Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Working on New Guide to City Hall...

In the next few days, I hope to have a new 'Guide to City Hall' published here and in paper. This one will be about who to call at the City for specific issues - barking dogs, dust complaints, business licencing, affordable housing etc.

Stay tuned...

Presenting to Chinese Teachers about Civic Issues...

In the past few years, Thompson Rivers University has hosted groups of teachers from China to help them learn new teaching methods and to give them a first hand introduction to Canada. I was very honoured to be asked to speak to a very friendly group about Municipal issues and the current election campaign. My wife is one of the instructors in the program. The teachers asked great questions and had done a lot of homework from this web site and other sources. One of the burning issues was the amount of taxes on purchases. These teachers have been shopping for themselves and undoubtedly for friends and family in China. I told them I could help them get in contact with Betty Hinton, our MP.

I truly enjoyed presenting our system of government and about how election campaigns work. I hope I gave them a sense of how privileged I feel to live in a democracy.

Launch of the North Shore Echo

Want to thank Wenda Noonan, publisher of the new North Shore Echo Paper, for inviting me to their launch 10 days ago at Constant Cravings Coffee Shop at North Hills Shopping Centre. Wenda also publishes the now famous Downtown Echo.

This is new entrepreneur Carrie Wall at the same event with here new home made bottle holder. I am a big believer in supporting young, new entrepreneurs. Carrie sells her "Bottle Sock" for "hands free healthy living". She can be reached at 318 8656 or by email at thebottlesock@yahoo.com.

I also met a gentleman with a new photocopier sales and service business. I think his name is Grant. I misplaced the card. So, Sir, if you read this, call me at 377 1797 and I would like to put your contact info here as well. Really enjoyed talking with you and thanks for your vote!

Quick Update....

This has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. As well as taking over interim manager's duties at my parents 78 unit apartment complex, I have also been doing a lot of introducing myself to businesses and homes in Kamloops. I still am not being to able to get out as much as I want to but I would say I have done about 210 visits this week so far.

Also my signs started to go up this week. I have a roving sign on my car. Wave if you see me!

Audio Diary - October 22nd 2005

Download cc_audiodiary_oct22.MP3

Approximately 2 minutes 11 seconds.

• My history with the Chamber Business Excellence Awards
• New job for Arjun
• Circular campaign signs
• Where the rubber hits the road as a candidate

Congratulations to Business Excellence Award Winners

I was truly inspired this past Saturday evening. The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce held its 20th Annual Business Excellence Winners. Being a long time entrepreneur myself, I was thrilled by the successes of all the nominees and the eventual winners.

I sat at the same table as Ed Boettcher, from Urban Couch restaurant, who won Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Ed, at the age of 34, is on his second restaurant creation. I know he has worked hard and it has paid off for him and for the community. Ed employs a large staff, provides a great eating environment, and is still very humble about his accomplishments.

Want to also congratulate two other young entrepreneurs that made the final cut. My friends and very creative, savvy business people  - Darryl Schmidt from Kamloopscity.com and Jarrod Goddard from Deep Six Web Studios. Great to see these technologists getting the credit they rightly deserve. I fully expect them both to win many business excellence awards in the near future.

I was also honoured to sit with Henry Small, Kamloops own music legend. Henry's summertime creation which many of us know and love, Music in the Park, fittingly won "Project of the Year". It could have likely won "Project of the Decade" for the wonderful entertainment it has brought to Riverside Park each and every evening in July and August.

I got lucky in my table assignment - very lucky indeed.

My Position on Pesticides

A few weeks ago, I asked my email network and you here on this web site for feedback on pesticide use in Kamloops. 20 people (or thereabouts) came back to me with their thoughts. I truly appreciate this. While researching this issue, I

• did a lot of online research
• read portions of the City's Integrated Pest Management Plan
• spoke with members of the Pesticide Free Kamloops group.
• met with Byron McCorkell, director of Parks Recreation Culture, and Dave Hilton, Parks manager, at the City.
• spoke with weed control companies in Kamloops.

This is an issue that concerns many different interests. The City staff I spoke to are not in favour of the proposed bylaw because they feel that sometimes pesticide use is the only reasonable way to currently deal with the worst weed problems. Weed control companies also feel the same way and obviously derive important revenue from pesticide applications, The City already has gone a long way to a more responsible use of pesticides with their Integrated Pest Management strategy.

The big concern that I have heard from many people, and one I share, concerns the cumulative effect of toxins in our environment. I believe that is important, although undoubtedly difficult, to move to more non chemical, natural substances in lawn, field, and garden maintenance. The City, for example, spends 1 million dollars on sports fields. Moving to natural ways of maintaining these fields at A class levels would cost $60 000 more. I believe that would be money wisely spent to get some toxins out of the environment. Its not just pesticides I am worried about, it is the cumulative effect of all toxins.

So, I will support the proposed bylaw.

The Rebirth of McDonald Park

A few months ago, I was truly pleased to invite Tom and Shannon Hammer to one of my early campaign committee meetings. Tom and Shannon help start the Friends of McDonald Park Association. McDonald Park is a lovely neighborhood park on the North Shore that, in recent times, had become a little rundown. Also, the park and the surrounding neighborhood had become a bit of a haven for criminal activity.

I admire what the McDonald Park areas residents did about this. They themselves raised $70 000 to spruce up the park. The City came on board, as well as some UBC Graduate Students, and an ambitious plan for neighborhood and park revitalization began. In the past two years, the neighborhood has seen awesome improvements, the best being that the community has come together as a community. Crime is down, the park has new gazebo, a better and safer landcape,  and soon will have a great entranceway.

Today, in fact, they relaunched MacDonald Park. I was honoured to be there. Here are some pictures:

The Park's New Gazebo

The Inaugural Bike Parade


Tom Hammer and Mayor Mel unveiling the Dedication Plaque

* A note about the dedication plaque: No mention of the Friends of McDonald Park on the plaque. Plaque has names of Mayor and all Councillors. I think this might have been turned around and had a better effect. Just my 2 cents.

Kamloops Addiction Issues

Too many people in our community live with severe addiction issues and these people cause a lot of problems for themselves and for their fellow citizens. I have had many conversations with people over the past few months and I have seen some pretty awful things with my own eyes. There are lot of opposing views about how to deal with the problem. I feel we need to reconcile these views if we are ever to be truly successful. This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a forum on Harm Reduction. Harm reductions, in the context of drugs and in my understanding, is the practice of offering people clean, safe, friendly methods and places to use the drugs to which they are addicted . That sounds strange even as I write it here, but it can be very successful in reducing the risks of drug uses to drugs users and the entire community - and it may be build trustworthy spaces where people can decide to get clean and sober.

The RCMP tells me that 90% of the property crime in Kamloops is related to drug addiction. Pretty clear that if we can help people get clean or. at least, more clean, that helps the entire community.

The question is how.

Many ideas were offered at the Harm Reduction forum - longer detox programs, better job and life skills training, more transistional  housing, more affordable housing,  much better school  educational programs about drugs and addictions.

My contribution (hopefully a contribution) to the discussion is the idea that we need to get groups and people onside who would not normally get involved on this issue - business people, communities suffering from drug trade getting into their neighborhoods, etc. And business people and affected communities also need to put their concerns on the agenda. We need a holsitic approach from a very broad and complete range of interests. That is going to be difficult but, ultimately, I believe, a strategy that has wide community buy in will lead to solid and lasting success.

Notes from City Council Mtg - October 18th 2005

Quite a full agenda at this past week's council meeting. Here are the things that jumped out at me, sitting in the gallery.

Sports Facilities - presentation by Byron McCorkell, Dir of Parks, Recreation and Culture

• Norbroc stadium is being upgraded for wheel chair accessibility. Private sector partner to get involved.
• For every tree that is being removed by construction in Mac Park, commitment is to plant 2 trees to replace it.
• By using geothermal heating in new Hillside Fieldhouse ( at Canada Games pool site), will save $45 000 a year.
• Projects cost now stand at 43 million (6 milion more than forecast  - other levels of government have made up much of the overruns)
• Still looking for company to provide food and beverage services on Mac Park.
• Decision to make one arena "dry floor" will not have to be made unti Oct next year.
• Annual subsidy for both fieldhouse and sportcentre around $400 000.

New Garbage Collection (Solid Waste) Utility

• concerns raised by Council about seniors having to wheel garbage carts. Dave Duckworth, Dir of Public Works, suggested City could consider offering services to wheel garbage cans for seniors and disabled. Could charge extra or offer for free to user.

Correspondence

• Frances Vyse asked Council to consider contacting local experts on the Mountain Pine Beetle and Dry Forest to help manage " the natural values of Kenna Cartwright Nature Park".
• The Union of BC Municpalities asking for City input on a proposed project to partner with rhe Canadian pavillion at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino Italy.
• Theresa Hinter, a dowtown hotdog vendor, commenting on efforts to curb bar violence in Kamloops.

There are so many issues that come up at each Council meeting. For a fuller review, please visit the City's Council Minutes Webpage.