My Platform

My values and commitments are:

• To work together
• To address head-on the challenges we face as a community
• Financial sustainability and affordability
• To bring back the feeling of “social safety”
• To respect the environment and protect public assets
• To renew and strengthen relationships with our neighbours, Tla’amin Nation

Working Together

The first place to work together is within council itself. Our governance system is complex and nuanced. For this reason, municipal leadership requires knowledge and experience. Prior to, and during my 12 years of serving on City council, I enjoyed a 32-year career with the BC Ambulance Service, which culminated in ten years serving as Unit Chief here in Powell River. My paramedic career required working closely with the public, my staff, union representatives and BC Ambulance management.   

The position of Mayor provides the opportunity¹ to foster connection and cooperation amongst City councillors, and to establish a good working relationship between council and City staff.  It is the mayor’s job to ensure there is transparency and clear communication. This encourages respect and openness to process and supports teamwork which gets things done!

Confronting Challenges

Homelessness, community safety, affordability, the threat of wildfire, climate change, the future of water security – these are all problems with no direct or simple solution².

Understandably, many of us feel bogged down. What can we do to make a difference? Let’s remember that our community has an impressive track record of citizens devoting their time and energy to solving challenging situations facing our region.  A recent example is the unified community response to PREI/Brookfield’s application for a 30-year license to export power. Community assemblies³, town-halls, forums, and surveys are tools we can use to work together on the issues and questions facing Powell River. 

Financial Sustainability and Affordability

How can we, as a community, sustain facilities like our Recreation Complex? How do we limit tax increases for residents and businesses while maintaining the facilities we feel are essential to our quality of life? Community engagement is essential to finding solutions that work for all of us.

The Complex is 50 years old and in need of significant upgrades. Of paramount importance to many residents are the aquatic facilities ⁴ Although the Complex is used by residents across our entire region⁵, the cost of maintaining this expensive facility is not shared equally. I am committed to pursuing fair and equitable cost sharing.

The closure of the Mill saw significant loss of City tax revenue. To ensure ongoing maintenance of our essential services and facilities we must find new ways to generate revenue.

New revenues could be generated through:

• City collaboration with Tla’amin Nation, and the mill lands’ owners, to attract new business & industry to the mill lands
• Development of City owned lands, i.e. the Old Golf Course lands in Townsite, in partnership with Tla’amin Nation, the mill lands’ owners, and qathet Regional District  
• The City’s Downtown Plan⁶ for City-owned lands in Westview
• Improving the South Harbour’s attractiveness to visiting mariners. Despite our Harbour staff’s excellent service, we have not yet realized our full potential for welcoming seasonal marine traffic. We are missing out on tourist dollars and the opportunity to showcase all that our City offers.  

Social Safety

City staff and emergency services remain focused on community social challenges and safety. Although homelessness, addictions and mental health fall within the jurisdiction of the provincial government, city staff and council will continue to collaborate and seek funding opportunities through advocating for our community’s unique needs.

What else can we do?

• Increase Block Watch
• Collaborate with community support organizations
• Seek novel community-based solutions

Health Care and Housing

Needs are changing. Young adults, seniors, and lower income families face increasing challenges. We can continue to pursue solutions such as:

• Advocacy with the provincial government
• A youth council, as we did before the pandemic
• Supporting Foundry: Prevention saves people and money. Start with youth

Protection of Public Assets and Environment

The City is dealing with aging infrastructure. Strategic planning is required to manage age-related wear to our water system, sewer system and roads.

The sea walk is vulnerable to increasing weather and tidal challenges, and the Complex, as already mentioned, is in need of repair. The Community Forest fund has been, and can continue to be, a vital resource in maintaining these two highly valued regional assets.

Climate is probably the greatest long-term community resilience threat. What can we do about it? We can foster watershed stewardship, understand the natural benefit of maintaining intact forests, protect biodiversity and monitor how what we build interacts with what is already here.

Strengthening Relationships

The people of Tla’amin Nation are our neighbours. We need to strengthen our relationship through respect and trust.

The ship is aground with respect to the name-change question. This has become a serious challenge for all involved because it relates to our very identity, both individually and collectively. To have a functioning and productive relationship with the Tla’amin Nation we must first find reconciliation within our own community. Only then can we engage in a public process that will help move this important relationship forward.

DRIPA and UNDRIP are not threats to be feared. To further alienate ourselves from Tla’amin Nation is short sighted and promises economic self-harm. We must move beyond our protectionist ways. Working together will enable us to face challenges and help our community to thrive, not just survive! 

Working together – It’s who we are: proud, capable, innovative, destined to thrive. 

1. Responsibilities of a Mayor – BC Community Charter
2. Wicked Problem – Wikipedia
3. Burnaby Community Assembly
4. REPORT – 2026-2030 FINANCIAL PLAN PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT page 3
5. ERRIS report  page 96
6. Downtown Plan 11.1 in this agenda
7. Miklat
8. Unceeded by George Abbott  

• DRIPA = Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples act
• UNDRIP = UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples

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Who is Rob Southcott?

My life has always been about family and community. I grew up in Cranberry. Dad was a Pulp Mill department manager; Mom was a chiropractor. My grandparents immigrated to BC from England, Ireland, Wales, and Eastern Canada. My English grandfather built Townsite homes here for 30 years. I’m married to multitalented artist, Janet. My son James is a wildfire specialist and faller. I’m a cyclist, backpacker, kayaker and sailor.

I’ve worked in community since I was young, using ham radio for emergency communications while in high school. I lived in a spiritually-oriented intentional community in the Cariboo for 16 years during my early adulthood, learning first-hand how to work together. After 12 years living in North Vancouver, I came back to Powell River in 2006 and have served boards, committees and community groups, from community sustainability, health care, emergency planning, and housing, to minor hockey and land conservation.

My first career was in small business as an electronics service technician. During the 1980s came leadership and teamwork at a youth summer wilderness program, and during that decade I was an organizing member of Canada’s second largest cross-country ski marathon. Wilderness first aid led me to BC Ambulance.   

As a Paramedic, I spent 12 years in downtown Vancouver where I worked daily with mental health patients, addictions, and homelessness. When the opportunity arose, I returned to Powell River and spent the balance of my 32-year Ambulance career as Station Chief here.

From my parents’ example of a strong work ethic, and intentional community, to three terms as a city councillor, I feel prepared for my main ambition, which is for our community to reconnect and thrive.