I have lived in the Alberni Valley for more than 40 years. I have had the privileged for the last 10 years of being your representative and voice on city council.
I have represented our community on many boards, commissions, and societies, such as: Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, continuing care societies, planning, RCMP, fire department, Emergency Planning, homelessness, to name a few.
I have volunteered for many festivals throughout the years: Tall Ships Society, Fall Fair, Toy Run, Lions TV Auction, Portal Players and many other events.
I am asking to be re-elected to this important position as your representative on city council.
I know I cannot please everyone. While on council you are one voice and one vote. Council is a team.
Council’s decisions are tied to what the community charter allows us to do and not do and what we are financially capable of doing.
We need to encourage and promote opportunities for our youth to find meaningful employment in our community. We need to promote tourism and work at getting more businesses and industry (small and big) into our community. That in turn will create employment.
Any action we take should have guidelines: sustainability, impact on health (environmental and personal); and long-term benefits.
We should not forget our history but we need to move forward. As we are doing this, think what’s best for our city’s future and prosperity.
Unfortunately we do not have one issue in our community but many: an aging infrastructure, new water regulations, rising costs for services, unemployment, rising policing costs, a doctor shortage, homelessness, aging population, federal and provincial downloading and the list goes on and on.
But remember we are not all doom and gloom. There are a lot of good things in our community.
I promise to work hard for you and I believe in listening and hearing all sides before making a decision. If I don’t know the answers I will get them. My integrity is important to me and I have no problem voicing opinions.
There is so much that needs to be done, and it will not happen overnight—which I really find frustrating because I am the type of person who likes to have things done yesterday.