Davis Kyle 2026

1. Do you think our main street/downtown is healthy and successful? If not, what would you do to change that?

Bernard is suffering from its success. I love the walkability, the traditional pre-zoning design style, the wide sidewalks, and the summer street closure, along with smaller year-round patios. But we have banned the same walkable high-street commercial elsewhere in Kelowna, leading to high commercial rents and struggles for local businesses that are being pushed out by big chains. We should improve bike safety, professionalize Meet Me On Bernard with bollards and more street trees, and implement this mixed-use commercial zoning (side yard setbacks, parking minimum reform, lot coverage allowances, etc) elsewhere to increase similar retail storefront supply.

2. What’s more important for our city right now: building new homes and commercial space or rehabbing/expanding/better utilizing our existing homes and storefronts?

Kelowna should be affordable and welcoming. We finally achieved a healthy rental vacancy rate for housing (>5%) through zoning reform, our OCP, and programs like the RTE tax incentive. We need to keep our residential, commercial, and industrial vacancy rates above 5% while allowing homes and businesses to be built across the housing spectrum, in places that make sense. Because we have 9% unemployment, we need to diversify away from a tourist-based economy. I hope to encourage employment in all sectors through competitive land use, planning, and development charge frameworks that will lower costs for working people and businesses.

3. How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our city? Can all of our residents affordably get where they need to go? If not, what will you do to improve transportation in our city?

I do not feel good about transportation options in Kelowna. We can’t run more bus frequency because we need the new transit yard. Bike theft is a serious concern, even after I have worked to bring the downtown bike valet to our city in 2023. Our ATC network is spotty and fragmented, and many people in outlying areas have poor to no transit, much like how urban residents suffer very long commuting times on routes like the 1 and 97. I support building out our network citywide in our 10-year capital plan, and adjusting our spending to match Kelowna’s mode-shift targets.

4. Some people in our community say that we have traffic problems. What do you think? How would you mitigate those concerns or change the situation?

Our lack of mixed-use zoning, reliance on parking minimums, and horrendous transit system guarantee terrible traffic via the Downs-Thompson paradox. While I still support investing in intersection and road efficiency improvements like roundabouts, such as the new one at Rutland and Springfield, I want to see Kelowna built out the new transit yard, increased transit frequency, signal priority, and investment in multi-model infrastructure, along with allowing mixed-use urban villages in our next OCP to make complete neighbourhoods. We also need to pressure the Province on bridge commute solutions and direct transit from downtown to the airport.

5. If you could change one thing in our zoning code, what would it be and why?

If I could change one thing in the zoning code, I would follow cities like High River and Spokane in adopting demand-based approaches to housing and parking in order to improve housing affordability and better manage street parking supply. If I could change one thing in our tax system, I would continue (as I have with Common Wealth Canada) to push the province to legalize split-rate property tax in order to shift us towards a land-millage system in order to improve affordability. I also will continue my push for STV (as I have with FairVote Canada) local electoral reform.

6. How do you plan to involve residents in the decision making process in our town?

I would like the city to take a statistically significant approach to public consultation and feedback. Often, we listen to minority voices or lobbyists that aren’t actually the real public opinion just because they are the loudest or most influential in the room. Focus groups or polling in order to reflect the needs of all our residents, in truly representative feedback, is the path forward, along with electoral reform to make sure that every vote counts in our elections. I will engage with the community in-person and on social media in order to take feedback into account.

7. If someone came to you with a proposal to build a new piece of public infrastructure in our city (road, bridge, etc.), how would you evaluate whether or not that project was worth implementing?

I support lifecycle-cost budgeting and self-funded infrastructure models for as many non-core service delivery items as possible.This current city council has been very good at spending money, but I would argue that there has been no value-for-money audit or economic impact analysis on subsidies being given to sporting events, or some of the infrastructure megaprojects that are being planned or currently being built. We should focus on cost-recovery, and pressure the province for new funding models so that we can fund smart infrastructure investments.

8. If elected, what three steps would you take to put our city on a firmer financial footing?

Three items:

1. 10-Year Capital Plan financial review, with some projects added and some removed according to engineering best practices and good planning policy
2. Revenue-Per-Acre based planning tax analysis. Focus on supporting developments that will push down Kelowna’s property tax rate, not send it higher through further infrastructure costs. We should be targeting metrics like sewer and road per capita as a measure of infrastructure liabilities.
3. DCC cuts. We cannot continue to drive up rents and purchase costs for our residents by treating taxpayers like a piggybank. We need a replacement funding model for infrastructure.

9. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

1 million is truly not much money. That can build half a roundabout, or a small section of waterfront boardwalk. I would probably put it towards new transit shelters and benches, as a large number could be procured and distributed at the most important stops without any place to shelter or rest.

10. What neighborhood do you live in? Why? Where are your favorite places to spend time in our town?

I live on the border of South Central and Capri, in the KSAN neighbourhood association boundaries. I love my proximity to parks like Millbridge and along the lake, the corner store two blocks down, and how quickly I can run out for groceries or errands at the Capri mall. I also like biking to work on Ethel. My favourite places in town include:

1. Walking along the waterfront in city park
2. Lunch at Mount Royal Bagel Factory
3. Dinner at Olympia Greek Taverna
4. Hiking the Crawford Trails
5. Biking the Rail Trail from my apartment all the way to the airport and back