As the year comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on two things at once: the direction our province is heading, and the work I’ve been elected to do for the people of Kelowna-Mission.

After careful consideration, I recently decided not to seek the leadership of the Conservative Party of BC. With young kids at home, I wasn’t prepared to pretend the trade-offs doesn’t matter. Family values can’t just be a slogan. The best way I can use my time and energy right now is doing the job I was elected to do: standing up for Kelowna and holding government to account on the issues that are shaping daily life for families across the Okanagan.
 

If there’s one thing that has come through clearly in conversation after conversation this year, it’s this: people aren’t asking for lofty promises. They’re asking for outcomes. They’re asking for government decisions to translate into real, tangible improvements, because for many families, life has become harder, not easier.

That reality shows up in the numbers. Kelowna is facing a strange and uncomfortable mix: one of the highest rental vacancy rates in the country, while affordability remains a daily stress for families. The latest rental market reporting shows Kelowna’s vacancy rate at 6.4%, up sharply from 3.8% a year earlier. At the same time, our local job picture has deteriorated. Kelowna’s unemployment rate was 11% in November 2025, with roughly 16,200 people actively looking for work. Those are not abstract metrics. They are families delaying big decisions, young people wondering if they should leave, and businesses trying to plan in a fog.

Photo Credit: City of Kelowna

Few files have been more consequential this year than our collapsing healthcare system. Families across the Interior Health region have experienced the strain first-hand: overwhelmed emergency rooms, surgical backlogs, and staffing shortages that no longer feel occasional, but entrenched. What’s worse is the constant sense that more disruptions are coming.

Interior Health itself has been issuing public notices about temporary emergency department service interruptions in the region, including recent interruptions over the Christmas period. Their own Service Interruptions FAQ makes clear these disruptions include emergency departments and can require patients to travel to other facilities for urgent care. That is not a stable baseline for a health system, and it is not acceptable for communities that are already stretched thin.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow

In the Legislature, we have consistently pressed the government on the widening gap between announcements and results. Health care workers deserve more than talking points. Patients deserve more than apologies after the fact. Interior Health needs stable leadership, meaningful retention strategies, and real accountability for performance. Families also deserve clear, proactive contingency planning so that when services are interrupted, people know where to go, what to expect, and how long they will be impacted.

The case of Bailey McCourt underscored another troubling pattern: what happens when institutional failures are left unaddressed. When systems don’t learn, families pay the price. This should never be about political point-scoring. It’s about ensuring lessons are learned and reforms are put in place so that no other family is left asking how the system failed them so completely. Accountability can’t end at sympathy. It has to lead to lasting change.

Photo Credit: Bailey McCourt/Facebook

Public safety in Kelowna has also dominated conversations at kitchen tables and coffee shops. Residents are rightly worried about crime, disorder, and the erosion of confidence in their own neighbourhoods. Throughout the year, I raised concerns about repeat offenders, court delays, and the lack of coordination between housing, mental health, and policing policy. Compassion and safety aren’t competing values. When government pretends they are, it fails at both.

Housing affordability remains a defining challenge, and short-term rental policy has been a particular point of contention. I’ve been clear that blunt, one-size-fits-all rules imposed from Victoria ignore the realities of tourism-driven communities like Kelowna. Small property owners, local tourism operators, and workers who rely on a diversified economy shouldn’t become collateral damage for rushed policy-making. Smart regulation requires local flexibility and genuine consultation, not top-down decrees.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow

Underlying all of these issues is the question of jobs and economic growth. Families in the Okanagan are feeling the pressure of higher costs, slower growth, and fewer opportunities. When Kelowna has thousands of people looking for work and businesses are nervous about what comes next, it should be a wake-up call for Victoria: we need a serious competitiveness agenda, investment certainty, and policies that back the people who actually create powerful paycheques. 

Economic growth isn’t an abstract idea. It’s what allows us to fund health care, support public safety, and invest in the services people depend on.

As we turn the page on the past 12 months, my focus remains where it has always been: common sense solutions, accountability, and relentless advocacy for the people I represent. 

Thank you for allowing me to represent you.