Angelique Wood, RDOS director candidate, Area “G”
1. What are the top three priorities for your area, as you see it, that you will need to address as regional district director in the next three years?
Financial responsibility: I drive engine one for the Hedley Volunteer Fire Department. We can’t afford a gold-plated service like in the Lower Mainland, so we have to work together to make every dollar go further. We train regularly with both Princeton and Keremeos firefighters to improve on and share our firefighting skills. This is a model of how I will work as your Area “G” director.
Clean Water: Clean water and access to the power of our rivers is a world wide priority. As stewards of our valley, we need to ensure a safe water supply both now and into the future. I plan on living here for another forty years, and will do what I can to preserve this important natural resource.
Communication: We need the services of the RDOS - such as health care, education, and garbage disposal, and they need to know our needs. The ideal Area “G” director will be alert to the
alert to the needs of the communities, and aware of the resources available to them. She will be a strong advocate for the people of Area “G” and press to have their needs addressed. I am that person.
2. The regional district currently spends $12,000 on food and beverages provided to board directors during their 28 meetings per year. Regional bylaws allow for up to $40 per director to be spent on food / beverages per each meeting.
In view of the tight economic times, and noting that the private sector has undergone similar reductions, would you be willing to entertain a recommendation to regional district staff to look at reducing this budget item in 2012 as your collective contibution to reducing the burden on taxpayers during these difficult economic times?
Yes.
3. What is the most important factor - your main reason - in your decision to run for area director?
I plan on calling the Similkameen Valley “home” for another forty years of my life, so I want what’s best for the valley, not just in the short term but in the long term too. I want to put my organizational skills to the service of the community to make this a better place for all of us. I see an ageing population who has worked hard to maintain important core values of sharing, respect and taking care of one another. Now they in turn need some experienced younger people with more energy to pick up where they have left off.
I own properties in both Area “G” and Area “H” so I have a real investment in the future of this place. I have been taught to leave a place better than I found it and feel I have the right attitude to make a positive difference here.
- Angelique Wood