Priority
Public Safety
Public safety in this riding means something different than it does in a city. It means wildfire interface, avalanche, flood, a highway that can strand thousands, and a search and rescue system that runs substantially on volunteers.
The volunteers doing the work
Search and rescue teams across this corridor respond to some of the highest call volumes in the province, largely with volunteers, for a visitor population that dwarfs the resident one.
Volunteer fire departments in the smaller communities are in the same position. This is an extraordinary amount of public safety delivered by people doing it after work.
Funding these services properly is not charity. It is the cheapest emergency response any government will ever buy.
Planning for the days the road closes
A multi-day Highway 99 closure during a wildfire is not a hypothetical. Communities need plans that assume it: supplies, fuel, medical capacity, communications and evacuation routing that does not depend on the road being open.
Cell and radio coverage gaps along the corridor remain a genuine safety issue, not merely an inconvenience.
What I would push for
Stable, multi-year core funding for search and rescue and volunteer fire services in the corridor, rather than annual grant applications.
Community emergency plans built around a baseline assumption of extended highway closure.
Closing corridor communications coverage gaps as a safety investment.