's methods.

"I think the only difference between what Mr. Brown and what I'm saying is I'd rather have the report created by the citizens of Charlottetown, as opposed to by someone from out of province," he said.

Lee was supposed to have the last word on that question, but Brown wasn't prepared to leave Lee's response hanging. He said he'd bring in an outside consultant but that person would listen to residents before drawing up a report.

Plague of crows

Another topic of disagreement was crows. Massive flocks of the birds of the birds have haunted the neighbourhood around Victoria Park for years, leaving nasty messes on sidewalks, and sometimes expensive ones on cars.

One resident wanted to know how each candidate would deal with the problem.

Lee said he's in favour of bringing back a controversial loudspeaker system that moves the crows away.

Brown said no to the system, arguing it just moves crows to different neighbourhoods.

"I don't believe in the wailer. I don't think it works," he said.

"It has done a problem for the whole city. That's what it's done."

The next scheduled debate between the candidates is scheduled for Oct. 13, with the election set for Nov. 1.