Affordable housing, environmental sustainability, childcare and arts and recreation are all important issues to council candidate Brittny Anderson. She feels council has done a good job trying to increase the number of housing units but says they haven’t gone far enough.
“They did a great job with the laneway housing bylaw, but I don’t think it goes far enough. It requires off street parking for one vehicle per laneway home and in many cases in Nelson that parking’s just not available. We already have a housing issue and we’re not moving forward on it because of potentially a parking issue.”
She’s currently a resident of Thrums as she felt priced out of the Nelson market, but still shops and visits friends and family in Nelson and hopes to move closer.
She feels council should act fast as well when it comes to opportunities to create childcare spaces.
“Right now there is funding available for childcare accessible to municipalities through the Province. That funding opportunity ends in January so we need to be on that now. In Nelson many families are struggling to find childcare and this is a great opportunity to open up some new childcare spaces.”
The 32-year-old has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s Degree of Science in environmental science and policy. She feels this background is valuable as a councillor with wildfire and climate change mitigation and adaptation also being big priorities of hers.
She’s worked with the Regional District of Central Kootenay as an environmental technologist and environmental services coordinator. She says she has a good understanding of how local government structures work and the necessity for council to work with the RDCK and higher levels of government.