Frequently asked questions

I'm a dad, a professional engineer (P.Eng.) and a small-business owner. I live in Fairfield, in this riding, with my daughter.

I was born in Nice, France, came to Canada in 2011, and became a citizen in 2023. I've lived in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, and I settled in Victoria in 2023. For more than 15 years I've delivered engineering projects on budget and on deadline. Today I work as a test and evaluation engineer in the defence sector, and I run a Victoria engineering and media company.

More: About

About 1 in 4 British Columbians (24.7%) had no family doctor or nurse practitioner in June 2025 (Ministry of Health records, via The Canada Report, 16 Jul 2026).

Neighbours across this riding tell me the same things: they can't find a family doctor, rent is out of reach, everything costs more, and downtown doesn't feel safe.

I'm a test engineer: I check whether things work and report the result. I'll do that job in the Legislature and publish a report to the riding every quarter.

Yes. My nomination papers were accepted: 75 nominators who live in Victoria–Beacon Hill and a $250 deposit, filed by 1 p.m. on Saturday 3 October. I'm on Elections BC's final candidate list for Victoria–Beacon Hill. Look for Joachim Agou on your ballot.

Sources: Elections BC, candidate nomination FAQ, Elections BC, candidate list.

Yes. I live in Fairfield, where I'm raising my daughter. I've lived in Canada since 2011, in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, and settled in Victoria in 2023. I run a small Victoria engineering consulting and media company, and volunteer with Chabad of Vancouver Island.

I have lived in Canada since 2011. I became a citizen in 2023, the same year I moved to Victoria to raise my daughter. I live in Fairfield. I work on the South Island, I run a small business here, and I knock on doors in this riding.

How long someone has lived on one block is not the test. Showing up, knowing the numbers, and reporting back is the test. Judge me on that.

Yes. French is my first language. I work in English and French. Interviews are available in both.

Four priorities: health care you can get, homes people can afford, a lower cost of living, and a downtown that works. Priorities

Every commitment has a number attached. Every quarter, I'll publish a report to the riding on what was promised, what was done and what it cost. If I get a number wrong, I'll correct it publicly the same day.

I support reconciliation, and I support clear property rights. People, First Nations and businesses need to know who can build, own and decide on land. Right now the rules are unclear, and that uncertainty slows housing and investment and ends up in court. I support replacing the current law with clear rules, developed with First Nations, that protect everyone's property rights. Source: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, SBC 2019, c. 44.

This riding is on the territory of the Lekwungen peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. I will meet them. A statute is not a relationship.

The provincial position I support is the one above: clear rules, written with First Nations, so people know who can build, own and decide, and projects are not left in court by default.

Yes. I'll take part in any all-candidates debate or forum I'm invited to in the riding.

Yes. Email joachim@agou.ca or call 672-922-7017 and we'll set a time.

No. I come to you. Reach me by email or phone, or come to an event. If I'm elected, I'll open a constituency office in the riding with published hours.

Cut doctors' paperwork so clinics can take more patients (my position). Add evening and weekend clinic hours on the South Island (my position). Use publicly paid surgeries and scans at non-government clinics to shorten waits (my position). You show your health card and pay nothing.

An MLA does not run Island Health. As MLA, I'd push for these in the Legislature and in budget debates. Extra hours need staff, so doctors and nurses must be recruited first.

How you'll know: scorecard lines 8, 9 and 10, every quarter (the emergency wait for a bed, planned-surgery waits and the wait for a family doctor). I'll also publish how many people are waiting in each Victoria-area care network, and for how long. The report also shows whether the median wait, the share of surgeries past their benchmark and ER closures are going down. Priorities

Cost: cutting paperwork is a rule change, not a new program. Where a change needs new staff or clinic time, I'll publish the cost when Ministry of Health or Island Health figures exist. Until then I will not invent a number.

Island Health runs the hospital. An MLA does not. Island Health's median wait for an emergency bed, all sites, is 15 hours year-to-date as of March 2026. The target at Royal Jubilee and at Victoria General is 10 hours. Source: the scorecard, from Island Health.

I will publish that number every quarter. I will push for the evening and weekend clinic hours on the South Island so Jubilee is not the only open door. Extra hours need staff first. I will not invent a bed count.

Approvals in months, not years, with fixed deadlines for rezoning, development and building permits; if city hall doesn't give a clear yes or no in time, the Province issues the permits (my position). Lower fees and paperwork on new homes (my position).

Faster, cheaper approvals count when they turn into finished homes, including family-sized ones, which eases rents over time.

Trade-offs: faster approvals mean less municipal control.

How you'll know: scorecard lines 3 and 4 (net new homes and how many have three or more bedrooms; rental vacancy). I'll also publish permit times for every municipality in the region, as a check on approvals.

I am not proposing a new vacancy-control law. The housing relief on this site is more homes from faster, cheaper permits.

Victoria already has the provincial short-term rental rules. I will not ask to loosen them in this riding while family-sized rentals are this scarce. The scorecard puts rented-condo vacancy at about 0.3%. Source: the scorecard.

These are linked but different problems.

• Treatment: more staffed detox and treatment beds on the South Island, with waits published monthly (my position). Secure care for people with severe addiction who are a danger to themselves or others, with medical and legal safeguards (my position).
• Housing: move people from tents into housing with support, and report how many stay housed after 12 months (my position).
• Courts: add sheriffs and judges so cases reach trial faster, and I'll vote to fund the courts, prosecution and sheriffs. Bail is federal law, so for repeat violent offenders I'll press Ottawa for amendments (my position).
• Balance: spread health services across the region, not only on a few downtown blocks (my position).

How you'll know: scorecard lines 5, 6, 7 and 12 (people sleeping outside, toxic-drug deaths, crime in the city including repeat violent offences downtown, and treatment beds), plus repeat offending, bail compliance, time to trial, treatment access, long-term recovery and downtown storefront vacancy in the same quarterly report.

I'd end "safe supply" and expand access to naloxone. The two go together: the focus moves to treatment and recovery while an overdose can still be reversed (my position). South Vancouver Island had 128 toxic-drug deaths in 2025. Source: the scorecard, from the BC Coroners Service.

What I will push for is staffed detox and treatment, with waits published monthly, and secure care where someone with severe addiction is a danger to themselves or others, with medical and legal safeguards (my position).

Decriminalization did not open those beds. A possession rule is not a treatment plan.

The costs I'd target are the ones government sets: provincial income tax and ferry fares.

• Restore the lowest provincial income-tax rate to 5.06% and inflation indexing, and keep the enhanced B.C. tax reduction credit for lower-income taxpayers (my position, scorecard line 1). No year or cost has been published, and I won't print one.
• Publish a verifiable list of government savings (my position, scorecard line 2).
• Ferry fares: consult commuters and other frequent users on a monthly flat-fee program or other measures (my position).

I can't promise grocery prices or market rents; those depend on factors outside provincial control.

How you'll know: scorecard lines 1 and 2 (the tax rate, indexing and the credit; the savings list). Ferry reliability is reported separately, from BC Ferries' own reports (see Transport and BC Ferries on the Priorities page).

I will not cut health care or education to write a slogan. I also will not invent a savings number. A balanced budget is not a saving for your household; it is how you can check that commitments are paid for.

Almost half of B.C.'s public service works in Victoria. Any change I vote for has to come with published service standards, and with staff told before it happens. That standard is my position. Cutting red tape should mean fewer rules and forms, not fewer public servants, and that is how I'll vote (my position). If a bill does not say what it cuts, I will vote against it.

BC Transit in Victoria is a provincial funding decision and a local service decision. I will push for published on-time and crowding numbers on the routes this riding uses, including Douglas. I will not invent a new bus count.

Cruise-day buses in James Bay are part of the cruise-day plan, which is mine.

The four priorities are the ones I hear at the door. The provincial levers I will use are the ones that also cut cost and risk here: more homes, transit that actually runs, and a BC Ferries Charter that sets out service and performance expectations (my position).

I will not vote for a new provincial tax to pay for a climate program. I will publish the Island's numbers on the programs that exist before I vote to extend them.

Both are provincial. I will not announce a new program without a cost. What I will do is publish class-size and childcare-wait numbers for this riding in the quarterly report, and vote against a bill I cannot explain. Parents in Fairfield and James Bay should not have to file the FOI themselves.

Cruise ships are part of the harbour economy. They are also a real load on James Bay streets, buses and sidewalks. Ogden Point had 310 cruise-ship calls in 2025. Source: Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, Oct 2025.

I want a cruise-day plan for traffic, buses and pedestrian safety, made with the City, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority and residents — not a slogan for or against ships. That plan is mine. I would take it to the province where provincial roads, transit funding or harbour rules are involved.

An MLA votes on and proposes laws, scrutinizes the provincial budget, questions ministers and represents constituents with government (Legislative Assembly). An MLA doesn't run hospitals, set rents or decide court cases.

So my commitments are about what I'll push for, vote for, check and report, not outcomes I control alone. Health care is run by the Ministry and Island Health, permits by municipalities, ferries by BC Ferries, and bail and sentencing by the courts.

Restoring the 5.06% rate and indexing has no published cost yet, and I won't print a figure of my own. A balanced budget is how you can check that tax changes are paid for, so I'll vote against a bill that doesn't say what it cuts.

Most of my proposals — cutting doctors' paperwork, fixed permit deadlines, South Island clinic hours, published treatment waits, spreading services, secure care, a James Bay cruise-day plan, public-service standards — are rule and reporting changes. Where they need new staff or beds, I will not invent a dollar figure. I'll publish the cost when the Ministry or Island Health numbers exist, and I'll vote against a bill I cannot explain.

Within 90 days: publish my first quarterly report with baseline numbers for doctor waits, permit times, ferry cancellations and treatment waits; open a constituency office with published hours and a two-business-day response target; and push for the permit-timeline law.

Within my control: the reports, the office and my votes. Dependent on others: waits, rents and ferry service.

They are my own positions. Each figure links to its source, and the scorecard shows how you can check the results every quarter.

Opposition MLAs still vote on every law, propose amendments and private members' bills, question ministers, sit on committees that review spending, and help constituents deal with government (Legislative Assembly). I'd use all of that, and I'd publish the same quarterly report either way.

I can force numbers onto the record, amend bad bills, and get a neighbour through a broken file at a provincial agency.

Nominations closed on 3 October. Elections BC's final candidate list for Victoria–Beacon Hill has three names: Grace Lore, Raj Sahota (on the ballot as Rajinder S. Sahota) and me. Source: Elections BC candidate list.

I am not running against their biographies. The test is the riding's numbers: family-doctor wait, permit times, toxic-drug deaths, storefronts, and whether a quarterly report exists. Lore has been the MLA. Those numbers are the record.

My office would help every resident, whoever they voted for. Help with a government problem never depends on political support. I'd hold a public meeting in the riding at least once a quarter, open to everyone.

Today I am a test and evaluation engineer with a defence contractor supporting the Royal Canadian Navy, based in Mill Bay. If elected I would follow B.C.'s Members' Conflict of Interest Act. I would file the required disclosure with the Conflict of Interest Commissioner and publish a plain-language summary. I would recuse myself where the rules require it. I would not take new provincial contracts through my company while I am an MLA.

I am not making a campaign promise about leaving that job. The commissioner, not a slogan, decides what must stop.

Knock on doors, make calls, put up a sign or help on election day. Sign up to volunteer

Yes. If you rent, you'll need your landlord's permission. In a strata, follow the strata's rules. A window sign is often the option in an apartment. Request a lawn sign

The riding covers James Bay, Fairfield, Downtown, Rockland, North Park, most of Fernwood, and parts of Burnside, Jubilee and Gonzales. Check your address at wheretovote.elections.bc.ca.

You can register or update your details when you vote.

Advance voting runs Friday 16 to Wednesday 21 October, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Final Voting Day is Saturday 24 October, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can also vote now at the district electoral office, 101-722 Johnson St. Full details are in Voter information on the home page and on Elections BC's Ways to Vote page.

Yes. Request a package from Elections BC or at 1-800-661-8683 by Sunday 18 October. Elections BC must receive it by 8 p.m. on 24 October. You can also drop it off at any district electoral office or voting place.

joachim@agou.ca or 672-922-7017.

The contacts above are for the campaign. If elected, I'd open a constituency office in the riding to help with provincial services. Target: a first reply within two business days.

Every quarter, I'd publish what was promised, done and spent. I'd hold a public meeting at least once a quarter. If I get a number wrong, I'll correct it publicly the same day.