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:
Kerry Cook
1. Mayor of Williams Lake.
2. My goal is for Williams Lake to not only be a great city within the province, but a community that all of our families can be a part of. This council has made huge gains in crime reduction, economic development and improving the City’s finances and I want to keep building on this council’s accomplishments.
3 and 4: Crime — crime continues to be one of the most important issues facing this community. In 2008, Williams Lake had the highest crime rate in the province and today we’ve dropped to 37th. In the past three years, we’ve re-built damaged relationships with the province, RCMP and community groups and built a collaborative framework to crime reduction. The results are clear and will continue.
Economic development — during tough economic times, Williams Lake has brought in $47 million of economic activity since 2008. During my term in office, I have focused on creating the conditions for jobs and growth in the City. In December 2011 the City will begin implementing an economic development strategy built collaboratively with business leaders. The strategy will be tied to our budget process and set the stage for responsible growth for the future.
Fiscal accountability — this council has broken the cycle of overspending.
While the previous council accumulated $12 million in long-term debt during their three years in office, this council has been able to stop borrowing beyond our means. Under my term, we have built partnerships that generated $12 million in funding that reduced the City’s costs and budget pressures. We cut $1 million from the City’s budget in our first year in office.