Civic election: Zach Sawatzky running for Kelowna city council

Photo: Zach Sawatzky

Castanet News has distributed a questionnaire to city council candidates in both Kelowna and West Kelowna to help voters get to know those putting their names forward. Between the two cities, 45 people are running for city councillor.

All candidates have been given the same questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity when needed. Responses will be published daily in the weeks ahead. An interactive database of Okanagan candidates, including previous questionnaire stories, is here and is being updated daily.

Election day is Oct. 15.

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Kelowna candidate: Zach Sawatzky

Why would you make an effective city councillor?

Being 41 and a stay-at-home dad to our little 19-month-old daughter I’ve learned real quick my greatest lesson, how to serve others each day. As it is, the city councillors are paid $39,000 a year which is an entry level salary. All that means is, this is a very important position to the longevity of our community.

I have the skills, passion, and desire to stay motivated to make a positive impact on my daughter’s generation and our communities’ behalf. I’d love to hear any ideas and initiatives voters think are important to Kelowna’s success and longevity.

In your view, what is the number one issue facing the city today, and how would you deal with it knowing city hall only has so much power?

The city is in high need of finding additional revenue sources. I highly recommend the city investigate powering a bitcoin-mining project from the landfill gas that is created each day. This would allow the city to clean the methane produced and harness that destructive gas by turning it into electrical energy all while reducing our carbon footprint.

I have several interviews online where I talk more about this if you want to watch those. I also reply to every inquiry I receive so feel free to ask any questions.

It could be decades before a second bridge is built across Okanagan Lake. How do you deal with Kelowna's transportation bottleneck in the meantime?

My understanding from the last testing done by the city showed only 10% of bridge traffic is actually passing through which means 90% of bridge traffic would not benefit from a bypass of any sort.

I sure do care about inconvenient transportation bottlenecks and would want to look at any and all solutions available to keep our city flowing efficiently.

Do you think Kelowna is growing too fast?

No, healthy growth is a good thing for our city and the somewhat unfortunate reality is that growth is actually necessary if we want to continue to afford our high standard of living, we so much enjoy in our beautiful city.

How would you make Kelowna more affordable?

The best way Kelowna city council can make our city more affordable is by finding new ways to generate net new revenue which we can in turn use to pay for the solutions we all want and need.

If you had $1 million to spend on anything in the city, how would you spend it?

I would be hard pressed not to spend it on any project that can provide a profitable and carbon friendly path forward for the city to generate net new revenue. I’m confident with a little innovation and hard work we can find a path to additional revenue for the city each year.