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What happens when the province can't move fast enough and people in your city need help now? In this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks, hosts Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Alto, Mayor of the City of Victoria, recorded live at the AVICC convention.

Victoria is BC's capital city - a mid-sized municipality shouldering an outsized share of the region's housing pressures, homelessness, and mental health and addiction challenges. Mayor Alto talks candidly about what it looks like when a city decides to stop waiting: building 97 new shelter and transitional housing spaces, creating a first-of-its-kind Community Safety, Wellbeing, and Partnerships department, and funding nonprofit service providers when senior governments can't or won't.

She also shares what she's learned about courage, accountability, and adaptability - and why standing in a room full of people yelling at you is sometimes just part of the job.

Listen for:

• How Victoria exceeded its provincial housing targets - and why Mayor Alto was eager to be picked first

• Why Victoria carries more than 80% of the region's social services - and what she's doing about it

• The story behind the Dollar Place facility: two public meetings, hundreds of angry residents, and a decision she'd make again

• How the city's Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan is funding nonprofits to do what the province hasn't

• What she told her council on inauguration day: "Listen, think, and then do good work"

• Advice for elected officials deciding whether to run again - including a frank conversation about vitriol in public life

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