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Janice Williams

Independent for Victoria Council
A city that works well for residents, local businesses and visitors. A city that values its history and works to evolve in inclusive and respectful ways that ensure the city meets its potential as a place to live, work and visit.

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Biography

submitted by the candidate or their team
Economist, small business owner, mother, step-mother, community advocate & Victoria resident. Experienced leader who is focused on serving the needs of residents & will prioritize issues within municipal jurisdiction.

Overview

Janice Williams was born in Alberta to working class parents who ultimately divorced and returned to school as adults and who co-parented Janice and her younger brother and older sister. She left Alberta for Victoria, British Columbia at the age 17 to commence studies at the University of Victoria. Janice worked while studying, often in excess of 30 hours per week as hostess at local restaurant, the copy editor for the Martlet, and as a telephone surveyor. She graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics in May 2000. After graduation Janice worked for the Employment Standards Branch as an Employment Standards Officer and pursued graduate studies in Economics. She participated in the cooperative education program through the University of Victoria and did work terms with Tourism BC and the Ministry of Forests. She then obtained a position with the Canada Industrial Relations Board in Vancouver and worked as a Labour Relations Officer until 2003. She completed her Masters of Arts in Economics from the University of Victoria in May 2004. She worked as a consulting economist in Vancouver until obtaining a position as an economist with the Vital Statistics Agency in August 2004. She continued to work with the Ministry of Health until 2014, when she moved to the Ministry of Education where she continued to work as a Senior Economist until December 2016. In July 2016, she worked part time in support of her husband’s business, shifting to full time efforts in January 2016. Janice also instructed a continuing studies course (Economics of Occupational Health and Safety) through the University of Victoria from 2004 until May 2021.

Community Advocacy

Janice Williams has been active community member who has engaged on issues of importance to her and her community. Janice has been a Women’s health advocate and has worked in the area of maternal health, blogging about maternal health at Awaiting Juno and helping to found the Cesarean by Choice Awareness Network that provides support to women who choose cesarean. 

In 2017 Janice Williams was involved with the neighborhood group that formed in response to the City’s proposal to build a waste water treatment plant at Clover Point. The neighborhood group was successful in advocating that Clover Point Park pump station should remain a pump station and should be returned to park use after construction was completed. Janice is disappointed and responsive to community concerns that the changes made to Clover Point after completion of the Wastewater Treatment Project were not in accordance with the results of the community consultation that was done before the project commenced.

In 2020 Janice Williams, helped to address resident concerns in her neighborhood regarding abuse of parking on Dallas Road. She was effective in getting the city to enforce it’s bylaws, at least until COVID 19 hit. As a result of COVID 19, Janice was again engaged with a community group that formed in response to the City’s decision to permit 24/7 sheltering in Beacon Hill Park. She engaged with the Friends of Beacon Hill Park and supported their endeavors to hold the city to account for their violation of the trust that governs Beacon Hill Park and undertook to raise awareness of the issue and support residents in their concerns.

In 2021 Janice Williams worked with another community group, “Rethink Richardson” – and despite her efforts and that of the group, Richardson was closed to through traffic. As a result of that closure, there have been a range of impacts on the surrounding community. Janice continues to listen to the surrounding community in the hopes that a better balanced solution may be realized.

Personal Interests and Background

Janice currently lives in Fairfield with her husband, Darren and their children. She is a step mother to two adult aged children who are now studying abroad, and is a mother to two school aged children. Their home is also home to a dog named Lexi, a hedgehog named Paprika and a love bird named Mango. In her spare time Janice enjoys engaging on politics, writing, baking, and spending time with her family.

Reason for running

submitted by the candidate or their team
I am running because Victoria is my home, its a place I've come to love, a place where I'm raising my family and where we've built our business. I'm running because I deeply respect those who live, work and visit here and because I fiercely love this city and want to see it meet it's potential as a great place to live.

I will work to put residents and local businesses first and will ensure that the decisions I make are well considered and put the needs of the city and its residents first. My priorities include:

  • Good Governance - building trust by implementing the recommendations in the MNP report and being responsive to the needs of the community.
  • Public Safety - working to ensure people feel safe in our city, that our first responders are enabled to do their jobs and that we have a culture of respect for the laws and bylaws that govern our city.
  • Accessibility - working to improve accessibility for residents to ensure those with challenges do not face undue barriers to enjoying our city. This includes restoring access to Clover Point and Beacon Hill Park. This also includes improving accessible playgrounds, improving sidewalks, and working with our accessibility committee to remove barriers in our city.
  • Parks and Recreational amenities - high quality public amenities make Victoria a great place to live. We need to replace Crystal Pool and work to ensure parks can be used in the ways they have been intended.
  • Housing & Affordability - we need to ensure building permits can be issued in a timely fashion, we need to minimize the impact of displacement, we need to regulate and enforce short term vacation rentals to ensure the impact on long term residential rentals is minimized and we need to support those who provide long term residential rentals to do so in affordable ways.
  • Transportation - people should be able to get from point A to B regardless of the mode of travel that best meets their needs in safe and efficient ways. We should work to expand our cycling network where feasible, we should remediate where there are difficulties, we should improve pedestrian infrastructure, and we should work to ensure transit can meet the needs of users. We should support multi-modal transportation to the degree possible.

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