Thank you West Kelowna. Stephen Johnston, for Mayor.Thank you West Kelownafor Mayor

As West Kelowna grows, we need to make sure that growth strengthens our community without losing the character of the neighbourhoods people already know and love.

• Focus growth and density in our urban and neighbourhood centres, rather than changing the character of established neighbourhoods.
• Grow at a pace we can afford. Growth and infrastructure improvements need to work together, one can’t outpace the other.
• Restore local decision-making so community planning and density decisions are made by Council, not the provincial government.

Our small-town character isn't something the government can create on its own. It comes from people knowing their neighbours, participating in their community and feeling connected to the place they call home.

• Create more opportunities for people to connect, participate and get to know their neighbours.
• Support neighbourhood associations, community groups and events that bring people together.
• Celebrate where we've come from through public art and murals that pay homage to our rural roots.

I may be biased, but West Kelowna is one of the most beautiful places to live in Canada, and we ought to celebrate that by taking care of the community and natural surroundings we already have. Let’s keep our city beautiful and well cared for, so future generations can enjoy it as much as we do today.

• Keep our parks, playgrounds, beaches and trails well maintained and cared for, with a greater focus on taking care of what we already have.
• Protect our connection to the outdoors, natural areas and the sense of space that makes West Kelowna special.
• Take greater pride in the appearance of our community. How our city looks and feels matters to residents and helps us attract the kind of tourism that supports local businesses.

If we want meaningful public engagement, we need to create meaningful opportunities for it. With changes to provincial legislation reducing opportunities for traditional public hearings, I believe we need to find new ways to bring the community voice directly to Council.

• Bring Town Hall meetings back to West Kelowna, with two each year: one in the spring and one in the fall, giving residents a regular opportunity to bring concerns, ideas and opportunities directly to Council.
• Make public participation a regular part of how Council hears from the community and sets its priorities.
• Introduce an annual Citizen Survey so we can hear directly from residents about what’s working, what needs attention, and what matters most to you. Make it easy to participate online or in person, so everyone has a chance to be heard.

Growth can bring tremendous opportunity, but where and how we grow matters. By focusing growth in our urban and neighbourhood centres, we can create vibrant commercial areas and bring more goods, services and opportunities closer to home.

• Focus growth on our urban and neighbourhood centres, creating the critical mass needed to support vibrant commercial areas.
• Grow a stronger local economy so more people can work, shop, access services and find opportunity close to home.
• Invest in keeping our town centres clean, safe and beautiful, creating welcoming spaces that bring people together and support local businesses.

Over the past decade, we’ve invested heavily in the infrastructure needed to support a growing city. Over the next decade, we need to attract more private investment to build out our town centres, grow our economy and create more opportunities here at home. That starts with making City Hall efficient, predictable and easy to work with.

• Make City processes clearer, faster and more predictable. This isn't about cutting corners; it's about removing unnecessary burdens and creating a customer-service-focused culture that helps people and businesses get things done.
• Create more opportunities for local businesses to start, grow and thrive while attracting new investment and employment to West Kelowna.
• Work strategically with our new Economic Development Corporation to attract private investment that helps build out our town centres and expands the goods, services and amenities available locally.
• Grow our commercial tax base and begin shifting some of the tax burden away from residential taxpayers.
• Grow our economy and tax base so future community facilities and amenities become more affordable without placing an unreasonable burden on taxpayers.

Housing affordability isn't just about creating more rentals. We need a greater range of housing choices that allow young people to enter the market, families to find homes they can afford and seniors to downsize while remaining in the community they helped build.

• Make seniors housing a priority so the residents who built this community have greater opportunities to afford to stay here.
• Encourage more lower-cost, for-market housing for people who want to own but can't afford a traditional single-detached home.
• Create a new zone focused on small lots and small homes, tailored to entry-level buyers and seniors looking to downsize. Think of it as a modern take on old wartime housing.
• Reduce local government's burden on the cost of housing by finding opportunities to cut unnecessary costs, improve efficiency and shorten approval timelines.
• Advocate to the provincial and federal governments for broader housing reforms that reduce unnecessary taxes, costs and regulatory burdens on new housing.

Create more opportunities for people of all ages to connect through recreation, culture, and community.

• Work with our Economic Development Corporation to attract new events to our city that bolster tourism and create more opportunities to connect, including marathons, sports tournaments, rowing events and concerts.
• Ensure we have enough active parks and trail connections to support recreation and healthy lifestyles.
• Create a community-led Festivals Committee to help plan and organize events that bring our community together. Build on the success of well-loved events like Westside Daze and Light Up, while exploring new ideas such as a mid-week Night Market.

As a young and growing municipality, we need to balance keeping taxes affordable today with making sure we're financially prepared for tomorrow. That means greater discipline in how we build our budgets, stronger reserves and a long-term approach to taxation.

• Work toward shifting our budgeting process in 2027 to a zero-based budgeting model. Instead of automatically starting with what we spent last year, we start from zero and build the budget around what we actually need.
• Rebuild City reserves so we're better prepared to maintain and replace roads, water and sewer lines, facilities and other critical infrastructure.
• Work toward stable and predictable property tax increases that residents and businesses can plan for.
• Bring greater discipline, accountability and efficiency to City spending, while presenting the budget in plain language that everyone can understand.

Every dollar we spend on infrastructure belongs to the taxpayer, and we need to make sure we're getting the greatest possible value from it. That starts with better planning, stronger project management and creating an environment where more contractors want to compete for City work.

• Ensure all tenders have clearly defined scopes of work that leave as little room as possible for assumptions.
• Attract more bids and greater competition by building our reputation as one of the best municipalities to do business with.
• Continue refining our capital delivery model and strengthen in-house project management so we have greater accountability on site and get the most value possible for taxpayer dollars.

One of the most important roles I will have as Mayor is being a strong advocate for West Kelowna. Many of the things our future depends on fall outside the direct control of City Hall, which means we need stronger relationships and a stronger voice with other levels of government.

• Build stronger relationships with the provincial and federal governments so West Kelowna can secure the infrastructure, services, land and resources our future depends on.
• Make regional advocacy a deliberate strategy by working with Westbank First Nation and neighbouring municipalities to build a stronger voice around shared priorities.
• Track the investment and commitments gained through these advocacy efforts and report the results back to the community.

A clean, reliable and sustainable water supply is fundamental to our future. As our community grows and weather patterns change, we need to protect our watershed and increase our ability to capture and store water for the years ahead.

• Expand upland water storage and supply so we can capture more water during years of higher precipitation and better prepare for years with lower snowpack.
• Secure Crown land and Crown land tenure needed for water storage, watershed protection and other long-term community needs.
• Encourage responsible water use so we protect our most precious resource while maintaining a strong and healthy community.

West Kelowna needs the ability to manage its own growth in a structured, targeted and sustainable way. We want to grow, but we need to focus that growth where it makes sense and at a pace our infrastructure and taxpayers can afford.

• Advocate for the Province to remove the Bill 44 housing legislation and rescind the housing target orders given to West Kelowna. This piece of legislation is creating more problems than it’s solving.
• Restore greater local control over growth and community planning rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't reflect the unique needs of West Kelowna.

Wildfire is one of the greatest risks facing our community, and our approach needs to focus as much on prevention as it does on emergency response. That means actively managing the forests around our community and making wildfire mitigation a consistent, long-term priority.

• Encourage the Province to engage in active forest management on Crown lands around West Kelowna and the Greater Westside.
• Secure consistent, long-term funding for wildfire mitigation efforts in our wildland-urban interface areas.
• Continue investing in proactive measures that reduce wildfire risk and build greater community resilience.

Our population has grown significantly, but access to health care on the Greater Westside hasn't kept pace. We need more services closer to home while beginning the long-term work required to secure the health-care infrastructure our growing region will eventually need.

• Push for properly staffed and supported urgent primary care, permanent mental-health services, renal services and other essential healthcare services closer to home.
• Begin the long work of advocating for a regional hospital on the Greater Westside, with emergency and inpatient care, diagnostic imaging, surgery and other essential hospital services.

Highway 97 and the William R. Bennett Bridge are the transportation backbone of the Central Okanagan. As our population continues to grow, we need sustained provincial investment to improve traffic flow, increase safety and prepare this critical corridor for the future.

• Secure provincial investment to improve traffic flow and safety along Highway 97.
• Ensure the Boucherie and Westlake interchanges move from design to construction this term, while advancing planning for future interchanges at Daimler and Bartley Road.
• Advocate for the full six-laning of the William R. Bennett Bridge and a new cantilevered pedestrian connection.

A growing community needs policing resources that grow with it. West Kelowna residents deserve a properly staffed police service, a fair funding arrangement and clear accountability for the level of service they're receiving.

• Secure the Province's share of funding needed to properly staff our RCMP.
• Ensure we get a fair deal on the new policing agreement for the Greater Westside.
• Set clear measures for policing so residents can better understand service levels, results and costs.

West Kelowna has depended on a single source of electrical power for far too long. A second source isn't simply about accommodating growth; it's about protecting the reliability and resilience of an essential service our entire community depends on.

• Secure a reliable and resilient second source of electrical power for West Kelowna, at last.
• Ensure new transmission lines are located underground where necessary to protect the beauty of our community and the viability of our helicopter industry.