As a businessman, there’s nothing that Patrick Singh hates more than seeing money going to waste. Case in point: when the City of Whitehorse invested in a project to update its logo, only to see its efforts derailed at the last minute.
“What about all that fucking money the city spent on that project?” asked Singh. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? For what? Because 20 people didn’t like it? I’d be like ... ‘We had all these consultations, we had all these meetings, where ... were you?’”
Singh is a local musician who also runs Mark and Paddy’s Wondrous Music Emporium, the hot dog cart on Main St., and he plans to open a new bar soon.
He wants to improve the efficiency of city services, and get the city out of the way of people with good ideas to improve the community.
“I believe the backbone of any economy is small business. So I am totally about encouraging entrepreneurs. Young people, old people, anybody who has a concept. Sometimes the red tape the city throws in front of you to start a business, to get things done, is unbelievable. It’s daunting.”
He’d especially like to see more options for youth recreation.
“You drive around here at night, and you just see packs of roving youth wandering the streets. I’m not saying they’re bad kids. But they’re bored. They’ve got to have something to do.
“We need a roller rink! I want to build a roller rink and an arcade for the youth of Whitehorse.”
He hopes the young people who would benefit from this might have some sway on their parents’ voting decisions.
“Tell the kids to tell their parents, ‘Paddy wants a roller rink.’”
And he wants to see a better transportation system.
“The last bus stops running at 6:30 or seven o’clock. It’s freaking ridiculous.”
When it comes to issues like affordable housing, the role of the city is to get out of the way of the developers who would willingly provide it, he said.
For example, building-height restrictions make it hard for developers to build on a scale that would result in affordable purchase or rental prices.
Singh is intimately familiar with the city’s homelessness problem, as he operates businesses close to the Salvation Army and on Main St. But it’s not the city’s job to tackle social problems, he said.
“The job of the city is not to get caught up in philosophical issues.”
Singh would rather focus on keeping the city operating efficiently, providing services like transit, water and sewage to residents.
And he’s open to your ideas.
“I’m not out there putting up tons of posters or signs of anything. What I’m asking people to do is to talk to me. Because that is what it’s about. If they want to know me and find out what I’m about, well I’m an easy person to find.
“I welcome anybody to come and find me at any time and ask me whatever they want to ask me or tell me what their ideas are. Because politics should be driven by people, not vice versa.”
Contact Jacqueline Ronson at
jronson@yukon-news.com