The Tribune asked candidates running in the municipal, regional, and School District 27 election a few questions about themselves and their platforms.
We asked the following:
• What position are you running for?
• Why are you running for it?
• What do you see as the top three issues to address in your community?
• How do you propose to tackle them?
Candidates in the area, including those who have been acclaimed, were invited to participate for free
and were given a maximum word limit of 275 words to answer the questions above.
The following are the answers we received from participating candidates:
Geoff Bourdon
I am running for a second term as a city councillor.
I am re-running because I see positive results from the direction we have taken and wish to continue that work, emphasizing this term on strengthening our local economy.
The top three issues our community is facing:
• A decreasing population due to an aging population. This will continue to have a degenerative effect on our economy. We need to attract more people to town through employment and quality of life.
I would propose doing this through tax incentive programs in development for industrial, commercial and residential properties and collaborative marketing of our City with partners such as the Chamber of Commerce, WLCBIA and TRU.
• Economic development in supporting industries of forestry, mining and agriculture as well as continuing to brand and culture our biking and trail systems as a tourist product. I will be supporting the direction coming out of the Business Expansion and Attraction Strategy Task Force. By continuing to support the legalization of trails and carrying out the priorities defined in the Parks and Trails Master Plan we will culture a product that our local businesses and service providers can sell to the world.
• Long-term asset management. The recent work on the pool at the rec centre has shown a gaping hole in long-term planning and depreciating assets properly. We have initiated the establishment of this program. I would like to see it done.
Thank you for your time,
Geoff Bourdon.