Responses

Response

1. Civic experience

What experience do you have working in politics?

Eight years serving Nelson as a City Councillor. Four years serving the Regional District of Central Kootenay as a Municipal Director. Seven years with the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments, now as Past President. Four years with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, now as Third Vice-President.

What is your knowledge in regards to municipal politics and responsibilities?

Extensive.

What vision of community would you bring to city council?

I see a Nelson in 2050 where major facilities like the Civic Centre have been renewed, where there is purpose-built non-market housing for workers and craftspeople, and where our arts ecosystem is thriving and growing.

2. Community engagement & transparency

How would you encourage residents, community organizations and local non-profits to participate meaningfully in City visioning and decision-making?

By volunteering their time on a community project. Practice teaches deeply.

How would you ensure transparency and accountability in your own decision-making?

We are a table of seven. The discussion happens at the table, and I share my commentary when it’s needed.

3. Understanding Nelson’s arts, culture & heritage sector

What is your impression of Nelson’s arts, culture and heritage sector?

I’m grateful for it. We’re all out here carving out our lives one craftsperson at a time. We build our benches and tool them with our skills and perseverance. It’s a sector under pressure from the endless torment of late-stage capitalism, and it isn’t alone.

What role do you believe it plays in our community?

Educator, expresser and catalyst for growth.

4. Understanding the non-profit sector

Are you familiar with the operational realities and funding models of non-profit arts, culture and heritage organizations?

Yes.

What do you see as the primary challenges facing these organizations today?

Fiscal: building sustainable funding models. Labour: finding, keeping and developing the workers needed to meet organizational goals. Attention: screens are eroding and reshaping what people pay attention to throughout their lives.

5. Truth, reconciliation & Indigenous relationships

What learning have you undertaken with Indigenous peoples, histories and communities connected to this territory?

I’m Third Vice-President of the Union of BC Municipalities and have sat on its Indigenous Relations Committee for a number of years. At UBCM we’ve welcomed new First Nations members and built learning opportunities for local government members on the real-world issues of moving through Truth and Reconciliation work as a province.

Have you built relationships with the Indigenous community?

Yes.

How do you see City Council leadership contributing meaningfully to this work?

By working with our local groups, building those relationships, and moving forward with shared decision-making frameworks where appropriate.

6. Equity, diversity, inclusion & accessibility

What learning or experience have you had related to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility?

On the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Equity and Inclusion Committee, we’ve developed training modules for local government officials across the country on identifying barriers to inclusion and building policy to move their organizations forward.

If elected, how would these principles influence your work as a City Councillor?

I’ve been pushing for our hiring practices to recognize and respond to structural gender imbalances and pay structures. I’ll keep bringing that voice.

7. Participation in arts, culture & heritage

How often do you attend an arts and culture event in the community?

Weekly.

Do you or have you ever volunteered for an arts, culture or heritage non-profit?

Yes.

Do you purchase local artworks or support the sector in other ways?

Yes, at the market and for gifts.

List 8 cultural organisations and businesses that deliver community based arts.

• Nelson and District Arts Council
• Nelson Farmers’ Market
• Nelson Museum, Archives & Gallery
• Civic Theatre Society
• Capitol Theatre Society
• Kootenay School of the Arts Society
• Nearside Arts Society
• Kootenay Regional Arts Council

8. The future of arts, culture & heritage in Nelson

What do you believe are the most important contributions arts, culture and heritage make to Nelson?

Soul.

What would you as a councillor do to support the sector’s growth?

Provide certainty and opportunity.

How do you think the sector could be strengthened over the next four years?

Secure the 606 Arts Space long term for the benefit of the community. Complete the Civic Theatre and bring it back online. Improve the availability of appropriate housing.

9. Municipal investment

Do you believe municipal investment in Nelson’s arts, culture and heritage sector should be maintained or increased?

Maintained.

How would you balance investment in the sector with the other demands on the City’s budget?

Sector investment needs to be tied to a formal strategy and include the necessary partners, like the RDCK and the Kootenay Regional Arts Council.

10. Affordable & accessible cultural space

What role do you believe the City should play in protecting and supporting affordable spaces for arts, culture and heritage services in Nelson?

For our facilities, it’s about getting the best use out of them. We’re renewing the Civic Centre, we’re piloting the 606 Arts Space, and we’ve rented out the Civic dance studio space.

What role do you believe the City should play in developing affordable cultural spaces?

Getting the best use out of our facilities, supporting grant applications, and taking part in strategic planning and debating its recommendations.

11. Arts, culture & heritage in city planning

Economic development and tourism?

Through the Greater Nelson Economic Development Partnership.

City and specifically downtown planning and the development of public space?

Through the Cultural Development Committee.

Affordable housing for cultural workers?

Through the Nelson Housing Committee.

What role do arts, culture and heritage play in community wellbeing?

That’s like asking what role children’s laughter plays. An important one.

12. Your commitment

If elected, what is one concrete action you would like to see City Council and the City of Nelson take during the next Council term to strengthen arts, culture and heritage in our community?

Help the 606 Arts Space pilot succeed as an independent, community-run model.

Response

Keith Page — candidate for Nelson City Council.

Provincial and federal advocacy

People who use drugs in Nelson are losing ground on housing, on a regulated supply and on getting care when they need it. Housing is the one I can do the most about. Hundreds of planned units in Kootenay Boundary were counting on the provincial Community Housing Fund and it needs to come back.

A safe and inclusive community

A community isn’t safe if it’s only safe for people who are housed. We need non-market and supportive housing, public washrooms that stay open, warm places to sit in winter and services that don’t make people stop using before they can walk in the door. I will continue to advocate for these facilities during our budget sessions and advocacy work.

Council, health and social services

These conversations need to be led by Interior Health. What we can do at the city is participating in coordinating tables and formalizing long-term service agreements with the social sector operators to create certainty around service delivery.

Emergency planning

Smoke, heat and evacuations land hardest on people without a home and they’re usually the last ones anyone plans for. Outreach and peer organizations know where people are and can reach them when the city can’t, so they should be written into the emergency plan with a clear role and funding attached, not called after the plan is done. Reception and evacuation centres have to be places people who use drugs can actually go, which means harm reduction supplies and continuity of care don’t stop because there’s a fire.

Bylaw and public space

Bylaw’s job in public space is keeping it usable for everyone, and that includes people who don’t have anywhere else to be. Nelson has done a lot of work to stop seizing people’s belongings. If you keep your things tidy you keep them. Losing your ID, your medication or your tent sets someone back weeks and doesn’t solve anything for anyone. Enforcement only works if there’s somewhere for people to go, so we’ve put the effort into temporary housing like the North Shore Inn. That’s where I want the focus to stay: fewer reasons to move people along and more places for them to land.

Winter shelter and extreme weather

I’d rather see it at 0°C, and higher when it’s wet, which is what the province’s own heat and cold committee recommends. The way to get speed is through the service agreement. The extreme weather response runs on a plan approved by BC Housing each year and an agreement with the operator, and that’s where the activation rules and the authority to open should be written down, so staff and the operator can act the night it’s needed without waiting on council. That work gets done before winter, not in the middle of a cold snap.

Nelson in ten years

Ten years from now I want fewer funerals. That means housing people can afford with supports attached, health services people can reach, and the people closest to the crisis helping design the response instead of being consulted after. None of that happens without it being in the budget year after year, and that’s where I’ll keep putting my effort.

Anything else

Over 275 people in this region have died from a poisoned drug supply in the last ten years. Every one of them had people who loved them, and they deserve our response. Thank you to REDUN for doing this work and for asking candidates to put their positions on paper.

Response

Hello,

Thanks for the questions. Transit is an issue I have pushed at nearly every table I sit at. If we are serious about enabling people to get to work, appointments, school, or between communities without owning a car, the service needs to actually work for their lives.

Local transit issues

Yes. The biggest issue remains schedules that do not line up with when people need to travel, along with a total lack of commuter service in some areas. My priorities are improving these schedules and developing a dedicated commuter connection to Salmo.

We have made progress. Bringing more of the system’s operations under local control has improved reliability and driver wages. We now need to leverage that foundation to improve the routes themselves.

Enough buses, gaps in service, and frequency

Not yet. System components—buses, drivers, and hours—are interconnected, meaning adjustments to one route can impact another.

This is why our work on the new transit framework is critical. In March 2026, the RDCK adopted a new cost-sharing model based on the principle that transit is primarily a social service. This model better aligns community funding with received service and allows us to reallocate existing hours where they are needed most.

We also continue to advocate provincially. In 2023, Nelson brought an endorsed resolution to the AKBLG calling on the Province to double funding for rural transit. We continue to push this forward, as rural communities cannot fund necessary service expansions through local property taxes alone.

Buses for people with mobility issues

Every bus should be fully accessible to individuals with mobility issues.

While the City of Nelson funds HandyDART service within city limits, the broader fleet is provided through BC Transit. I will continue pushing for accessible, low-floor vehicles as buses are replaced, alongside expanded HandyDART capacity to ensure residents have reliable transport.

Frequent service to the Trail regional hospital

Progress is aligning on this front. Through the hospital board, we secured additional Health Connections funding from Interior Health to improve transit to medical facilities. Additionally, Nelson’s 2025 AKBLG resolution calling on the Province to fund regional health-related transit links was endorsed.

I will continue pressing for increased Health Connections funding at the hospital board and additional transit hours at the RDCK so that traveling from Nelson to KBRH does not require a private vehicle or an all-day trip.

An affordable intercity bus network

While our primary focus has been local travel within the Kootenays, the next step is connecting beyond our region to hubs like Cranbrook, Kelowna, Calgary, and Vancouver.

As UBCM Third Vice-President, I will advocate for this as a provincial priority. Stitching together a regional intercity network requires provincial coordination and funding rather than piecemeal community efforts.

Thanks again for reaching out, and I look forward to seeing you at the forums.

Cheers,

Response

I moved to Nelson in 2006, so this October makes twenty years. I’m a local small business owner. For eight years I’ve served on Nelson City Council and as Nelson’s director on the Regional District of Central Kootenay board, and this month I was elected Third Vice-President of the Union of BC Municipalities.

The City faces a roughly $80 million gap to renew its aging facilities, and the NDCC needs renewal too. That work needs people who know its history and can see it through.

The provincial Community Housing Fund needs to be restored so purpose-built non-market housing gets built. Hundreds of planned units depend on it. Stable housing is tied directly to addictions, community safety, and whether families can thrive, not just in Nelson but across Greater Nelson, home to many who work, shop and go to school here.

Our child care sector needs support to grow, including new facilities and early childhood educator jobs with public and private operators. That work is underway at a shared table and should continue.

We need the plans, facilities and equipment to respond to steep creek hazards, floods, windstorms and other disasters.

Cutting emissions means seeing our HomeSave program through, improving community transportation, and reviewing and reforming waste pickup and services.

Nelson Hydro’s industrial and commercial rates need review to reward off-peak use and attract employers from regions with unstable power.

Why me? I’ve been showing up at all the tables: council, the regional board, the two commissions I chair, and provincial associations. Advocacy I started in Nelson has gained consistent traction with regional, provincial and federal bodies and been carried into legislative change. I put in the time and put my effort on the line for this community. I’m ready to keep serving.

I’d appreciate your vote on October 17.

Response

Hello,

Sorry for the slow reply. I’ve been focused on UBCM last week. Thanks for covering the local races.

What prompted you to put your name in for the 2026 election?

A lot of the work we’ve spent the last term getting moving is finally at the point where it can deliver results, and I want to see that work through.

Non-market rental housing, recreation facility renewal, HomeSave uptake and Nelson Hydro modernization all took years to get moving, and at the RDCK we’ve finally got recreation services to protect and expand, moved the governance review forward and are developing better ways to have conversations between board and staff. Through AKBLG we brought communities together around resolutions calling for a regional strategy on homelessness and recovery, and I’ve worked with colleagues from Cranbrook to Rossland to Trail to Invermere on issues where we’re much more effective speaking together.

What do you see as one or two of the major issues the community is facing, and why?

Aging facilities and housing.

Nelson faces a funding gap of nearly $80 million across its buildings and infrastructure, and that includes some pretty big decisions around the Selkirk 10th Street campus buildings, Mary Hall, the curling centre, the wastewater treatment plant, the Civic Centre and the scheduled rebuild of Baker Street.

Housing is the other one. There are hundreds of units of non-market housing across the Kootenay Boundary that already have millions of dollars of planning, design and costing behind them, and many of them depend on the provincial Community Housing Fund or another source of financing to get built. If that money isn’t there, all that planning doesn’t turn into homes.

How would you begin to address those problems?

On facilities, I’d start by bringing our recreation commissioners into a discussion about a formal asset renewal commitment for our recreation facilities, where we’re putting money aside and planning for the next renewal instead of waiting until something fails and then trying to find millions of dollars all at once.

I’d also start the conversation about Mary Hall and where it lives long term, because we need to get more deliberate about which buildings we’re keeping, which we’re renewing and which ones don’t make sense for taxpayers to keep carrying.

On housing, I’d keep working through AKBLG and UBCM to get the Community Housing Fund moving again or find another financing model for projects that are planned and ready to go. We’ve already spent the money getting many of these projects to the starting line, and now we need to get them built. That’s true for communities across the Kootenay Boundary, not just Nelson. There will be new councillors who ran on housing looking for experience and mentorship.

Is there anything local government has not dealt with in the past that it could moving forward?

I don’t think we’ve really used Nelson Hydro as an economic development tool, and we could. We have clean, abundant power, and if we can structure industrial and commercial rates to reward off-peak use and find ways for private generation to feed into one managed local grid, that creates an advantage for Nelson that a lot of communities simply don’t have, particularly for businesses looking for reliable clean electricity.

We haven’t made full use of the buildings taxpayers already own. The RDCK found demand for gym space while school gyms sat empty. SD 8 has since developed a community access policy and booking portal, and that’s a good start. Before we spend millions on new space, we should check whether it already exists.

And I think we’ve spent too long assuming transportation beyond the Kootenays is somebody else’s problem. Getting to Cranbrook, Kelowna, Calgary or Vancouver without a car is difficult, whether that’s for medical care, work, school or just being able to get around if you don’t drive, and while Nelson can’t solve that by itself there are a lot of local governments across this region dealing with exactly the same problem. That’s something we should be pushing on regionally.

Cheers,

Response

Hello,

Before the answers, a thank you to the Sports Council. You’ve been a regular presence at our Recreation Commission meetings, and that kind of steady attendance and advocacy makes a difference. Commissioners hear directly from the people using the facilities, and user groups get their concerns on the record before decisions are made rather than after. Please pass my thanks along to your members.

Since these answers are going out to the LSOs, a bit of context for them: I chair Nelson and District Recreation Commission No. 5, which oversees the Nelson and District Community Complex and the wider Recreation Campus. I also chair the Nelson, Salmo, Areas E, F and G Regional Parks Commission. I post full reports from both at https://keithpage.ca/issues-and-reports

1) What will you do to enhance and build stronger sport and recreation opportunities for youth and adults?

Keep doing what’s worked, and extend it to the facilities and opportunities that remain under-resourced.

As Chair of the Recreation Commission, I made regular delegations from local sport organizations a standing part of our meetings. Every group has had the chance to come before commissioners, explain what they need and hear directly from the people making decisions. It gives LSOs a regular way to advocate for their organizations and build relationships with local government before a problem or major funding request lands in front of us.

Going forward, we need to:

1. Keep the door open. Delegations from sport groups had mostly stopped before I got to the Commission. I brought them back and kept after it, calling groups, lining people up and making sure the agenda slot actually got used. That’s how the Commission hears directly from the sport community now, and I intend to keep doing it.
2. Help the groups doing the heavy lifting. Some of the best facility work here has come from organizations that raised money, chased grants and put in the hours, then asked local government to meet them partway. Nelson Soccer Association, the Civic Theatre Society, the work at Queen Elizabeth fields, the Tennis Club, Nelson Hoops at Lakeside and Nelson Pickleball’s advocacy are all examples.
   
   At Rec No. 5, we formalized feasibility funding for this kind of work. It paid for looking at a combined curling plant at the complex and for Nelson Soccer’s inflatable dome study. I want groups to have a clear process, straight answers on land and permissions, and a reasonable path to local government support when they’ve done the work to move an idea forward.
3. Help hockey grow through consistency. This summer, the RDCK adopted agreements with the Leafs, Rebels and Thundercats using shared language, so the same basic terms apply at all three complexes on allocation, exclusive use, playoff costing and taxpayer-funded benefits. Every agreement used to be negotiated separately. The new approach gives the clubs more certainty and makes it easier to plan beyond a single season.
4. Treat sport as economic development. Through Greater Nelson Economic Development, I want to support a sport event and tourism coordinator at the Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism DMO. A hockey weekend or swim meet uses facilities in more than one town, fills hotels and restaurants across the region and relies on volunteers from several communities. Putting that work at the DMO makes more sense than putting it inside one local government. Right now nobody holds that role, so much of the work falls to club volunteers who already have enough to do.
5. Give outdoor recreation better support. Cycling, climbing and paddling account for a big share of recreation here, but the trails, crags and water access behind them are often treated differently from more traditional recreation infrastructure. The clubs that build and maintain them depend heavily on volunteer labour and one-off grants, which makes long-term planning difficult. We need clearer principles around regular support for outdoor recreation and grant programs that actually work for these kinds of facilities.
6. Improve allocation rules. The Commission has ordered a review of the Recreation Allocation Policy across RDCK recreation services, due back in early 2027. Our region-wide policy puts non-profit youth ahead of other uses, and the current allocation system moved the district a long way forward. Five years in, we’ve also learned where it needs work. That includes clearer language, a better complaints and appeals process, and more staff discretion where the policy regularly produces conflicts between different users.
7. Hire the staff. Aquatics has been running at around 85 percent of 2019 staffing levels, and in 2025 camps were capped with 63 people waitlisted because we couldn’t hire in time. If we can’t hire enough lifeguards and instructors, we can’t run the programs people are asking for.

2) What is the number-one issue facing sport and recreation in our region, and how will you address it?

We aren’t getting full use out of all the facilities we already have, while several of those same facilities are reaching the point where they need major renewal and we don’t have a durable way to pay for it.

The long-term campus review brought both problems into focus. The demand we heard most often was for gymnasium space. At the same time, there are existing gyms seeing limited use by relatively small groups because of exclusive legacy arrangements.

Part of the problem is structural. A group can be dealing with three different bodies depending on the facility. Rec Commission No. 5 manages the Community Complex and North Shore Hall and books the soccer and baseball fields. Regional Parks manages Taghum Beach and the Bonnington fields. The City owns and maintains the baseball fields and the fields at Lakeside and Lions parks. It also owns and leases the Nelson Curling Centre, Nelson Soccer Centre, Civic Centre Dance Studio and Mary Hall, which is currently managed by Selkirk College.

For a user group, that can mean dealing with different organizations for maintenance, booking, insurance and approvals, sometimes for facilities being used as part of the same program or season. The same issue exists outdoors. Trails, crags and water access don’t sit neatly within any one service, so we tend to deal with them case by case rather than as part of the overall recreation system.

Then there is the cost of renewal. The Civic Arena roof and rink need to be brought up to code now that the seismic upgrades on the shared support wall are complete. With the associated refurbishment, the figure we’re currently working with is in the range of over $10 million. The Curling Centre has significant structural problems on its eastern wall that are under assessment but likely fatal. Selkirk College is looking to be released from its obligations for Mary Hall, which needs its own renewal. At the same time, work is underway at Morning Mountain and Lions to establish seasonal ice plants with improved rink facilities.

We cannot pay for all of that out of increasing taxation, depleting reserves and sporadic surpluses.

Going forward, we need to:

1. Sort out who pays for renewal. We need a funding structure agreed to between the City and our RDCK partners. Without one, we end up dealing with each building separately as the need arises, which makes long-term planning difficult and leaves us having the same funding conversation every time another facility needs major work. Refreshing our master plan, including these challenges, and developing long-term financial plans to address them, has to be part of that work.
2. Watch the school gym rollout. The Commission pushed this issue with the school district and the Province, and the District has now developed a community access policy and online booking portal. I’ll be watching the implementation, particularly the cost to users and whether it results in more actual access for gym sports. If it doesn’t, we need to take that back to the District.
3. Create one desk and one process. Liability, insurance and bookings should be handled in one place regardless of who owns the facility, enabled through operating agreements between the City, the RDCK and partners like Selkirk College. The facilities can remain under their existing ownership while we make the process of accessing them much simpler for user groups.
4. Reduce financial barriers. We renewed our programming for people who can’t access sport or facilities because of cost. I think the current allotment restricts that benefit more than it needs to because of concerns about program overuse that haven’t been demonstrated. I’d like to relax that language so more families and other users facing financial barriers can participate.

Some of the groundwork for this is already done. Last term, we restructured the RDCK’s Community Services department so the three recreation campuses in Nelson, Castlegar and Creston share management. That lets us share resources, develop policy and run build programs across the district instead of each complex doing everything independently. The regional agreements with hockey societies adopted across all three complexes this summer are one early result.

We also ran the long-term campus review as a shared engagement between the City and the RDCK. That hadn’t been done before and wasn’t particularly straightforward to organize. Completing surveys were launched on the same day as our engagement. We had two governments with different assets and responsibilities asking the public to look at the recreation system as a whole. The gym access problem was one of the issues that came out of that work.

Thanks again. See you at the next meeting, and I’m glad to talk with your members directly in the meantime.

Cheers,