Tell us a bit about yourself and why you are running in this election.

I’m running for council because we need stronger leadership at the council table to ensure that residents don't see reductions in their quality of life. A city of opportunity means a strong local economy, homes we can afford, jobs that pay enough to live on, and safe neighborhood streets for ourselves and our neighbours. I think I can contribute as one voice of nine around the table, in order to take the concerns of the public seriously, respond to issues in ways that have worked in other cities, and represent our residents at city hall through a detailed, issue-oriented platform.

If you feel comfortable sharing, what is your faith background, religious tradition, or philosophical worldview, for example: Christian, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, secular, or another worldview?

I am Christian.

How do your personal values shape your leadership, and what are those values?

I believe in an inclusive, welcoming, and open government. I am not commenting on how my faith affects my politics. I don't believe that is appropriate for a political candidate.

How would you balance your personal beliefs with your responsibility to represent all Kelowna residents?

I fully believe in the separation of church and state.

How would you like to see city spending prioritized?

Housing and Economy:

Fight to lower the cost of new housing for purchase or rent through zoning reforms, efficient permitting, and DCC adjustments.

Push forward planning reforms to improve access to child care and walkable retail locations for small business owners.

Downtown to airport rapid transit corridor planning.

Quality of Life:

Capital investment into roundabouts and street improvements like sidewalks, signalized crosswalks, bike lanes, and bus pullouts.

Implement Kelowna's urban forestry strategy to improve tree canopy and prevent heat island effects.

Investment into hockey rinks, sports fields, public washrooms, bus benches and shelters, and the performing arts.

Public Safety:

Public advocacy and pressure for inpatient drug treatment, fully funded mental health services, and bail and sentencing reform.

Work with a new council majority to oppose the consumption of illicit drugs on our streets, outside of homes and businesses, and in our parks.

24/7 foot patrols downtown, in Rutland and the Capri areas, via Business Association teams, to cleanup and prevent overnight disorder without impacting property taxes. Funded through parking benefit districts.

What role, if any, do you think City Council should have in setting standards for materials and programming available to minors in city-funded facilities and public libraries?

This is the role of the board for the Okanagan Regional Library.

What role do you believe parental consent and notification should play when a minor makes personal disclosures or requests support from a school counsellor, and what exceptions, if any, should apply?

City council plays no role in the actions of school counsellor.

What steps would you like to see taken to increase transparency and accountability at City Hall?

At the doorstep, many people tell me that they don't feel heard, or that they don't really know what city council is up to. We can't rely on local media to deliver all the news that is important. We should focus on Plain-Language Public Engagement. Public engagement, surveys, and consultation must seek real input from residents, including giving them the option to disagree, rather than forcing them to rank pre-determined options full of policy jargon.

I support:

Electronic vote tabulating for council meetings with automated publication on the City of Kelowna website: council votes by councilor can be searched and filtered by the public. This can be found in all large cities like Vancouver and Toronto.

Lobbying the BC Government to allow ranked ballots, eliminating the concern of vote-splitting while ensuring the mayor always has the support of more than 50% of voters.

Directing staff to ensure that all future City of Kelowna data collection, OCP surveys, and community feedback is statistically significant.

Open By Default or "raw data first" transparency standard for public meeting minutes, budgets, and planning tools.

Reducing reliance on closed-door working groups.

Emulating BC's political contribution tax credit system on a local level.

What public safety issues are you seeing in Kelowna, and how do you believe these issues should be addressed?

Kelowna should feel safe and be safe for residents and business owners, no matter the neighborhood, no matter the time of day or night. Open drug use in parks and urban centres is the single most common concern raised when I speak to residents at the door. People are also worried about the increased number of encampments in doorways and in public parks. Local government cannot solve this on its own, but I will work with all councilors and whoever is elected mayor on doing what is possible within civic jurisdiction, while continuing lobbying efforts with our Provincial and Federal leaders through FCM, UBCM, and direct meetings.

I will support advocacy for treatment facilities and recovery housing, along with compassionate mandatory care in appropriate circumstances, as supported by local leaders up and down the Okanagan valley.

Continued support for the Kelowna Integrated Court.

Budget allocation for dedicated foot patrols downtown, in Rutland and the Capri areas, via a combination of Bylaw and Business Association teams.

I will work with a council majority to curtail the continued dispersal of overnight sheltering outside of the legal designated location.

Advocacy for bail and sentencing reform for repeat violent offenders and property crime.

Call for the increased hiring of crown prosecutors to reduce wait times in our judicial system.

I will support the use of non-tax revenue streams, such as Parking Benefit Districts, to increase service delivery of On-Call response teams.

What do you think can be done locally to bring down the cost of housing?

Ensuring opportunity for new homes across the housing spectrum, from single family, to townhome, to apartments, while targeting a >5% or greater vacancy rate through thoughtful zoning policies and OCP adjustments.

Cut costs for families and keep Kelowna workers employed by committing to a DCC reduction plan through bonded infrastructure financing.

Support non-market housing through land-trust partnerships for secured affordable co-op housing.

Permit modernization through time-based goals for common permits that are benchmarked against peer municipalities in BC.

Directly lowering the cost of new housing through advocacy on provincial reforms to allow utility bonding of water, sewer and other infrastructure.

A full review of hidden costs to build. Benchmark and reduce all unfunded mandates, including zoning, engineering requirements, bylaws, and design standards.

Prioritizing family-oriented homes for midrise redevelopment through zoning incentives.

What policies would you support to help stimulate Kelowna’s job market?

Competitive permitting for businesses and events. Kelowna should be the easiest and most cost-effective municipality in BC to operate a business or run an event.

Small business roundtable for permitting reform and regulatory efficiency review for both events and businesses. The current approach of "leading with no" instead of "getting to yes", while strangling community events in increased costs, is directly forcing taxpayers to spend more on unnecessary bureaucracy.

Establish an office for Economics, Internal Audit, and Data Visualization, allowing the City to work on zoning, regulation, budget, and tax reforms while focusing on their tax efficiency and private-sector job creation, along with communication of those efforts, in order to improve fiscal transparency and efficiency.

Directing staff to prepare an industrial land strategy with 5% vacancy rate goals achieved by 2030.

Designating a permanent year-round indoor market site for independent vendors, similar to Toronto's St. Lawrence Market.

Creating hospital-oriented OCP amendments for the Pandosy - Richter transit corridors including options for short-term healthcare accommodation for nurses and patients.

Directing staff to report on a walkable commercial and mixed-use zoning reform strategy, in order to create allow new "high street" commercial clusters similar to Bernard and Pandosy streets.

Moving a motion at the council table to legalize and incentivize more childcare spaces through childcare major prezoning in core area neighborhoods.

Directing staff to work with the provincial government on reintroducing split-rate property tax reform, with the end goal of revenue-neutral single-rate land value tax shifts.

What ideas do you have to better balance infrastructure and city growth?

We cannot and should not build a wall around Kelowna, to prevent people from moving here. People will choose homes of a type and location that is right for them. What matters is investing in the sewer, road and intersection improvements, transit, sidewalks, etc that people rely on.

Commuting by Car

Fix the Top 20 crash zones first. ICBC has statistics that identify the 20 most accident-prone locations, yet few improvements have been made, including by lobbying the Province to fix dangerous intersections along 97. We should make our roads more safe and efficient.

Highway 97: Advocate for Provincial infrastructure upgrades to reduce congestion & car crashes by shifting curb cuts to side streets, closing off access points, and removing non-signal lefts.

Bus pullouts installed on all frequent transit routes when roads are repaved.

Refocus capital investment into complete streets and efficient intersections depending on the local context. Roundabouts, sidewalks and street trees should be priorities.

Create a single, real-time public map of all road construction so that the public can spot issues and projects can be better coordinated to minimize detours and combine work when possible.

Expand "Green Wave" traffic signal synchronization and timing citywide by redirecting capital investment into smart traffic sensor and adaptive signal technology.

Transit, Walking, and Rolling

Fill in the gaps in our sidewalk and bike networks. Relying on developers to build sidewalks and bike lanes in front of new developments hasn’t built a connected network that makes walking and cycling safe for everyone. Kelowna should engage the public to determine gaps in its sidewalk and bike networks near the most important destinations (such as schools) and fill in these locations first.

Rapid Transit corridor planning between downtown Kelowna and the University and Airport, along with between the north end and south mission.

Prioritize transit signal priority technology in the 10-year capital plan for full coverage on all "frequent" routes at all intersections by 2032.

Increased investment in street urbanisation and traffic calming approaches such as street trees, continuous sidewalks, signalized crossings, and other infrastructure in order to improve both accessibility and safety for all road users, including those with walkers and wheelchairs.

Improve "Meet Me On Bernard" urbanism with retractable bollards to replace concrete barriers and improved car-lite design standards that improve urban tree canopy and dining options.

Support increased rollout of sidewalk, multi-use path, and bike path corridors in order to advance multi-model traffic safety. Establish a "safe routes to school" program for all schools to be covered by 2034. Target completion of 2040 TMP ATC projects by 2033.

Implement the TMP2040 plan for Leon and Lawrence, as commercial "high streets" more similar to Bernard and Pandosy.

Investment in the new public transit yard, with completed pushed up to 2032 or as soon as practical.

Advocacy for a Central Okanagan Transit Authority (Translink) as opposed to 3rd-party contracting as a management model.

Create a funding strategy for bus shelters at all stops on all routes within the permanent growth boundary, to be completed by 2032.

Sports

I support a renewed sports strategy in order to ensure adequate supply of indoor and outdoor recreational space. This includes:

Hockey rinks and sports field additions to match our population growth. Waitlists and high costs need to come down, and every part of town should be treated fairly. I do not support the cutbacks made to the Rutland sports improvements.

Apple Bowl upgrades as proposed by the current city council.

Support a neighborhood-based spots amenity survey to determine future demand for sports fields, including permanent cricket fields, a second disc golf course, a skatepark, and access to public indoor pickleball courts.

Parks

Public outdoor space is incredibly important. We need enough sports fields for our kids, linear parks for recreation, and pleasant spaces for our many cultural events.

Of course, we need to prevent overnight sheltering in parks while ensuring no needles or broken glass are ever found, but park planning and park activation is so much more than that. Here are some changes I support:

Expand linear parks and off-street connections between neighbourhoods, schools, and services while championing an expanded creekside and lakeshore linear park strategy. Shift land acquisition towards continuous Millbridge-park style connections along our various waterways

Expand Kelowna's tree canopy with a 3-30-300 approach to urban park and street tree strategies. Renew Kelowna's urban tree strategy by aligning the OCP and zoning bylaw to the tree canopy objectives.

Investment in neighborhoods-based community bandshells such as Victoria's Cameron Bandshell in parks to support Parks Alive! events and other music festivals or concerts.

No further purchases of golf courses to convert into non-golf use, and preservation of currently-private courses in future OCPs. Continue long-term recreation conversion plans for Michaelbrook.

Focus on a riverfront and waterfront land acquisition through a buy-sever-sell and predesignating strategy.

Expand park activations with greater investments in active-use and, in the case of urban parks, recreational / food retail opportunities.

Ban the sale of City parks and ensure no-net-loss of public canopy and natural areas.

Expand recreational cycling and hiking paths.

Retrofit older parks with amenities that support Parks Alive, sports, socializing, and more.

Arts and Recreation

I support calls from community organizations for action on a New Performing Arts Center. Having performed numerous times in the Kelowna Community Theatre with the Theatre Kelowna Society, Kelowna Actors' Studio, during the BC Interior Jazz Festival, the Kiwanis Music Festival, and many other events, I understand the importance of a modern center capable of bringing tourism and economic growth to Kelowna. It will not happen overnight, but the theatre should be added to the capital plan. It is for these same reasons that the City should conduct market analysis on the feasibility of incentives for a privately-built convention centre.

Preservation and revitalization of the remaining heritage commercial buildings in the Tolko Mill site, along with a fully public waterfront during development of the area.

I support a decentralized Okanagan Regional Library model, with small pickup branches serving every town centre in Kelowna.