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Powell River council candidate: Art Richards

With a little more than two weeks until voters go to the polls to choose who will represent Powell River as city councillors, the Peak asked all 13 candidates the following question: Why should Powell River vote for you? Here is the response from Art
Art Richards Powell River

With a little more than two weeks until voters go to the polls to choose who will represent Powell River as city councillors, the Peak asked all 13 candidates the following question: Why should Powell River vote for you?

Here is the response from Art Richards:

I’m a retired journeyman instrumentation mechanic from Michelin Tire, Canada. My wonderful wife of 46 years and I have five children and 11 grandchildren. We have lived here for about five years and have no plans of ever moving again.

If elected, I have two goals. First is to find a better way to communicate our city’s politics to the electorate and second is to find a way to get more citizens involved in our politics.

The city’s problems such as the Inn at Westview, the sewage treatment plant, aging infrastructure, lack of affordable rental housing, high house prices, the ALC, Airbnb, the ferry service and being a “one company town” are already being looked at but perhaps some new ideas might be needed.

While looking for established companies to relocate here is commendable, perhaps we should also be looking for local entrepreneurs who want to start a business. Maybe they just need a location or some free business advice or help with researching their ideas. A specialist in city hall could be a game-changer.

I have said many times that if governments could run their budgets the way we, as families run ours, this country would be a lot better off. Stop spending what you haven’t got on things you can do without.

Finally, we live in a new era and so should embrace new ideas and new ways of doing things.