Nelson mayoral candidate Steve Bergevin wants major changes to how the city approaches everything from housing and public safety to spending and public involvement in local government.
Bergevin is an electrician who describes himself as an independent journalist and street outreach volunteer.
He said concerns about drug use and organized crime in Nelson were among the main reasons he decided to run for mayor.
“The drug problem, that’s one of my top priorities,” Bergevin said.
During an interview with Vista Radio, Bergevin repeatedly alleged organized crime is deeply embedded in Nelson. He also claimed people connected with organized crime had threatened his life because of his outreach work and independent reporting.
Vista Radio has not independently verified those allegations.
He said that’s also partly why he decided to seek the city’s top job.
“It could be a lifesaver for me too because they got a hit on me,” Bergevin said.
Bergevin also alleged corruption within policing and links between organized crime and what he described as secret societies. Vista Radio has not independently verified those claims.
Bergevin said he wants organized crime out of Nelson and believes more needs to be done to protect vulnerable residents.
“I want organized crime run right out of this town.”
Bergevin also describes himself as a “vigilante justice guy” and said he has confronted and physically fought people he believed were selling drugs to his friends.
“I’ve been in a lot of scraps, introduced some of the drug dealers to the pavement and warned them, ‘I told you,’” Bergevin said.
Housing is another issue Bergevin wants to address, though his proposal is quite different from the type of higher-density development he said is currently happening within the city.
He wants Nelson to pursue an expansion of its municipal boundaries into surrounding mountainsides, where he envisions smaller “eco-communities” connected to the electrical grid and serviced by communal septic systems.
“If we could expand our Nelson city limits and actually cut in selective logging to do forest fire breaks, open up a little bit of room for some eco-communities,” he said.
Bergevin said he would prefer that approach over what he called “stack and pack” high-density housing.
“If, as a community, we started putting that type of idea up on the mountain, expanding outwards instead of stack and pack, high-occupancy housing and exacerbating our already overwhelmed water treatment plant,” he said.
His proposal also includes small hydroelectric projects using mountain creeks. He said those projects could generate electricity for the communities and Nelson Hydro while creating a new revenue source.
“I’m an electrician, and I’ve looked into the most efficient ways to generate electricity, and I love reducing, reusing, recycle and being resourceful,” he said. “This will bring in big-time revenue for the community. It expands the housing, it doesn’t exacerbate the water treatment plant.”
Bergevin also suggested some of those communities could provide housing and opportunities for people dealing with substance use and mental health challenges, allowing residents to work alongside volunteers growing food, maintaining greenhouses and learning trades.
“Then these people can be making a living and rehabilitating. It’s not like we can just expect people that have come from such severe trauma and substance abuse and mental health issues to just reintegrate to society.”
If elected, Bergevin said he wants more open dialogue between City Hall, Nelson Police and local mental health services.
Much of Bergevin’s campaign touched on issues beyond the municipal government. He acknowledged that some of the issues he wants to address, including mental health and addictions, fall outside the mayor’s direct jurisdiction.
Asked how he would actually pursue those ideas as mayor, Bergevin said he would work through City Hall and local organizations, while recognizing that he would need council’s support.
“I understand the role as mayor,” he said. “Not only is there a municipal framework that I wouldn’t be able to step outside, I would also need the councillors’ approval.”
Bergevin said he would also pursue some of his ideas through petitions and what he described as electoral reform, which he believes could give residents more direct control over government decisions.
“I’ve got several different petitions that I’m working on,” he said. “So as I’m campaigning for mayor, I can collect signatures.”
Bergevin also proposed creating smaller neighbourhood councils throughout Nelson where residents could meet, develop ideas and bring them forward to the mayor and council.
“Have little community council meetings where they can brainstorm solutions they wanna see,” he said.
Bergevin said he wants more transparency at City Hall and greater public involvement in government decisions.
He supports what he describes as direct democracy, where residents would have a greater role in deciding policies, taxation and government spending.
“This is a big part of what I would love to bring to Nelson, is bring the power, give the power back to the people,” Bergevin said.
Bergevin acknowledged that some of the ideas he discussed could lead voters to question whether they fall within the scope of the mayor’s job.
“Maybe when it comes to a lot of the voters that may be listening right now, [they’ll] be like, ‘Hey, this Steve is more distracted with things beyond his scope of job title,’” he said.
“But this is where these petitions come in. It takes actually 10 per cent of the voters to sign the petition in all 93 ridings of B.C., and we can now secede from the Crown. So sever all corporate joinder with the Crown.”
Under B.C.’s Recall and Initiative Act, a successful initiative petition requires signatures from at least 10 per cent of registered voters in each of the province’s electoral districts. Meeting that threshold does not automatically enact the proposal.
Bergevin also discussed federal spending, immigration, the war in Ukraine, the monarchy and international banking, among other subjects.
He suggested international institutions are controlled by bankers and oligarchs, claimed Canada is a corporation registered in Washington, D.C., and questioned whether some mass shootings are real.
Canada is a sovereign country and constitutional monarchy. Vista Radio could find no evidence to support Bergevin’s claim that Canada is a corporation registered in Washington, D.C.
“Oftentimes when I hear about these shootings, mass shootings, I see a lot of red flags and possibly fake news and, and like, fake news is not good for us. It can radicalize people. It could radicalize our American neighbours to turn against us, especially when we see the eroding of democracy with these floor crossers.”
Those claims have not been independently verified by Vista Radio.
Asked for his final message to Nelson voters, Bergevin said he wants to “make Nelson great again.”
He listed the toxic drug crisis, housing and what he considers excessive taxation among his priorities, while also calling for changes to parking, additional public parking near Railtown and more neighbourhood involvement in city decisions.
“We’re gonna make Nelson great again. ‘Cause when I moved here when I was a kid, it was fantastic.”
Bergevin is one of three candidates running for mayor alongside incumbent Janice Morrison and Ramona Faust in the Oct. 17 municipal election.
Two advance voting opportunities will be held on the second floor of City Hall on Oct. 7 and Oct. 14.
More information on where to vote can be found here.
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