Mund eyes federal money

Photo: Darren Handschuh

They may be at different levels of government, but Vernon's mayor is no stranger to MP-elect Mel Arnold.

Arnold won the North Okanagan-Shuswap federal riding Monday for the Conservative Party, which was reduced to being the official opposition after Justin Trudeau's Liberals formed a majority government.

“I've known Mel for a couple of years and I am looking forward to working with him,” said mayor Akbal Mund, adding the fact Arnold is not with the ruling party should have no impact on how the area is treated by the feds.

“The prime minister (designate) did make B.C. a priority and lets hope some of that priority comes to Vernon,” said Mund. “The good thing is the future prime minister has been to Vernon. He is a long time skier of Silver Star mountain. I think he's been here twice in the last four or five years. He definitely knows the area.”

Like many municipal politicians, Mund will be keeping a close eye on infrastructure dollars from Ottawa. Trudeau hailed the need for infrastructure spending to get the economy moving again and Mund hopes some of those campaign promises materialize in the form of federal funding.

“I think everybody is very excited about that,” Mund said. “We will have to take a wait-and-see approach because there is always a lot of promises being made, but some of those come at the last minute so we will have to wait and see.”

Mund said he was surprised at how fast the Liberals formed a majority government, but was not surprised to see the Conservatives reduced to the official opposition.