Candidates on transportation

Castanet News reached out to candidates running in the ridings encompassing the Central Okanagan. These include Kelowna-Lake Country, Kelowna-Mission and Kelowna West. Each candidate was given the same six questions, and asked to respond by Monday, April 24.

Here are the answers to question three from those who replied. 

Question 4: Transportation has been a hot-button topic in the Central Okanagan. How do you propose the transportation crunch be alleviated?

Shelley Cook, BC NDP - Kelowna West  -  Our transportation system cannot come at the cost of what we love about where we live, and our way of life. Reducing congestion is about moving people, not cars. As municipalities move towards designing more livable, walkable cities, our transportation system needs to reflect communities of the future, while still meeting the needs of today.  

In order to reduce congestion, we have to give people options that work. My focus will be to work with municipalities and BC Transit to improve access to public transportation, and finding practical ways to reduce driving behaviour. This will include finding ways to get people to central lines in order to access existing transit, which may involve utilizing other forms of transportation including taxi and ride sharing services.

I will work with municipalities to improve bike lanes, build sidewalks, and other means of passage outside motor vehicles, and enhance HandyDART services for seniors and people with disabilities. In the end, it will be faster and much cheaper to improve public transit than investing in major infrastructure projects that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardize our parks and water.

Building provincially funded housing close to transit will also enhance people people’s access to, and willingness, to use public transportation. We will make much-needed investments in capital projects locally, and buses to support transit in our region. The valley would seem to be well suited for a light rail system, which is something I would be committed to investigating.

Chuck Hardy, BC Conservatives - Kelowna-Mission  -  Ring road, new bridges, bypass. Money from  hole in ground. Let's make them accountable.

Harwinder Sandhu, BC NDP - Kelowna-Mission  - I will support and work with our Mayor and stakeholders to explore the options to this complicated problem. I am committed to listening to the people of Kelowna to find solutions that are focused on responding to local input. Many options are currently being studied and explored. These include discussions around a second crossing, and improvements to public transit.

We will properly fund and improve Handy Dart Services.

Steve Thomson, BC Liberals - Kelowna Mission  -  Our government has made millions of dollars in investments in the Central Okanagan transportation corridor including $36 million expansion of the second phase of Highway 97 to six lanes through Kelowna; connecting Glenmore to Highway 97 along John Hindle Drive; $8 million invested in the rails for trails and bike paths to get people out of their cars and support alternative commuting, and $12.7 million in increased BC transit funding including an additional 2,000 HandyDart service hours.

I will continue to work with our community and local governments to continue to explore and move forward on all options to alleviate transportation pressures, including public transit, corridor management and bike path opportunities.

Rainer Wilkins, Green Party - Kelowna-Mission  - 

As we grow, we need a comprehensive strategy that will make B.C. affordable and liveable for all British Columbians. Creating a plan and investing in transit is key to ensuring that British Columbians can continue to enjoy a high quality of life, that we are limiting our emissions in order to protect our air and our environment, that we are prepared for how we will move goods in the emerging economy, and that life is affordable for everyone.

Transportation planners in B.C. face several challenges, including urban sprawl, geography, and fragmented planning mandates. And they must address multiple objectives, such as congestion reduction, energy conservation and emissions reduction, improving the livability of communities, solving parking problems, traffic safety and public health, inter-city travel, and the movement of goods.   The B.C. Green Party’s transportation policy has three primary goals:

1. Affordability: To increase affordable and accessible transportation options.
2. Sustainability: To decarbonize the transportation sector.
3. Efficiency: To transport people and goods in a cost-effective manner.

Norm Letnick, BC Liberals - Kelowna-Lake Country  - 
Over the past eight years, in partnership with colleagues, we've expanded Highway 33 to four lanes from Rutland to Black Mountain, including a passing lane up Walker's Hill, improved safety on Hwy 33 to Big White, built a new highway from Winfield to Oyama and soon will hand over the old highway to the people of Lake Country.

We are currently expanding Highway 97 to six lanes from Hwy 33 to Edwards Road in addition to improving Sexsmith and other intersections along the way. We've added concrete medians for safety purposes between Kelowna and Vernon and his spring, construction will begin on John Hindle Drive connecting Glenmore with Hwy 97.

All these road projects are in addition to the thousands of more conventional bus service and HandyDart hours to get cars off the road. We’ve also invested millions to help purchase the rail trail and improve bike paths in our region.

Moving forward, I commit to continue advocating for more transit hours, to work with the District of Lake Country to fix the bottleneck at Beaver Lake Road, secure more funds for bike path infrastructure and work with Kelowna on a $50 million project to extend the Clement Avenue Expressway from Glenmore Road to Hwy 33. This initiative, with fewer intersections, will take more traffic off Hwy 97 and help all highway users; especially those travelling between Rutland and downtown.
 

Alison Shaw, Green Party, Kelowna-Lake Country  -  Central Okanagan residents should be concerned about transportation here. Lake Country is the fastest growing municipality in the province, and Kelowna is
near the top of the list at No. 6. The commute is only going to get more frustrating.

We need to take a 21st century approach to addressing transportation in the region. Modern transportation planning is about providing efficient and cost effective ways of moving people. It requires integrated thinking about how we plan our communities.

The Green Transportation plan is about working with municipal leaders, planners, provincial transit authorities and other stakeholders to take a proactive approach that builds connectivity between our communities, ensures effective and affordable public transit down our main corridors, while also encouraging foot traffic to our businesses - the engine of our economy.

Residents are rightly concerned that highways and bridges could kill their community while not solving the root cause of congestion and emissions. We support ride-sharing, providing predictable funding for effective public transit and other strategic infrastructure investments. This relieves congestion from roads and provides other options to individuals and families interested in saving money.