Re-elect to Campbell River Council

DougChapmanCPA

Practical decisions. The long view.

I want people in their thirties and forties to be able to build a life here. Places to live, work and play. Good jobs. A downtown where merchants have a steady flow of customers. A city people want to come back to every year. We have a lot still to do. I don’t want anyone thinking we can put our feet up and relax.

See where I’m focused

For City Council

36 yearsMunicipal administration and finance

Chief Administrative OfficerFour times, often also Chief Financial Officer

Since 2022Campbell River Councillor

Where I’m focused

What I am still working on.

Downtown

We have made progress. It is never done.

I think downtown has improved quite a bit. The challenges move from place to place and change with the season. We need enforcement focused on drug dealing and repeat disorder, while people living with addiction get a real chance at treatment and housing. I also want our merchants to have a steady flow of people who feel safe walking and shopping downtown.

Keep doing the work, even when the problem moves or changes with the season.
Focus enforcement on dealing and repeat disorder, and connect people living with addiction to help.
Give merchants, residents and visitors a downtown they feel comfortable using.

2025 citizen survey

29%

said they did not feel safe downtown

Affordability

Affordability is different for every person.

Housing costs are personal. Once rent takes 40 per cent of a household’s income, there is not much room left. I have seen a registered nurse living out of her vehicle and a carpenter living out of his van. They might manage $1,800. They cannot manage $2,400. We help affordability by restraining property tax increases and, less directly, by minimizing red tape in all of our processes. This work is never done.

Explain the numbers in language people can understand.
Keep property tax increases down and keep cutting red tape.
Check the business case before the City signs on.

2026 City budget

2.7%

the City’s adopted property-tax increase, about $5 a month for the average family home

Seniors

I want seniors to know I see the pressure.

People on a fixed income cannot simply work a few extra hours. A hundred dollars can mean a hard choice. Seniors should be able to get around, meet people and enjoy themselves without every outing becoming expensive or difficult.

Sometimes it is a bus route. Sometimes it is lunch at the seniors centre.
People keep asking about pickleball. Some of them are seniors. Some of them are our age.
Take every increase seriously because somebody has to live with it.

Campbell River, 2023

27%

of Campbell River residents are 65+.

20.3% B.C. average

Downtown figure: City of Campbell River 2025 Citizen Satisfaction Survey. Tax figure: adopted 2026 City budget. Seniors figures: City of Campbell River 2023 estimate and Statistics Canada 2021 Census for B.C.

Checking the result

A decision is only the start.

I spent 36 years helping municipalities turn council decisions into work that could actually be done. A budget needs people to carry it out, and somebody needs to check the result. Here are four parts of this council’s record I pay attention to. The credit is shared with staff and the people doing the work.

01 The household bill

Keep the increase down.

Annual municipal property-tax increase

2023: 9.97%
2024: 3.47%
2025: 2.89%
2026: 2.7%

The annual municipal tax increase came down in each of our four budgets. That matters to somebody trying to stay in their home on a fixed income. The next budget still has to stand on its own merits.

Taxes still rose each year. These percentages do not describe the whole household bill or utility fees.

Numbers and sources

The four budgets adopted by this council, 2023 to 2026
Year	Rate
2023	9.97%
2024	3.47%
2025	2.89%
2026	2.7%

Annual increases, not a cumulative change. A smaller increase is not a tax cut. The 2023 increase included existing cost pressures and additional services.

City 2025–2034 Financial Plan, page 15 (2023 to 2025)City 2026 budget announcement 2025 Annual Report, page 5 (2026 budget confirmation)

02 The people doing the work

Keep experienced people.

Permanent City staff turnover

2022: 11.2%
2023: 10.0%
2024: 8.6%
2025: 5.2%

When experienced people stay, the City keeps knowledge that takes years to build. I have run municipal organizations. I know how much a good team matters when a resident needs an answer or a file needs to move.

2022 is the baseline, mostly before this council. Retention reflects management, staff and labour-market conditions too.

Numbers and sources

Permanent staff turnover, 2022 to 2025
Year	Rate
2022	11.2%
2023	10.0%
2024	8.6%
2025	5.2%

Turnover fell in each full calendar year of this term. It does not, by itself, prove faster service or establish what caused the change. Council took office in November 2022.

City annual reports and the longer historical record 2025 Annual Report, page 55 Open Council Bulletin 26-05, workforce measures

03 Following through

Finish what we approve.

Capital projects at December 31, 2025

63of 115 complete or substantially complete and in service

One square = one project

Complete or substantially complete and in service: 63
In progress: 23
Delayed: 27
Identified for cancellation: 2

Sixty-three capital projects were complete or substantially complete and in service at the end of 2025. That is work people can use. I also want to know what is holding up the rest and what it will take to finish it.

A year-end snapshot, including multi-year projects. Project counts do not measure dollars spent or on-time delivery.

Numbers and source

All 115 capital projects in the Q4 2025 report
Status	Projects
Complete or substantially complete and in service	63
In progress	23
Delayed	27
Identified for cancellation	2

The report identifies two projects for cancellation. It does not say all 115 were due to finish in 2025. This chart covers capital projects only, not the separate operating-project list.

Q4 2025 Quarterly Financial Report, pages 1 and 8

04 The public’s experience

Ask the people using it.

Satisfied with downtown revitalization

2023: 47%
2025: 65%

+18 percentage points

More residents were satisfied with downtown revitalization in 2025. That is encouraging. But only 39 per cent said they felt safe or very safe downtown. I want people to feel the improvement when they go there.

Satisfaction measures people’s views. It is not a crime count or proof of what caused the change.

Numbers and source

Very or somewhat satisfied with downtown revitalization
Year	Rate
2023	47%
2025	65%

2025 Citizen Survey, pages 15 and 34. The representative mail sample had 404 responses, weighted by age. The report gives an overall margin of error of ±4.9 percentage points at 95% confidence; this is not an interval for the two-year change. Question response counts vary. This is one selected service, not the whole survey.

2025 Citizen Survey detailed report

The next question is always practical.

What did it cost, did it work, and what needs changing? That is how I will keep approaching the job. There is progress here worth building on. The work is never done.

How I make a decision

You’re paying me to think it through.

A councillor once asked how I felt about an issue. My answer was that you’re paying me to think. To me, the job is to listen, do the homework and tell people plainly what I think. In the end, I want taxpayers to feel relief that somebody checked the numbers.

1
One size doesn’t fit all.
I have built new municipal accounting systems three times. Each time I used what had worked before and improved it for that community. You design the solution for the organization.
2
You don’t need a sledgehammer to kill a fly.
Make the response fit the problem. Move carefully and don’t create a bigger mess than the one you started with.
3
Let people see the result and track it.
If we said a decision would work, the public should be able to come back later and see whether it was true. That is what I do.

Doug Chapman attending a regional civic event

Working for Campbell River beyond the council chamber.

About Doug

I have been the person who had to make the numbers work.

I spent 36 years in municipal administration and finance. I served as a Chief Administrative Officer four times and held the Chief Financial Officer job in several communities. Sometimes I did both jobs. Here in Campbell River, I was General Manager of Financial Services and Chief Financial Officer.

That experience taught me that the cheque we write today is only the beginning. Somebody has to staff the project, maintain it and replace it. I look for those costs because I have been responsible for finding the money.

Public service is also about the people doing the work. Years ago, a Campbell River public works crew saw that a woman’s dog had been hit near the Sportsplex. They stopped, helped her, loaded the dog into their truck and drove them home. That is what I expect from City employees: judgment, initiative and treating people well.

Good staff should look forward to going to work, be able to share a good idea and get the credit for it.

Twenty or thirty years from now

What are younger people going to do here if we don’t set the stage now?

I am concerned about people in their thirties and forties. I really am. We need places for them to live, work and play, where they can have a wholesome life here in Campbell River. There should be no need for them to go somewhere else to find it.

I want Campbell River to be a place visitors come back to every year. We should keep looking for sensible ways to strengthen recreation, arts, tourism and the businesses that serve visitors. Any proposal still needs the right partners, a clear business case and respect for the land and people involved. The vision cannot be only four years long.

The public record