Early January. I was getting asked by various community leaders what my intentions would be in the upcoming election. Many were requesting a run for the Mayors chair. After careful deliberation with family and colleagues it became obvious that I had more work to do at the council level .

After a four year term I see what we have started with respect to a positive vision for our city. I soon recognized that it would take more than four years. Kamloops has so much to offer to its current residents and new families looking to find a new city to call home. I want to encourage and grow that opportunity.

Safety and Security: We need to continue to push hard on this multi governmental file. We have moved the needle with many programs and housing development this past term. But we need to do more, like continue advocating for a sobering Centre, community courts, as well as more recovery focused housing. Is there room for involuntary institutional programs? I think so.

Our Safety and Security Committee needs to continue to work to find solutions and new ideas to help businesses and community.

Responsible taxation: We need to as a city work towards a more priorities based budgeting process allowing us to be more transparent on all aspects of budgeting. Do away with the nice to have supplemental list.

Our Finance Dept. does a great job presenting budget.

I’d like to see council review budget as we enter the new term allowing council to send the message to staff that here is where we as council want to go with the budget.

Let’s have a council budget session over a weekend. It requires more work and more time.

Build Kamloops: We have to continue to Build Kamloops. It means so much more than building infrastructure it’s all about building community.

When you look at the financing it’s all in place and well managed. Integrated project design is working. Any pause to question what has been well planned and designed will cost tax payers more. Build Kamloops is an investment in community. A generational investment. These infrastructure builds are also attractive in bringing new families to call Kamloops home.

You have to be willing to spend endless hours learning about municipal governance.

City staff are very knowledgeable and ready to assist with all your questions.

The learning curve is steep you need embrace it.

Have patience public works do not move as fast as private sector.

You have a council team that are all collaborative working for the best interest of our city. Work with them.

You have to be prepared to participate. Agendas and questions on agendas require time and a willingness to do all the reading .. and there is lots of it.

I also learned our community is serviced by some great community businesses alongside of great community leaders and partners.

Have a good positive attitude and push for results. The work as a councillor is very rewarding when you see community success through programs enriched by council and staff.

You have to put the work in and I’m doing all of that, knowing that through this work results will come forward and I’m hopeful residents come out to vote and do there home work to make the right selection. It’s so important to get the right people at the council table.

If you want Kamloops to continue to grow with opportunity, a good move is to send Kelly hall back to City Hall.

This Multi-level governmental challenge is our biggest community challenge. We need to push provincial for more funding and appropriate housing. Earlier last year I put a Notice of Motion to stop the development of Leigh and Fortune because BC Housing changed the terms within the RFP . Community was asking for Recovery focused housing and council through my motion stood together and did not more forward on this development. As a result, we are now seeing BC housing looking at their data and understanding the needs of community and we are seeing more Transitional and Seniors supportive housing.

Assisting with the support of Wrap around services is a direction our community needs to explore and push provincial governments to fund more. Working with BC Housing to develop the right types of housing is a good step. We also can look at Mr Eby’s program of involuntary institutional care programs. I think this is another opportunity.

Kamloops Public Transportation has the third highest ridership in the province. We need more routes as promised by BC Transit in the 2025 budget. We asked for more funding to expand routes both traditional as well as Handy Dart. It was approved by council. BC Transit could not access the funding . We need to continue to push for these new routes. We also need more reliability on route execution. IF we say very 30 minutes it needs to be every 30 minutes. We need to move forward with the Valleyview bus exchange. We had heard the presentation. It’s time to move forward on this plan.

Right now, in our community I’m working with various Busiesses to help develop a new City Bylaw that will assist in managing Data centre growth, including AI. Working with our community Braintrust from all areas of business, breaking down the silo’s, so we can have collaborate for the benefit of the community.