Council candidate Kere MacGregor, in his own words
By Contributor
Having lived and worked in Castlegar for the last 20 years, I am humbled at the opportunity to run for Castlegar City Councillor. This amazing community has provided me with an incredible place to raise my family, operate our businesses, work at a job that is meaningful, vigorously participate in the vast recreational opportunities and most of all, be happy. The gratitude I feel towards living and working in Castlegar has inspired me to repay some of which I have gained by running for public office.
While I have been an educator most of my professional career, having worked for School District #20 as an administrator and U.B.C. as a Teaching Professor, I also have an extensive business career having owned two businesses in that time. I believe my experience in the public and private sector give me a unique understanding of the cross section of tax payers and their needs in our community. I also am the International Director for the evening Rotary Club and am very proud of all good work our club has done to support the local and global community.
The issues that I am most passionate about begin with downtown revitalization. I believe we need to look at new ways to develop commercial and residential interest in our downtown core. As a resident of the north end, I would like to see more energy and consultation put in to redesigning what the downtown should look like. Collaborating with our residents, developing a new plan to help our community grow culturally, economically and in a fiscally responsible manner is what inspires me.
Any city council has bumps in the road, but my agenda is not one of fixing problems but rather helping our community grow. This can be done by a clear, collaborative, transparent process for growth. This growth needs to be inclusive of all our residents, and our tax payer’s money needs to be spent responsibly and in a meaningful fashion. The growth of our city is dependent upon the input of our residents.
There are many other important projects to be mindful of, particularly our health care with continued active participation in the Regional Hospital debates and our efforts to support the recruitment of doctors into our community. The Millennium Project has seen great success but still needs to be guided down the path of completion and the upgrade to our airport is imperative to our long term economic stability and growth.
I am very excited at the prospect of serving our community over the next four years and ask for your support. If you should have any questions about who I am and what I represent, please send me an email at keremac@shaw.ca.
