(SHELBY THEVENOT / iNFOnews.ca)

It's a tough race to project as Kamloops heads into a five-candidate match for its next mayor.

Current mayor Ken Christian is retiring from elected office after the election, which he announced in February, leaving room for someone new to take his place.

Three candidates are already in government as sitting councillors, including Dieter Dudy, Sadie Hunter and Arjun Singh. Of the other two, Ray Dhaliwal also has some experience as a councillor in the past and is returning to take the mayor's seat, while newcomer Reid Hamer-Jackson has no prior government experience.

iNFOnews.ca sat down with three of five the candidates to discuss their resumes for the job, along with some of the city's top issues and what they want to do about them.

ARJUN SINGH

At well over 6', Singh stands tall over his opponents, but it's not his towering figure that sets him apart. He's got more than a decade of experience in government, making connections with government officials in other communities, the provincial and the federal government.

If elected, he says those relationships can help Kamloops as he leads a new council into the 2022-2026 term.

He's known as sincere and level-headed in his time on council, but he's got a knack for being a fence-sitter, too. With his experience on council, he believes he'll be best-suited to lead the next council of mostly newcomers, like a sheepdog herding livestock.

"We're going to have to really gel as a team... The work on council doesn't stop," Singh said.

Looking to some council and mayoral candidates with a "law and order" approach to public safety, for example, he said he can help lead council discussions away from finger-pointing and "pitting people against people."

"You can't have it either or. You have to have law and order and empathy," he said.

He's spent more time in government than his competition, but he sees himself as an "innovator" rather than a career politician set in his ways.

Public safety and crime has arguably emerged as the top issue for Kamloops, and the province by and large, this year as the municipal election drew near.

While he touts the need for coordination with health authorities and other levels of government, he also would like to see locally focused efforts created under his watch.

One item would be a 24/7 crisis outreach team. This would be similar to a model used in Eugene, Oregon called CAHOOTS. Like Car 40, a vehicle is dispatched through emergency calls. In Oregon, a nurse and a crisis worker are sent to emergency calls, dispatched by the police department.

City bylaw officers are set to begin coordinated outreach work with local non-profits on Nov. 1, but it's unclear how many outreach workers or officers will be assigned.

It falls short of Singh's suggestion since it isn't offered 24/7 nor is it dispatched through emergency 911 calls.

He added that it's not only property owners and working class residents that are at risk of crime. People living on the streets are just as, if not more, vulnerable to criminal behaviour, he said.

For transportation and climate change issues, he's likely to be the frontrunner.

He cited his efforts to have climate change policies adopted in the city and to have the bike lane network improved.

Most recently, he brought his efforts to have the city reduce parking minimums for new developments in dense neighbourhoods and the North Shore.

"You can't tear the whole system down," he said. "But I've been pretty successful in my career in being innovative, bold and pushing the system."

He echoed that sentiment when asked about the bus system in Kamloops.

He acknowledged the system has reliability issues in some neighbourhoods and said if council prioritized it, they could make inroads to improve the system, but he stopped short of making substantial commitments to improve it.

When asked about a model used in Victoria, which cuts out the contracted company and is run more directly by the local government, he wasn't sure if the system would be appropriate for Kamloops.

Singh wants to bring "bold ideas" to Kamloops, according to his platform. After more than a decade in government, he says he keeps his ideas "fresh" and continues to be open to new suggestions.

Whether his time in elected office makes him a career politician or it's time to move on, he said the voters can decide, but he clearly doesn't feel his time is up.

2022 Kamloops mayoral candidate Arjun Singh.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Sadie Hunter

It's been decades since Kamloops had a woman elected as mayor, and Sadie Hunter says it's time to change that.

Coming off her first term as a councillor, she wants to make Kamloops a more accessible place for women and people with disabilities.

Within months of her first election, Hunter sought a seat in the provincial election as an NDP candidate. Since her loss, she's turned her attention to the mayor's seat in 2022.

"I have experience academically and professionally in a lot of the issues we're facing right now, including climate change and social issues, so I think it's the right time for me to do this," she said.

She recently connected with other elected leaders in B.C. to start a coalition of politicians advocating for better healthcare and communication from health authorities.

"If we don't know what some of the barriers in our own communities are, then it's hard for us to work together collaboratively to solve it," she said.

She mentioned a meeting with mental health minister Sheila Malcolmson and Clearwater mayor Merlin Blackwell recently where she learned why Kamloops didn't get the 20 complex care beds that were promised by the province.

The issue wasn't funding but a difficulty in staffing the facilities, which could lead a local government to focus on recruiting for those facilities. Health authorities didn't explain why Kamloops is only eyed for five beds and she had to seek those answers from Malcolmson, Hunter said.

"It requires being relentless, and that's something I'm fine to do," she said.

As for transportation in Kamloops, she wants to make the city more accessible for people with disabilities.

Citing consistent issues with the availability of accessible taxis and a need for a more frequent HandyDART system in Kamloops, she wants to funnel provincial funds to ride-hailing companies to make up for the service shortfall.

Like much of B.C., Kamloops is facing a housing crisis where vacancies are low and prices are high. And like most other candidates, Hunter wants to make development and densification easier for future projects.

She aims to follow a similar model as Kelowna's with prezoning in certain neighbourhoods to "remove steps" in a developer's permit process.

She has less experience in government than Singh and says she has a much smaller campaign budget than Dieter Dudy, so she may see herself as an underdog compared to the two other incumbents. But it doesn't waiver her confidence.

"I prove people wrong. It's what I do," she said.

Her own experience with disabilities and as a low-income single mother informs how she wants to advocate for changes within the city to make it more accessible.

2022 Kamloops mayoral candidate Sadie Hunter.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Reid Hamer-Jackson

Reid Hamer-Jackson came into the race looking for a change in the establishment. Against three incumbents and one candidate that has some experience on council, he's a newcomer to the race.

The auto dealership owner has been described as a "bulldog" by people who know him, spending the last few years pursuing "third-party reviews" of shelters and supportive housing facilities in Kamloops. He's also been pushing for a treatment centre on the outer edges of Kamloops to voluntarily house those seeking support for their addictions, which has been shot down by city council twice in the last year.

In his interview with iNFOnews.ca he started by discussing homelessness and one man in particular who died in the cold on the streets last year.

"When I asked him in the summer if he would go to a recovery centre, he just about fell out of his chair," Hamer-Jackson said. "Then here, not even a year later in the winter... he's dead."

The man was known as Sam Mack and he was found dead in Kamloops last winter. He was an amputee who used a wheelchair, but he was found out of his chair with no clothes on. It's believed he died of hypothermia.

"We're going into another winter here again. People are strung out all over the streets again. We build more housing and we're going to do the same thing again," Hamer-Jackson said.

He's been criticized as a single-issue candidate, but he asserts that he has his eyes on other issues in Kamloops.

"Parking is a huge thing. Housing is a huge thing," Hamer-Jackson said.

He's critical of Singh's motion to reduce parking minimums for multi-family developments, claiming the local transit system isn't ready for a systemic shift away from a car-centric community and needs improvements first.

"I don't think we can force people to get out of their cars, but you've got to talk to the citizens first," he said, turning to a bus rider for his thoughts.

The man said he may miss a bus from Rayleigh and can be an hour late for work. It's common for outlying neighbourhoods to have much less frequent buses.

Hamer-Jackson didn't commit specifically to improving the bus system, but he did suggest the mayor and current council to try riding the bus for a month earlier this year, which he then tried himself.

As for housing, he's asserted that the City should look to the region's homebuilders association to help reduce red tape within the permitting system, but some of his platform ideas were unspecific aside from suggesting old multi-family buildings with large parking lots should be redeveloped and densified. He didn't, however, suggest the city should buy those properties or say how developers should be incentivized to rebuild specific properties.

His primary campaign drive is to separate himself from the incumbents as the non-establishment candidate with his "mayor for change" slogan.

Regardless of his assertions that he's looking at issues aside from homelessness, addictions and public safety, it's the topic he discusses most on his website, in interviews and at mayoral forums.

"I don't have a platform, I have goals," he said. "My number one goal is the safety of this community."

2022 Kamloops mayoral candidate Reid Hamer-Jackson.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

WHO CAN VOTE

• You must be a Canadian citizen;
• 18 years of age or older as of October 15, 2022;
• a resident of B.C. for at least 6 months before the day you register to vote;
• a resident of the municipality (no minimum amount of time) or a qualified non-resident property elector (must have owned the property for at least 30 days before the day you register to vote); and not disqualified from voting.
• You are disqualified from voting if you have been convicted of an indictable offence and are currently in custody or if you have been found guilty of an election offence.

WHAT TO BRING

Eligible voters must produce two pieces of identification to prove both residency and identity. At least one piece of identification must have a signature on it. Your identification does not need to include a photo. Acceptable forms of identification include:

• B.C. Driver's Licence*
• ICBC Vehicle Insurance
• B.C. Identification Card
• B.C. Services Card*
• Citizenship Card
• Property tax notice
• Social Insurance Number card
• Credit card
• Utility bill for municipal residence (electricity, natural gas, water, phone or cable service)

*NOTE: A combination B.C. Driver's Licence and Services Card counts as only one piece of identification

WHERE TO VOTE

• Aberdeen Elementary School - 2191 Van Horne Drive

• Arthur Hatton Elementary School - 315 Chestnut Avenue

• Arthur Stevenson Elementary School - 2890 Bank Road

• Beattie Elementary School - 492 McGill Road

• Brocklehurst Middle School - 985 Windbreak Street

• Dallas Elementary School - 296 Harper Road

• Dufferin Elementary School - 1880 Hillside Drive

• Heritage House - 100 Lorne Street

• Juniper Ridge Elementary School - 2540 Qu’Appelle Blvd

• Lloyd George Elementary School - 830 Pine Street

• NorKam Secondary School - 730 12th Street

• Rayleigh Elementary School - 306 Puett Ranch Road

• R.L. Clemitson Elementary School - 5990 Todd Road

• South Sahali Elementary School - 1585 Summit Drive

• Valleyview Secondary School - 1950 Valleyview Drive

• Westmount Elementary School - 745 Walkem Road

All polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Go here for an interactive map of all poll locations.

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