Tom Dyas at the June 29 launch of his 2022 campaign for mayor of Kelowna.

Image Credit: Submitted/TeamDyas

There’s no question that Kelowna is in the midst of a building and population explosion and quickly growing into a big city.

With that comes big city problems.

“Our city, over the last eight years, 10 years, has seen some unprecedented growth,” Tom Dyas, the only declared candidate for mayor of Kelowna so far, told iNFOnews.ca. “I believe what we’re running into now are some big city issues and those big city issues need to be addressed. There is some evidence of some cracks within our system that aren’t being dealt with by the leadership. It needs to be dealt with in order to move this city forward.”

Dyas ran against incumbent Mayor Colin Basran in 2018 and finished a distant second.

READ MORE: Tom Dyas makes another pitch to be Kelowna's mayor

Leading up to that campaign, he says he was focussed on winning the 2020 Memorial Cup bid for Kelowna (which won, but was was cancelled due to COVID) so he jumped into the race at the last moment.

This time around, he declared his candidacy on June 29 and plans to do a lot of listening between now and election day, Oct. 15.

“The beautiful thing about taking a little bit more time this time – and not coming off the Memorial Cup rush – is that I have had the opportunity to speak to people with regards to some of the ways they feel would be valuable to address a variety of situations within our community,” Dyas said. “I continue to speak to people and those are allowing me to have different views on things this time.”

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Specifics of what those views are will come out later in the campaign, he said.

What he says he won’t come out with are “knives” to slash at the reputation of Basran, once portrayed as being a friend.

“At the end of the day, I think we both would like the same thing,” Dyas said. “But we have different ideas and different skills and abilities on how to get there.”

Prior to the 2018 election campaign the two men worked together as mayor (Basran) and president of Kelowna Chamber of Commerce (Dyas).

After entering the election race, Basran unfriended Dyas from his Facebook page.

READ MORE: UNFRIENDED: Race for Kelowna mayor gets personal

“There was nothing personal with regards to Colin,” Dyas said. “I wanted to make sure I was following through on the oath as president of the Chamber of Commerce to serve the business community.”

While Dyas would not take a direct shot at Basran, he talked a lot about the need for the city to have strong leadership.

“There are a number of things that have been done that are positive,” Dyas said. “There will be a number of things in the future that need to be addressed and they need that strong leadership.”

The key issues he’s identified, so far, are crime, homelessness, congestion and taxes.

“Some of the issues, the safety issues, the security concerns, we have not seen those being addressed like they need to be addressed,” he said referring to a group of civic leaders who met regularly with the RCMP for a time in 2018 before they were cancelled.

It’s that kind of forum that’s needed where the mayor meets with community leaders to hear and respond to their concerns, he said.

He’s also concerned about the impacts of the city’s rapid growth, not only on crime but on an aging infrastructure.

“I want to make sure the growth we have in this community pays for growth,” Dyas said.

By that, he doesn’t mean that developers should necessarily pay higher fees to the city for their share of the costs of growth, but wants to find out where their contributions are going.

“If (development cost charges) are paying for these items, or supposed to be paying for these items, why are we looking at the 29% tax increase that we’ve had over these eight years (that Basran has been mayor)?” Dyas asked. “We’ve all seen the growth that happened in this community. That’s why I’m wanting a re-evaluation of those expenditures.”

He wants to review city spending before committing to timelines for things like a new performing arts centre, which is not scheduled to be funded for at least another decade.

“There is a sense of community that needs to be upheld within our growing city and there are concerns that — is community being created or is this chaos that’s being created?” he said. “Things about our assets – like Kelowna Community Theatre, like the Apple Bowl, like Prospera Place – these are important community infrastructure assets and they need to be looked at. They need to be thoroughly examined. The decisions for them can’t be based on a plan that was looked at years ago because so much has changed within our community.”

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In 2018, his platform included relocating City Hall and the Water Street firehall to make room for a new community theatre and convention centre. He would not say if he still feels that way.

That 2018 platform also included a comment about a “community partner” who offered a ranch for the homeless “where they will receive shelter, healing and hope.”

Again, Dyas would not say if that’s still in his plans.

“My very first priority is looking at, in that area, housing the homeless individuals so that we’re able to look at taking care of them,” he said. “That is, probably, one of the most important things. We need to ensure everyone has that place to sleep at night. That’s the bare minimum we can do as a society and as a city. And then, striking a community task force that is made up of leaders here in Kelowna and being involved in that community task force.”

Dyas said he moved to Kelowna in 1995-96 and raised his children here.

“The city has been extremely good to me with business,” he said. “It’s been extremely good to me with helping me raise my children. It’s a beautiful place to live. I think that it needs somebody in a very strong position to tackle the safety issues, security issues, homelessness, the housing crisis and congestion.”

He recited a list of crimes plaguing the city, from theft to the beating of a teenager on the Rail Trail.

"This is not the Kelowna that I have seen in the years that I’ve been here and it’s not the Kelowna I grew up in and it’s not the Kelowna that, I think, we really want for our kids or our grandkids to grow up in," Dyas said.

He owns TD Benefits and, over the last four years, set up a transition plan for his son to take over running the company if he’s successful in his bid to become mayor.

“It’s not employment,” Dyas said of the mayor’s job. “It’s not a job for me. I don’t need that. It’s community and it’s the ability to serve the community back for what it’s given me.”

For more information on Dyas or to start a dialogue with him or fill out his survey, go here.

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