Hamilton

Whether you’ve lived here for 5 months, or 5 generations, we all want the same thing: a Fernie that is affordable, liveable, and equipped to face the challenges of the day, and the ones coming down the road. That kind of community doesn’t get built by waving a magic wand, or making overnight promises. It gets built through steady, incremental, and sometimes difficult work, done by people who show up day in and day out, ready and prepared to do the work, and stay in the room past the point where it stops being easy.
Over my eight years as a member of City Council, my focus has been on pushing complex projects through the often frustrating stages of design, permitting and development. Today, that steadfast approach is starting to show tangible results.

One of the biggest lifts of the past 8 years has been modernizing and updating a number of policies and bylaws, to bring them in line with current legislation, practices, and community expectations. This isn’t “sexy”, or headline-grabbing work, but it was the necessary first step in bringing City Hall into the 21st century. One of the most public facing outcomes of this work is the implementation of Cloudpermit for building permit and development applications. Previously all applications were paper-based, which led to missing or forgotten required documents, lack of transparency on timelines, and inconsistent submission formats, all leading to delays and frustrations. With Cloudpermit, residents and builders now have full transparency on their applications. Missing documents are flagged instantly. Communications are tracked and in a central “chat” location. Turnaround times that used to push upwards of 6 months or more can now be delivered in as little as 4-6 weeks based on the project type. And as of June 2026, this software is now also being used for development applications. The new childcare and affordable housing project is another prime example of steadfast commitment to seeing a project through to completion, even when facing significant challenges and hurdles. This pilot project had an initial timeline of 16 months. We are here, now almost 4 years later, finally getting to groundbreaking. These delays were the result of external issues, unrelated to the municipality, but demonstrate the complex balance of funding and project partnerships. This project will be instrumental in supporting the many young families that call Fernie home, with nearly 100 new childcare spaces, as well as housing earmarked for early childhood educators our community needs to staff our daycares. As we’ve learned from Hofstadter’s Law, projects always take longer than expected, even when accounting for Hofstadter’s Law.

Another major project that has broken ground, and is set to have a significant impact for our community on both housing availability and affordability, as well as economic development, is the Elk Valley Family Society’s project at 693rd Ave. This project, once completed, will be transformational for our community by providing 44 additional rental units, as well as ~2250sqf of commercial space for lease. As a complex development, this project began back in 2023, and is expected to be completed by Fall 2027. This project has been supported by the City through a long-term lease of the land, a permissive tax exemption, and access to the City’s affordable housing reserve fund. 

The last major accomplishment of this past term that I’d like to highlight has been the progress made on developing a dedicated Emergency Services Facility. It’s been 46 years since Fernie last had a purpose-built firehall. Successive councils have deferred moving the project forward. We have finally moved forward, and are currently awaiting a date for groundbreaking from the contractors. This is another significant achievement for our community, demonstrating a commitment to real positive impact for the day-to-day wellbeing and safety of our city’s residents. When you look at the record of how each step of the process was voted, you will see my commitment to listening to the community, voting my conscience, and then moving the project forward as expeditiously and efficiently as possible.

With many significant projects, such as our Municipal Wastewater Regulation permit, the C&L Right of Way realignment, the Elk Valley Fieldhouse, and more already in the planning and regulatory approval phase, we need measured, consistent leadership to see these projects through the inevitable hurdles and delays they will experience. And that’s the choice facing Fernie in the coming election. Big promises are easy to make, but building consensus, showing up prepared, and moving forward as a Council on difficult decisions is a different job entirely. Leadership and governance of municipal projects is not the same as project management for a large corporation. Business is responsible to its board and shareholders, who primarily want the same outcome. Municipal leaders must answer to the entire community; people who frequently want opposite things at once. A municipality must plan to mitigate its risks for the full lifecycle of a project. Because when a municipal project goes sideways, the loss isn’t just a writedown on the balance sheet and a missed quarterly earnings report. It becomes a loss of reserves, a service interruption, and has a significant impact to everyone’s quality of life.

Leadership in the Mayor’s chair will determine how our community remains resilient, affordable, and liveable.