Mayoral candidates in Enderby’s municipal election made their case at an all-candidates forum at the local seniors centre Wednesday evening, Sept. 21.
Close to 100 people came to the event to learn more about the candidates they’ll be voting for in the Oct. 15 election.
Moderator Jackie Pearase peppered candidates Greg McCune and Huck Galbraith with more than a dozen questions, including how they would help residents deal with a higher cost of living, whether they would support curbside compost collection, how they would advance truth and reconciliation with the local Indigenous population, and how they would attract more workers — particularly doctors — to the community.
“My vision for Enderby is to make the community an inclusive community with our First Nations, our rural members and our businesses and citizens in town,” said Galbraith.
Incumbent McCune, who has served as mayor for just under eight years, said his vision for Enderby involves preparation for the challenges to come.
“We knew 10 or 12 years ago that the North Okanagan was going to grow, there would be a strain on housing in town, a strain on services that the community needs, and I think that we’ve taken steps to make those not as challenging as they have been,” McCune said. “But we’re into a spot now where we have a little bit of a financial crisis probably coming our way, so I think the vision is just stay the course that we’re on, but being able to adapt.”
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Asked what Enderby’s biggest challenges will be over the next four years, Galbraith said the increased cost of housing is significant, and the cost of living overall is affecting everybody.
“We need to entice more new growth into the town, and try to keep taxes lower as well,” Galbraith said.
McCune agreed that the cost of housing is one of Enderby’s biggest challenges moving forward, adding that recovery from the pandemic remains a struggle. McCune said the city needs to focus on sustainable growth.
“We want to be able to grow, provide the services that people need, but also do it in a way that absolutely everybody is comfortable with.”
A question on how to attract more doctors to Enderby drew a reaction from the audience, as it’s a question on many residents’ minds. Both candidates said the city needs more home-grown talent in doctor’s positions in town. Galbraith said recruiting doctors is one of the top items on his platform, while McCune suggested the city needs to put young people through medical school who will then stay in the community.
Pearase asked the candidates how they would make themselves available to the public, and Galbraith said he would like to hold more town halls similar to Wednesday night’s forum.
On whether the candidates support lowering taxes, McCune said the city has recently created a development corporation with the hope of creating some additional revenue sources that would allow taxes to be offset.
In an off-beat question on whether the candidates would allow or disallow the continuation of the noisy and air pollution-inducing burnout competitions at the Friday Night Lights events in the summer, McCune said he supported it as a means for the community to get together.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t like it, but there’s a lot of people who don’t like fireworks,” he said.
Galbraith said he would support the competition as well, but would move it to a location away from the centre of town.
“From what I understood it brought a lot of people into this town, like more than double the population, so some businesses I’m sure would have gained from it,” he said.
Both candidates said they would support following neighbouring cities such as Vernon in implementing curbside compost pickup.
The general voting day is Saturday, Oct. 15 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. An advanced voting day will be held Oct. 5 at Enderby City Hall, also from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. There is also a special voting opportunity for residents of Parkview Place on Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
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