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

I was raised in Rutland, raised my three children there, and now live in downtown Kelowna. These experiences have given me a broad and personal understanding of our community, including the challenges facing families, businesses, vulnerable residents and neighbourhoods throughout the city.

I am a CPA and business owner with more than 35 years of financial and leadership experience. I previously served on the City of Kelowna’s external audit team and have held leadership roles with the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Kelowna Association, the Uptown Rutland Business Association and several community organizations.

I am running because I believe public service should be grounded in integrity, responsible stewardship, compassion and respect for every person. Kelowna is facing significant challenges involving affordability, public safety, homelessness, addiction, infrastructure and rising property taxes. These issues require thoughtful leadership, financial discipline and a willingness to listen.

I want to help restore public trust through greater openness and accountability, ensure taxpayers receive value for their money, and contribute practical, independent judgment to City Council. Most importantly, I want Kelowna to remain a safe, caring and welcoming community where families, seniors, businesses and future generations can thrive.

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 was baptized as a Christian, and for more than two decades I have also been a practicing Buddhist. While Christianity and Buddhism have important theological differences, I have found significant common ground in their practical teachings—particularly compassion, humility, forgiveness, self-reflection, service to others and care for those who are suffering.

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

My worldview is grounded in the inherent dignity of every person and the belief that we should treat others with kindness, respect and understanding. These values influence both how I try to live and how I would approach public service: listening without judgment, seeking common ground and making decisions that serve the broader community.

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

My personal beliefs guide me toward compassion, integrity, humility and service, but they would never be imposed on others. As a city councilor, my responsibility would be to represent all Kelowna residents—regardless of their faith, culture, background, identity or worldview.

I would listen respectfully to different perspectives, seek common ground and base my decisions on evidence, fairness, the public interest and the responsibilities of municipal government. I believe people can remain true to their own values while respecting the dignity, freedom of conscience and equal voice of every member of the community.

How would you like to see city spending prioritized?

My first priority would be ensuring that Kelowna has adequate resources to protect the safety of all residents, businesses and neighbourhoods. This includes effective policing, timely emergency response and a visible public-safety presence in areas experiencing theft, violence, disorder and other serious concerns.

However, public safety cannot be achieved through policing alone. City spending should also support coordinated partnerships addressing homelessness, addiction and mental-health crises, while recognizing that many of these services fall primarily within provincial jurisdiction. Compassion for vulnerable individuals and accountability for harmful behaviour must work together.

Beyond public safety, I would prioritize essential infrastructure, core municipal services and responsible long-term planning. New spending should be supported by clear objectives and measurable results, while existing programs should be regularly reviewed for effectiveness and value. Property-tax increases should generally not exceed inflation unless exceptional circumstances or clearly beneficial projects can justify the additional cost.

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?

City Council should help ensure that city-funded facilities are safe, welcoming and accessible to all residents, but I do not believe councilors should regulate lawful gatherings or make individual decisions about books, speakers or programming based on personal or political beliefs.

Operational and programming decisions should be guided by applicable law, established policies and qualified library and facility professionals. Materials and programs involving minors should be presented with appropriate consideration for age, safety and transparency, while respecting the important role of parents and guardians.

When concerns arise, residents should have access to a clear and respectful review process. Council’s role is to ensure that sound policies and accountability mechanisms exist—not to engage in censorship or impose one group’s worldview on the entire community.

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 and guardians must be treated as essential partners when a minor is facing serious mental-health, physical-health, substance-use or safety concerns. In most circumstances, they should be notified promptly so they can obtain appropriate care and support for their child. Confidentiality should not become a barrier that prevents parents from responding to a potentially life-threatening situation.

This issue is deeply personal to me. My son disclosed his dependency on highly addictive drugs to a school counsellor, but I was not informed. I did not have the opportunity to intervene with the knowledge the school possessed, and I ultimately my son overdosed, and, I did not know what was wrong with him. Even afterward, the school would not fully disclose what it had known. No parent should have to experience that.

Exceptions may be necessary when there are reasonable grounds to believe that notifying a parent would expose the child to abuse, violence or other serious harm. In those circumstances, child-protection professionals and another safe, responsible adult should be involved immediately. Outside such exceptional situations, parental notification should be the expectation—especially where addiction, self-harm, suicide risk or another threat to a child’s health or life is involved.

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

Restoring public trust requires City Hall to make openness the default and confidentiality the exception. I would support clearer explanations of Council decisions, more accessible financial reporting and greater public disclosure of how tax dollars are being spent.

Programs and major projects should have defined objectives, budgets and measurable outcomes, followed by public reporting on whether those results were achieved. Council should also regularly review existing services for effectiveness and value rather than automatically carrying spending forward.

I would like to see fewer matters discussed behind closed doors, with in-camera meetings limited to circumstances where confidentiality is legally necessary. When confidentiality is no longer required, the information and rationale for the decision should be released promptly.

Residents should also receive meaningful notice of important proposals, have accessible opportunities to provide input and be able to see how that input influenced the final decision. Transparency is more than publishing information—it means making that information understandable, timely and useful.

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

Homelessness and addiction are among Kelowna’s most urgent and visible challenges, contributing to concerns involving overdoses, public drug use, theft, violence and disorder.

However, we must distinguish between people who are homeless and those whose conduct threatens others. Every person deserves dignity and compassion, while residents, workers and businesses also deserve to feel safe.

The City should work closely with the Province—which has primary responsibility for health care, mental health and addiction treatment—to expand detoxification, treatment and recovery services. For individuals whose severe addiction or mental illness leaves them unable to protect themselves and at immediate risk of serious harm, carefully regulated involuntary care may be necessary. Any such intervention must include medical oversight, legal safeguards, regular review and a clear path into treatment and supportive recovery.

Kelowna also needs a range of housing options. Harm-reduction housing may serve some people, but it should not be the only model available. We need more substance-free, recovery-oriented housing and stronger support for organizations offering effective 12-step and other evidence-informed recovery programs.

This must be combined with effective policing, outreach, mental-health crisis response and consistent enforcement against violence and criminal activity. Compassion and accountability are not opposites—we need both to restore safety and help people rebuild their lives.

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

Although the City already offers incentives for some non-market rental housing, we should consider targeted reductions or exemptions from Development Cost Charges for projects built in established neighbourhoods where roads, water, sewer, transit and emergency services already have sufficient capacity.

I would also support creating a Housing Fast Track with published approval timelines and priority processing. Projects would qualify when they comply with the Official Community Plan and existing zoning, can be supported by available infrastructure and provide housing that addresses an identified community need—such as below-market, purpose-built rental, seniors’, workforce or missing-middle housing. Faster approvals would reduce uncertainty, financing costs and unnecessary delays without sacrificing appropriate safety, environmental or technical reviews.

Any reduction in Development Cost Charges should be tied to clear public benefits and structured so the savings contribute to lower housing costs rather than simply increasing developer profits. The City must also ensure that existing infrastructure genuinely has adequate capacity and that remaining growth-related costs are fairly allocated.

Municipal action alone will not solve housing affordability, but the City can reduce unnecessary costs and delays, establish predictable approval processes and encourage the right housing in locations where services can responsibly support growth.

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

Employment policy is largely a federal and provincial responsibility, but the City can create conditions that encourage businesses to invest, expand and hire locally.

I would support a comprehensive review of municipal regulations, bylaws, licensing requirements, fees and approval processes to identify unnecessary costs, duplication and delays. Regulations must protect public safety and community interests, but they should also be clear, proportionate and consistently applied. The City should establish service standards and predictable timelines for business and development applications.

Kelowna must also protect an adequate supply of appropriately serviced commercial and industrial land, maintain competitive and predictable property taxes, and plan infrastructure that supports economic growth. As commercial properties pay approximately twice the municipal tax rate applied to residential properties, businesses should receive effective, responsive services and clear value for those taxes.

The City should work with local businesses, Indigenous communities, economic-development organizations, UBC Okanagan, Okanagan College and the provincial and federal governments to align training with local workforce needs and support responsible investment.

The City does not create most private-sector jobs directly. Its role is to remove unnecessary barriers and provide a stable, efficient and welcoming environment in which entrepreneurs and employers can succeed.

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

Kelowna needs to accommodate growth, but development should not move faster than the infrastructure and essential services required to support it. Before approving significant growth, the City should clearly assess capacity for roads, water, sewer, transit, parks, policing, fire protection and emergency services.

I would support a long-term infrastructure plan that identifies expected growth, project timing, full lifecycle costs and how each investment will be funded. Council should receive regular public reporting on whether projects are on schedule, within budget and achieving their intended results.

Growth should pay a fair share of the infrastructure costs it creates, without placing an unreasonable burden on existing taxpayers. At the same time, Development Cost Charges and approval requirements should reflect actual infrastructure needs. Projects in established neighbourhoods with adequate existing capacity—particularly those providing affordable, rental, workforce, seniors’ or missing-middle housing—should be considered for targeted DCC relief and fast-track approval.

We should concentrate development where infrastructure can support it, coordinate land-use and capital planning, and work with provincial and federal governments to secure funding for major projects. Responsible growth means planning infrastructure before problems become crises, while ensuring Kelowna remains financially sustainable and livable.