Fire may have been arson
Developer pushes back
Pace of rent increases slows
Tariffs hit trading card hobby 
Water bombers replaced
Poilievre pushes crackdown
FBI arrests judge
George Santos gets 7 years
Alleged shooter enters plea
Wall Street's rally fades 
Miners set to reap rewards 
Focus on the global market
Vees heading to finals
Tennis changes taking place
Olympic spot sought
Award for Harvey Fierstein
What 'Conclave' got right
Songs of women imprisoned
The Penticton municipal councillor by-election (campaign) just took an interesting turn with the release of views about the future of bike lanes in Penticton.
What I found interesting was we can see what kind of decision makers the candidates will be and whether they use facts or opinions to make their decisions.
Look at the numbers. The Lake to Lake bike lanes were built at a cost of around $9 million, with just over $5 million coming back to the city in transportation grants, gas tax etc.
As they were built just after the pandemic, Penticton took advantage of A government capital infusion. Today it would be twice the price, so the timing was great.
That means city taxpayers paid $4 million for infrastructure that will serve the city for at least 50 years and would cost $20 million to build today.
It doesn’t matter if you like bike lanes or not, if candidates don’t recognize that this is a brilliant project done by the city, they shouldn’t be running for council.
Now we have the Lake to Lake spine, there are key places we need to connect. Both high schools should have safe connections to the main bike path. The college will soon have a 100-student housing complex and we certainly don’t need 100 new cars on Penticton streets. A link to the college is a no-brainer.
Any future councillor should at least be open to discussing if these links best address the needs of our residents.
(Candidates) Aaron Baisarowicz, Bradley Bartsch and Jason Reymen all said no to future bike lanes with no facts or stats to back their positions. It seems anti-bike lane is part of the “anti-woke” mentality. Riley Thompson was on the fence.
Juliana Buitenhuis, Ankit Sachdeva and especially Nick Stulberg looked like they did some research on the question. Those three were in favour of the bike lanes and each had a different reason.
They also had coherent responses to climate change which also suggests some thinking about the issue.
If you are a cyclist, active senior or have a kid or grandkid in the school system, get out and vote on Saturday, April 5.
Better still, ride your bike to the Convention Centre to vote in this important by-election.
Brian Hughes, Penticton
