The City of Nelson will have new faces representing residents at the RDCK table for the next four years.
Councilor Keith Page was elected, by his colleagues, to serve as the director for Nelson at the regional level and councillor Rik Logtenberg will serve as his alternate.
“I think both Rik and I bring a level of creativity and lots of opportunities,” says Page. “There will be lots of opportunities for us to collaborate, problem solve and maybe divide some of the work even further as time goes on.”
Page was previously the city’s alternate director, backing up now-mayor Janice Morrison.
Page says even though he and Logtenberg were elected as director and alternate they will be joined by another council member who will help them at various committee level positions.
“Councilor Logtenberg will be helping out with transit at the RDCK,” he says. “Also, councilor [Jesse] Woodward is stepping into the joint resource recovery domain at the RDCK. Having both those colleagues in those domains makes sense because of the skill set they have.”
Page says being on the RDCK isn’t just a twoperson job for the city, it is a team effort and having key people in the right positions will not only benefit the city, but also the RDCK as a whole.
“We really did try, as a council, to look at all the responsibilities that were happening at the RDCK,” he says. “Which is why we chose to send our best people to even the various committee levels, so we could come forward as a strong team.”
He says now that all the elections are over it is time for municipal government to get to work in order to address the issues that were brought up during the election and move forward with delivering results.
“It is important that we have conversations, and shape our work to address the challenges,” he says. “There are a lot of important housing conversations that are going on, and how the district responds in the area is critical to get clarity on.”
Page says the RDCK has already talked to a consultant who will help identify some key actions to take in order to address the housing crisis.
“We have engaged a consultant in order to tackle the housing crisis,” he says. “This was done to help widdle down some key action in terms of some sort of non-profit market delivery partner. We are going to wait to see what that consultant comes up with to find out what we can do to address this.”
The RDCK is working with Arcola consulting to help fill the housing gap.
With new faces at the RDCK table, Page says it is an opportunity to hear new ideas and fresh perspectives.