Bradley Weston
2026 Election Candidate
Environmental
Lumby's Regional Growth Strategy's strategic direction is to encourage compact, complete sustainable communities as the basis for land use planning, fostering greater transportation choices, the protection of agricultural land, natural areas and open spaces. Please give local examples of 'good' and 'not good' development in Lumby, and why.
Good development in Lumby is focusing on our current infrastructure, doing work the pipes can carry, paid for by the growth that needs it. The sewage treatment plant is a local example. It was overdue, it is real infrastructure, and it needed doing. Another is June 1, 2026, when neighbours filled the room on a Mountain View file because the street could not take more units. Council said no. That is how a complete community is supposed to work.
Not good is building ahead of the water. The village built its own industrial park for about $3 million, and a public works yard went from about $1 million in February 2025 to $2.28 million, while our own October 20, 2025 study says the two water tanks do not hold enough for firefighting, even today, and 51 percent of the sewer pipe is old asbestos. A 540-unit housing target on paper is not good development if the pipes cannot carry it.
Lumby residents should decide how big this village gets. We do not add units faster than water, sewer, and roads can handle. Agricultural land, the creeks, and the open ground we already rely on stay ahead of a subdivision the tanks cannot serve.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Lumby has experienced significant climate impacts for the last few years. How do you propose to address this crisis, both in preparing ahead for disasters like drought, wildfires, heat domes and floods, as well as reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that lead to climate change?
I will not pretend a mayor can stop a heat dome or a wildfire season. I can prepare for the disasters this village already knows, and I can stop making them worse by growing demand first.
Flooding is the one we have lived. Protection should be mapped in public before the machines show up. A household should not find out from a letter on the step. Drought and fire are a water-storage problem. Our October 20, 2025 study says the taps work, but the two tanks do not hold enough for firefighting or an emergency, even today. Filling that gap is the preparation. Adding units, a village-built industrial park, or a larger works yard before the tanks and the asbestos sewer are addressed is how a small village gets caught short in a heat wave or a freshet.
On emissions, I will not announce a new program the tax bill cannot carry. The local piece is practical. Do not grow past the water we have. Emergency responses and emergency pumping are not a climate plan. Hold residential taxes. Growth pays for the pipes it needs.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Do you support the use of public funds to contribute to acquiring natural lands for environmental conservation purposes? Under what conditions would the perceived need for more housing, businesses, roads and other infrastructure prompt you to trade away natural lands with high ecological value for urban expansion?
Yes, when public money buys natural land to reduce a real flood or habitat risk, and residents can see the map and the price. Lumby has already bought floodplain land for that kind of reason. That is conservation. It is not a land bank for the next subdivision.
I would not trade natural land with high ecological value for housing, a business park, or a road while the water and sewer cannot serve the village we already have. The October 2025 study says
the tanks are short for firefighting today and 51 percent of the sewer is old asbestos. Until that is addressed, expansion waits.
The condition is simple. If the tanks, the sewer, and the roads can carry the new use, and the land is not the ground that holds the creek or the farm, we can have the conversation in public. If they cannot, the natural land stays. Perceived need is not a reason to spend the creek.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Drought, contamination, increasing demand are just some of the water issues. What actions would you prioritise to protect our creeks, lakes, aquifers, and groundwater for home and agricultural water sources, habitat for fish and wildlife, and human recreation?
First, the storage and the pipes in the ground. Until a provincial grant in 2024, Lumby had no storm model, no sanitary sewer model, and only a basic water model that was not good enough for planning. The study council received on October 20, 2025 is the first real look. It says the taps work. It also says the two storage tanks do not hold enough for firefighting or an emergency, even today, and it recommends more storage. Fifty-one percent of the sewer pipe is old asbestos cement, and it should be repaired or replaced before it fails. That work comes before another industrial park or a bigger works yard.
Second, the creeks. Flood protection is real, and it should be published. Bessette and Duteau are salmon water. I will not trade fish habitat for a shortcut, and I will not add houses faster than the aquifer and the tanks can support. Home water, farm water, and the creek are the same system. Residents decide the pace. The pipes set the speed.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Social
In smaller communities, we need to be creative in how we help one another; how do you see the role of local government in this?
Local government should do the jobs only the village can do. Safe water. Sewer that does not fail. Roads. A council that shows its decisions in plain language when they are made.
It should not try to replace neighbours. In a village this size, people help each other at the Legion, the hall, the churches, and the kitchen table. That is the creativity. My job is to keep the basics working so that help is not spent bailing out a flood, or a tax bill that grew because we built ahead of the pipes.
A new program is welcome when the people who will run it are already here and the households are not being asked to carry it. A program announced to look busy, while the tanks still cannot cover a fire, is not help. Growth pays its own way. I will hold the line on residential taxes. I will not abolish them. The village still has to pay for pipes.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
How do we tackle misinformation and growing distrust in local government as well as uncivil behaviour on social media and in person?
Distrust grows when people find out last. I have sat at kitchen tables where a decision was already on the village website and the person most affected heard about it late. Legal is not the same as clear. Major projects, expected costs, how those costs change, and the decision council actually made should be easy to find, in the village's own words, at the time.
I will argue from those papers. If I get a number wrong, I will correct it. I am not running against a person. I am running against a direction: how big this village gets, and whether the pipes set the speed.
Uncivil behaviour, online or in the room, does not get a bigger platform from me. Disagree on the direction. Leave the personal attacks. A village of this size still has to live with each other on Monday.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Cultural
How do you personally engage with arts, culture and heritage in Lumby, and how do you think local government should support these features of our community?
I show up where Lumby already gathers. Community events, the hall, the Legion, the fundraisers neighbours put on. I am not an arts administrator, and I will not pretend otherwise.
Local government should keep the halls we have usable, back the volunteers who already carry heritage and events, and not bury those groups in fees or last-minute surprises. I will not promise a new cultural building while the water tanks cannot cover a fire and half the sewer is old asbestos. Culture in this village is people doing it themselves. Council's job is to leave room for that, and to keep the village functioning so they can.
Heritage here is also the creeks, the farms, and the streets people already know. We do not honour that by growing past the pipes and calling it progress.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Economic
What is your understanding of how small local governments can support our economic development, including the success of our small local businesses?
A small village supports business by being reliable. Water that meets a fire standard. Roads that get plowed. A permit that says yes or no for a clear reason, without a surprise at the end.
Existing shops should not be taxed to subsidize the next subdivision, or a village-built industrial park, while the October 2025 study says the tanks are short and 51 percent of the sewer is asbestos. Growth pays its own pipes. I want local firms to have a fair shot at village work. I do not believe council should pick winners.
Households paid a 4.18 percent property tax increase in 2025. Council directed this year toward the 5.9 percent range because Community Forest money came in short. I will hold the line on residential taxes. I will not abolish them. The village still has to pay for water, sewer, and roads. That reliability is the economic development a mayor can actually deliver.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
What is one action the municipality should take to strengthen our local food system and improve access to healthy, affordable food? Why that action?
Stop spending the water and the land that feed this valley on units the pipes cannot serve.
Lumby sits in farm country. Healthy, affordable food starts with farms that still have water, and with a village that does not bid up the cost of living through tax increases for projects that are not the tanks and the sewer. The one municipal action is to treat agricultural water and the ground that grows food as off-limits for expansion until the October 2025 study is dealt with: more storage, and the old asbestos sewer repaired before it fails.
A second, smaller step belongs with that. Make it simple for a grower or a small food business to use space the village already owns, without a new program or a new bureaucracy. I will not promise a food strategy the tax bill cannot carry. Protecting the water is the action. The rest is neighbours feeding neighbours, which they already know how to do.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
Health
As Mayor/Councilor, how would you work to attract and retain medical professionals in Lumby?
The mayor does not hire doctors. Interior Health does. I will not announce a recruitment scheme to get a headline.
What Lumby can do is be a place a nurse or a physician can actually live. Housing that is not bid up by growth the pipes cannot serve. Water that works. A council that answers in plain language. I will sit down with Interior Health and the people already providing care here and ask what they need — housing, space, call coverage — and then do the village's part of that list. Nothing else.
Retaining a medical professional is the same problem as retaining any family. If the tanks cannot cover a fire, the sewer is aging asbestos, and the tax bill keeps climbing for a works yard and an industrial park, people leave. Fix that, and we are a place worth staying. That is the recruitment plan I can actually keep.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
How will you ensure that our planning of our built environment, our programs and our policies support the diverse physical and mental health needs of our population?
Plan for the people who already live here, not for a paper population.
Sidewalks and crossings where people already walk. Halls that seniors and kids can get into. A development decision that asks whether the street has water, sewer, and a safe place to walk before the units are approved. On June 1, neighbours had to pack the room to say a street could not take more. That question should be asked before the hearing, not after.
Physical and mental health also depend on whether the village feels steady. Floods, surprise decisions, and tax increases for projects that are not the pipes wear people down. Clinical care stays with Interior Health. The health policy a mayor can deliver is open decisions, tanks that can cover a fire, and growth that waits until the sewer and the roads can carry it.
Weston4Mayor.com to learn more.
