From: Country 107.1

“please email brief answers to …”

1) What qualifies you for this position? (ie. qualifications, experience)
2) Briefly, what are the main issues that need to be dealt with in this community?
3) What do you hope to accomplish in your first year as councillor?
What qualifies you for this position? (ie. qualifications, experience)

I have lived in Abbotsford for twenty years and am actively engaged in the community as a volunteer (and was a volunteer while I was homeless), as a member of boards and committees, campaigned against Plan A and in the political debate about what is going on in Abbotsford.

With a Bachelor of Commerce, having been a Chartered Accountant and having worked in public practice and business I have solid management and financial experience.

Having lived homeless on the streets of Abbotsford I have uniquely specialized knowledge of homelessness, addiction, mental illness and poverty and what needs to be done to address these major social challenges.

I am a writer, a blogger and a firm believer people have the right to know what council is doing without filing Freedom of Information requests. I listen and am completely happy to get and use good ideas from others.

Briefly, what are the main issues that need to be dealt with in this community?

– Openness and transparency with far less business being conducted behind closed doors and information denied the public.

– Waste treatment and water treatment infrastructure.

– social issues of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, the working poor and poverty.

– cleaning up the financial fallout from Plan A and the mess the city’s finances are in.

– contracts need to be awarded to the best bid, not the lowest bid that always ends up costing us far more than the highest bid would have; capital spending plan; the city designs what we want built and has a contractor build it rather than handing a pile of money to a contractor and saying build us an arena for $xxx and we do not know what we are buying until the building is turned over to the city.

– changing the attitudes and behaviours at city hall so that the city becomes can do, taxpayer and business friendly, and work is done to attract businesses we want to our city.

What do you hope to accomplish in your first year as councillor

– engage the citizens in affairs of the city and keep them informed on what is going on at city hall by blogging on www.jameswbreckenridge.ca.

– reduce the number of council meetings held behind closed doors and increase the information citizens are given about council and city’s decisions and activities

– provide leadership on addressing the social issues of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, the working poor and poverty. Engage the public and community in addressing these issues.

– open up the budgeting process to public input, scrutiny and knowledge of the budget details; provide a comparison of budget versus how the money was actually spent for the current fiscal year with the city’s financial statements

– resolve the crematorium issue.

– provide insight, support and leadership to getting the BC Housing and Social Development funding for two housing developments under construction and secure funding for more of the badly needed mixture of housing – supportive, safe and affordable – needed in our community.