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 am originally from India. I moved to Vancouver in 2003 as an international student to pursue my Master’s in business administration. I am a real estate investor and I dabble in stocks and currencies. I am 41 years old with two boys – seven and 10 years old – my lovely wife, and my dear mother who lives with us. We moved to Kamloops in 2016 after choosing it over many other Interior cities for its lifestyle, proximity to Sun Peaks and the Lower Mainland, and the affordable housing (at that time).
What differentiates you from the other candidates?
I don’t mince my words. I have brought forward unethical spending practices, very similar to TNRD, at the City of Kamloops in a four-page article in Kamloops This Week. I have political capital and have been speaking up about very sensitive topics on my Facebook page Politics Kamloops with Darpan Sharma for the last two years. I despise political correctness and believe it’s destroying not only our communities but our Canadian DNA of practicing freedom of speech.
I have lived corporate experience in three different countries and have traveled extensively.
What do you think is the best way to resolve disagreements or conflicts with your peers, those in a different department, or those in a different jurisdiction?
By promoting dialogue. Conflicts are a part and parcel of a corporate life, specially in a political setting i.e. City of Kamloops or council. There should be no repercussions for having a free dialogue. It should be without any personal insults. Civil discussions and disagreements are the backbone of a healthy democracy. We should be able to meet the person we had a disagreement with and take them out for a drink afterwards.
What do you think is the biggest issue facing the City of Kamloops and how would use your elected position to address it?
The biggest issue facing City of Kamloops hands down is crime, addiction and homelessness, and affordable housing and rental prices. I would like the new council to have a strong backbone and promote recovery as a real option instead of calling it dehumanizing and comparing recovery facilities to concentration camps. We need to be equal partners with the province on having a say on where a social housing facility goes, if it is dry or wet, and that it should have mandatory wraparound services. Every social housing needs to abide by good neighbour agreements.
Affordable housing: help Canadian Home Builders’ Association by reducing red tape bureaucracy and permit approval times to build more multi-family housing in Kamloops. Supply has to be more than demand; that’s the only way to achieve affordable housing. It’s Economics 101.
How do you plan to involve Kamloops residents in your decision making?
By attending residential community association meetings, by making citizens equal stakeholders (officially on paper, not just in thoughts), and by promoting free speech and discussions and opening back the comment section of the city’s Facebook page. It was a horrible and very anti-democratic decision by City management to ban comments on the City’s Facebook page.
What does a sustainable future for Kamloops and area look like to you and what does it need?
Highest level of fire and flood mitigation and promoting multi-family housing without the NIMBYism. We can’t keep on complaining about affordable housing and then keep on making as many hurdles for the Canadian Home Builders’ Association to build multi-family housing. Densification can have a very positive impact on sustainability of a city. We also need to reconsider what we can achieve in regards to sustainability at a civic level, stop over-promising just because it sounds nice.
