Meet your candidate

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Sept. 1987, Kevin’s family moved West in 1991 to settle in the Okanagan. Growing up in Rutland and participating in local youth and child programs, helped establish Kevin’s desire to volunteer and give back to his communities at a young age. His teachers were some of the most influential role models throughout school, who encouraged Kevin to excel in everything he strived for. As a voice of reason and an advocate for local business, he is ready to represent the various voices of the Ellison, Joe Rich, and East Kelowna Areas. Having graduated from The University of British Columbia with a degree in Geography and a degree in Education, Kevin is ready to handle various topics regarding the diverse geography, topography, and local ecology in the area. His unique background in education and experience offers a diverse perspective on the vast needs of the East Electoral Area.

Kevin has been actively involved as a 7-year member at the Ellison Fire Hall, Strata President of the Country Rhodes neighborhood, President of the Ellison Parks and Recreation Society, Director on the Okanagan Sun Board, and currently the RDCO Electoral East Director Alternate. Serving as Director Bartyik’s alternate at the closing of this term and working with him over the last 6 years, Kevin hopes to provide a sense of continuity, transitioning into the Director role. Having grown up in Kelowna, Kevin has seen the drastic growth and changes that have impacted the local communities and the surrounding areas. Kevin says “growing up I would access and enjoy the outdoors primarily in the Electoral East Areas, and it would be an honor to represent this area to help ensure access and enjoyment for all, as the recreational opportunities and memories that can be made are priceless”. With a focus on sustainable growth, roadway safety, ecological reclamation, and infrastructural improvements, Kevin hopes to be a voice that can appropriately represent the Electoral East Area. Through flooding, fires, and other emergencies this community has shown time and time again the compassion, willingness to help, and support they have for their neighbors. Kevin says “as a firefighter I know we have challenging terrain and a significant amount of interface, I want to support local fire halls in their community education and emergency planning efforts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all”. As a father of three, Kevin hopes to bring a voice of support to year-round family and youth engagement in the area and work with the Board and Council to support that initiative. In closing, Kevin says “I’m excited to have this opportunity present itself at this time in my life. With the support of my wife, family, friends, and community members, I look forward to representing our area with a strong voice, one that will support and enhance the community that I care so much about!".

Nomination papers

 It has been my privilege to serve the residents and taxpayers of Central Okanagan West for the last two terms as your Electoral Area Director. Working to resolve residents’ issues and restoring our missing voice in local services while providing a fair and reasonable response to residents’ concerns in an efficient and affordable manner has been and continues to be my goal.

I believe it is imperative that your Regional Director be a representative that truly has a stake in the decisions and policies that will determine what your services and functions look like and most importantly, what they will cost you.

My family has had property in Killiney Beach for almost 65 years which I purchased in the early 80’s when I became a full time resident. I joined NWFR in 1992 and served as fire chief for 20 years. During my tenure as fire chief I was able to retire all capital debt, pass a funding initiative referendum to replace our timed out engines and oversee the purchase and development of the engines, water tenders, marine water supply/fireboat, expansions to Station 101 (Killiney) and the construction of Station 102 (Shorts Creek) as well as initiating FMR response and forming a Firefighters Society. All equipment and facilities were paid for with cash saving our residents many thousands in financing charges. During this time I also spent 17 years as a Fire Warden with BC Forestry (now BC Wildfire) which provided me with valuable insight, training and experience to an Interface community such as the North Westside.

Various issues that have been addressed through my previous terms as electoral director are documented on my website wayne.carson.ca. My Blog is a chronological list of these concerns and the Issues pages go into more detail on specific concerns that have been brought to my attention or addressed by the RDCO Board. Linked to the Electoral Area Governance Page is a page where I have itemized Board Meeting Audio off the RDCO website and broken it down into items of concern to Central Okanagan West. This makes it easier to identify items of importance to your particular inquiry or area within Central Okanagan West as most are identified to the area of concern. I am happy to answer any questions that you have over these past matters or any future items. Please feel free to contact me at wayne.carson@rdco.bc.ca or 250-801-4859.

Nomination papers

Nomination papers

Nomination Papers

Nomination papers