Ahead of the Oct. 15 municipal election, CFJC Today asked candidates for Kamloops City Council to complete a questionnaire, offering voters the chance to evaluate their candidacies.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
Describe yourself, your occupation and your historical connection to the Kamloops area.
I’m a conductor at CN Rail where I’ve worked for 14 years. I moved to Kamloops (on the North Shore) 10 years ago with my family.
What differentiates you from the other candidates?
I have a comprehensive vision for Kamloops. Among other things, I want to reduce bureaucracy, enact local consumer protections, and switch the City’s IT infrastructure to Linux.
I also have a vision of how to increase overall affordability by creating the Kamloops Housing Company (whose purpose is to build, buy, and maintain affordable housing stock in Kamloops), decrease child poverty by creating a free year-round breakfast and lunch program, and fixing our (terrible) public transit.
What do you think is the biggest issue facing the City of Kamloops and how would use your elected position to address it?
Homelessness. My position is clear and unambiguous: the only known effective solution to combating homeless is housing first.
When someone is hungry, we feed them. When someone is thirsty, we give them water. When someone is homeless (regardless of the reason), we must house them! Pod housing, for example, might be an effective solution that would give homeless individuals a place to live until they can be treated or move on.
Yes, many homeless people have other issues, but if we don’t house them first, they will simply add to our problems.
How do you plan to involve Kamloops residents in your decision-making?
Like we have done with the proposed performing arts centre, we should be doing more public referendums to engage with residents. I, for example, want to give Kamloops residents the choice in whether or not we should make post-secondary education affordable for our high school graduates. The cost to do so is extremely affordable ($10 million/year) and would benefit about 2,000 students per year.
What does a sustainable future for Kamloops and area look like to you and what does it need from mayor and council?
A truly effective climate action plan. Namely, better public transit, more (and better) bike paths, transit-oriented development, and mandated telecommuting to name a few.
We must not be afraid to take bold actions when fighting climate change.
