Three years ago, by a small margin and at age 30, I was elected to Trail city council. In a lot of ways it was the greatest challenge and honour I have yet to face in my life. Entering into city hall in December of 2011 there was a lot of work that had just begun on downtown revitalization and planning for the next 25 years of growth for our community and we have worked hard to get these issues off the table and a base structure engaged to provide the support we need.
We have strengthened our transportation infrastructure with the purchase of the Trail Regional Airport. We have enhanced our ability to communicate with the public by hiring an in-house communication specialist and council making themselves available at the local downtown markets. We have solved some of the regional issues by forming a cooperative agreement on our sewer system and the new pedestrian pipebridge. This forms the basis on which to work in the next term.
Now we need to solve the biggest remaining issue, regional divisions that endure from years of infighting. The most effective solution to this should be the goal of amalgamating the five jurisdictions together by 2018, the next municipal election.
We also need, as a region, to have stronger presence in Victoria to forward the North-South corridor that our American neighbours have started to work on from Colville to Spokane.
We also need to use that same presence to get the province onboard to help us modernize the local highway system with the creation of the Rock Island Bridge to form a second vehicle bridge in our community to ensure the viability of transportation in our community and help anchor our regional hospital. In all, the time is right to bring our community together under one umbrella and let the world know we are here to succeed.
We have the opportunity and the reason I am running for council is that we need to take that opportunity and make it work for us.