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

I came to Kelowna when I was 19 years old with very little, and I’ve called this community home ever since. I started in the service industry, became a business owner, and over the years have had the opportunity to lead organizations, manage complex projects, mentor others and advocate on issues affecting our community.

I’m running because I want to be part of the solution for Kelowna’s future. We are facing real challenges with affordability, public safety, infrastructure and growth, and I believe I have the experience and practical problem-solving skills to contribute at the council table.

My approach is pretty simple: Less Politics. Real Solutions. I believe in doing the homework, asking good questions, working with people and getting things done.

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?

My personal philosophy is to treat others with respect, try to do the right thing, and continually work at being a better person. I believe how we treat people, particularly those whose beliefs or perspectives are different from our own, says a great deal about who we are.

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

My values are pretty simple: honesty, respect, accountability, hard work and treating people fairly.

Those values have shaped how I have led throughout my career. I don't need to be the smartest person in the room or pretend to have all the answers. I believe in listening to people, asking good questions, surrounding myself with people who bring different perspectives, and creating an environment where people push each other to be better.

I also believe leadership means taking responsibility for decisions and following through. You won't always make everyone happy, but people deserve to know that you listened, did your homework, made the decision for the right reasons and are prepared to be accountable for the result.

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

My personal beliefs don't need to be someone else's beliefs. If I expect people to respect my perspective, I have an equal responsibility to respect theirs.

As a councilor, my responsibility would be to represent all Kelowna residents, including people whose beliefs, backgrounds and opinions are very different from my own. That means listening, keeping an open mind, looking at the facts and making decisions based on what I believe best serves the community as a whole.

We don't have to agree with each other to respect each other. To me, that's an important part of public service.

How would you like to see city spending prioritized?

I believe city spending should start with the things municipal government is fundamentally responsible for: public safety, essential services, maintaining our existing infrastructure, and building the infrastructure needed to keep pace with growth.

I also believe every major spending decision should come with some basic questions. What problem are we trying to solve? What will it cost? How will we measure whether it worked? Who is accountable for the result? And where does it rank against other priorities?

There will always be more good ideas than there is money to pay for them. Council's responsibility is to make choices, not simply keep adding to the list. Before asking taxpayers for more, I want to know we are getting the best possible value from the money we already spend.

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?

I believe materials and programming intended for minors should be age appropriate, and parents should have the primary role in deciding what is appropriate for their children.

At the same time, I think it is important to understand the limits of City Council's authority. Our public libraries are governed through the Okanagan Regional Library, with collection policy established by its Board. A Kelowna councilor serving on that Board should listen to concerns from parents and residents and ensure policies are transparent and accountable.

For programs directly funded or operated by the City, I would expect the same principles: age-appropriate programming, transparency about what is being offered, and respect for the role of parents.

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?

I believe parents should normally be involved in important decisions affecting their minor children, including when a child is seeking ongoing support. At the same time, there can be circumstances involving a child's immediate safety, abuse, neglect or other serious concerns where confidentiality and professional judgment are necessary.

It is also important to recognize that school counsellors and these policies fall under the provincial education system and local school boards, not City Council. As a councilor, I would respect that jurisdiction rather than promise to exercise authority the City does not have.

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

I believe transparency should be the default, particularly when significant public money or major community projects are involved. There are legitimate reasons some matters must be discussed in closed meetings, including land negotiations, legal matters and personnel issues, and those rules need to be respected.

But once the reason for confidentiality has passed, I would like to see more information brought into the public conversation wherever legally possible. Residents should understand what is being proposed, what it will cost, why it is a priority, what alternatives were considered and how success will be measured.

I also believe accountability means being willing to explain your own decisions. I won't agree with every decision made by council, and residents won't always agree with mine, but they should never have to wonder why I made it.

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

Public safety is one of the issues I hear about most from residents. While some crime statistics are improving, many people don't feel that improvement when they are dealing with open drug use, public disorder, theft, vandalism and threatening behaviour in their neighbourhoods and business areas.

I believe compassion and accountability have to exist together. Compassion cannot be reserved for only one group. We need compassion for people struggling with addiction, mental health and homelessness, but also for the residents, workers and businesses living with the consequences of the street crisis every day.

One immediate step I would pursue is better deployment of the resources we already have. Kelowna's bylaw officers currently work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. I would look at shifting some of that coverage into the late evening and overnight hours, when many of the problems residents and businesses experience are occurring.

Longer term, enforcement alone won't solve addiction. We need prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction working together. Harm reduction can save lives, but keeping someone alive cannot be the end goal.

From my perspective, the Province has dropped the ball on prevention. We spend enormous effort dealing with addiction once it has taken hold, but not nearly enough on preventing people from entering addiction in the first place. The City needs to advocate much more strongly for effective prevention and early intervention, particularly for young people.

We also need treatment and recovery to be available when someone is ready for help. Harm reduction should include a path out of addiction, not simply managing it.

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

Housing affordability is not going to be solved by one policy, and simply saying “build more housing” isn't enough. Kelowna needs more choice in housing. Apartments and condos are part of the solution, but so are townhomes, duplexes, smaller single-family homes and other ground-oriented options that families can realistically aspire to own.

We also need to pay attention to what government adds to the cost of every new home. Locally, that means faster and more predictable approvals, reducing unnecessary delays and costs, and making sure our planning policies allow a broader range of housing choices.

I also believe we need to rethink how we pay for growth-related infrastructure. Growth should pay for growth, but that doesn't necessarily mean the first purchaser of a new home should have to prepay decades of infrastructure costs through the purchase price.

I would like Kelowna to advocate to the Province for a model that allows some of those infrastructure costs to be amortized over the useful life of the infrastructure, potentially 50 or 60 years, rather than loading so much of the cost onto the initial price of a new home.

Affordability isn't just about how many homes we build. It's about whether we're building the kinds of homes people actually want and can afford.

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

I don't think our goal should simply be more jobs. We need to focus on attracting and growing higher-paying jobs that allow people to build a life in Kelowna.

We already have strong foundations in technology, aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and professional services. I would like to see us become much more deliberate about attracting employers and investment in industries that bring well-paying careers into our community. The Central Okanagan's current economic strategy already identifies investment attraction and export-focused industries as priorities.

We also need to make Kelowna a place where existing businesses can grow. That means predictable approvals, reasonable regulation, adequate employment land, good transportation infrastructure and strong partnerships with UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College so training better matches the jobs employers actually need.

A strong economy isn't measured only by how many jobs we create. It matters whether those jobs allow people to afford to live in the community where they work.

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

I don’t believe we have a growth problem. I believe we have a planning problem.

Kelowna is going to continue to grow. The challenge is making sure our infrastructure keeps pace with that growth. Too often we are reacting to problems after they appear instead of planning far enough ahead to prevent them.

Roads, water, sewer, parks and other community infrastructure need to be planned alongside where thousands of new residents are going to live, not years after those neighbourhoods have been built.

I also support more complete communities, where housing, employment, shopping, recreation and services are closer together. That reduces pressure on our transportation network and gives people more options without requiring them to travel across the city for everything.

We need to think beyond the next budget or even the next ten-year capital plan. Decisions we make today will shape Kelowna for the next 30, 40 and 50 years. We need to start planning like it.