Policy Platform
A comprehensive roadmap for Cranbrook, built on transparency, fiscal responsibility, and a commitment to shared progress.
Growing Economy
- Supporting our local entrepreneurs through streamlined permits and enhanced resources to foster a thriving business environment. By expanding into new industrial sectors, we can ensure our town remains prosperous through any market change. Our focus on modernizing key logistics ensures we are ready for tomorrow.
- Make downtown more walkable.
- Reform the Development Permit process. Streamline by eliminating small projects, projects that are covered under current bylaws, and give staff more leeway to approve. This eliminates barriers and costs for businesses and residents, and reduces staff time.
- Harmonize with Kimberley's building bylaws for energy and carbon.
- Leverage the huge coming growth in rental properties and daycare to encourage new business development.
- I will put out the welcome sign for new businesses looking to relocate to Cranbrook. I will ensure that they are directed to not only the Economic Development officer, but also to others relevant to their industry.
- Continue staff's "Value for Money" process and consider engaging a Value for Money consultant for fresh ideas to reduce costs without sacrificing services.
- Aspire to keep property tax increases below the cost of living increases, effectively creating a tax cut.
- Ensure that all fees are competitive with similar-sized communities.
- Fiscal stability through long-term planning and diversified revenue streams.
- Responsible budgeting that prioritizes essential infrastructure and community services.
- Transparent taxes with clear reporting on how every dollar is invested in Cranbrook.
- Continue the work to rationalize transit as a hybrid scheduled and on-demand system, and raise awareness to increase ridership.
- Advocate to the Province to carry through on its recommendation for a lower-cost two-tiered policing system.
Budgets and Taxes
A Better Cranbrook
We believe in a bright future for Cranbrook. By improving our streets, buses, and parks, we make life better for everyone here.
Better Roads and Pipes
We will fix our roads and update essential services now. This ensures our city runs smoothly for you and your family for years.
Easy Ways to Travel
I support the changes to the bus system to become a hybrid fixed-route and on-demand system. This makes it easier for you to get from home to the shops, the doctor, and work every day.
Economic Development
A Cycling Future Built on Stewardship and Shared Prosperity
A Cycling Future Built on Stewardship and Shared Prosperity
By Powder Matt Mosteller, Kimberley mayoral candidate, and Bruce Murdoch, Cranbrook City Council candidate
Cranbrook and Kimberley have an opportunity to strengthen a visitor economy that supports local businesses, jobs, community events, recreation facilities, and public amenities.
The goal should be thoughtful, well-managed growth: welcoming people to experience our region while protecting the forests, wildlife, watersheds, access, and community character that residents and visitors value.
Our region already has a strong foundation. Cranbrook’s Community Forest, the NorthStar Rail Trail connecting our communities, established trail networks, scenic gravel roads, skills facilities, and growing e-bike and adaptive-recreation opportunities are shared public assets. They enrich daily life for residents and give visitors a reason to stay longer, spend locally, and return.
Stewardship supports tourism
A healthy visitor economy depends on healthy landscapes, quality trails, reliable access, good infrastructure, and a community that continues to welcome guests. Stewardship is not a barrier to tourism; it is the foundation of long-term tourism success.
Our forests and trails are valued for recreation, wildlife habitat, watersheds, cultural significance, and quiet enjoyment. They are also part of what makes the East Kootenay a special place to visit.
We should focus promotion, maintenance, and carefully planned investment on areas that can sustain use, while protecting sensitive habitats, cultural areas, and quiet-use spaces. This means working with the Ktunaxa Nation and ʔaq̓am, trail organizations, land managers, local governments, businesses, residents, and tourism operators to identify appropriate opportunities and provide the maintenance, restoration, signs, safety information, and visitor facilities that support responsible use.
Tourism benefits our communities
Tourism already supports local accommodation providers, restaurants, retailers, guides, bike shops, events, arts and culture, transportation, and many other businesses. Visitor spending helps strengthen the local economy and contributes to the tax base and tourism-related funding that support amenities, infrastructure, and visitor services.
B.C.’s tourism sector generated $23 billion in revenue in 2024, contributed nearly $8 billion in real GDP, supported more than 113,000 direct jobs, and paid $5 billion in direct wages. Outdoor recreation contributed another estimated $6.6 billion in real GDP and supported approximately 86,000 jobs. Kimberley’s eligibility for Resort Municipality Initiative funding is a practical example of how a strong visitor economy can help fund tourism infrastructure and amenities that residents enjoy too.
Our objective should be to build on these benefits: more locally owned businesses, more skilled and year-round work, youth training and apprenticeships, stronger bike-repair and manufacturing enterprises, and stable funding for maintenance, restoration, trails, and community facilities.
A broader cycling economy
Mountain biking should be one part of a broader cycling strategy that includes gravel riding, bike touring, family cycling, e-bikes, adaptive recreation, skills development, and safe transportation between Cranbrook and Kimberley.
The NorthStar Rail Trail provides a valuable 26–28 km connection that supports family rides, e-bikes, accessible recreation, commuting, and touring. It demonstrates how cycling infrastructure can serve residents while helping visitors experience the region in a lower-impact way.
KORE Outdoors and the College of the Rockies also offer a larger opportunity: an outdoor economy based not only on recreation, but on repair, prototyping, upcycling, technical training, and small-scale manufacturing. A Canadian Centre of Trail Excellence at the College could bring together students, trail builders, Indigenous knowledge holders, ecologists, municipal staff, land managers, and non-profits to share practical expertise in durable, accessible, community-supported trail design and management.
Working together
Cranbrook and Kimberley can accomplish more together than either community can alone. A joint regional table should include Indigenous partners, both municipalities, the Regional District, trail societies, tourism organizations, land managers, KORE, the College, businesses, workers, youth, and residents.
Its work should be practical: maintain and improve existing networks; protect sensitive areas; create safe connections; support cycling, repair, manufacturing, and training; and report openly on environmental condition, local employment, business benefit, access, and resident satisfaction.
The ambition is not tourism at any cost. It is a strong, welcoming, sustainable visitor economy—one that protects the places people come to enjoy and ensures that the benefits are felt throughout Cranbrook, Kimberley, and the East Kootenay.
Powder Matt Mosteller is a Kimberley mayoral candidate. Bruce Murdoch is a Cranbrook City Council candidate.
Q1. Local production
What specific actions would you support at the municipal level to strengthen local food production and access to local food in our communities?
I would support a practical local food strategy that helps residents grow food, helps local producers reach customers, and makes better use of land and facilities we already have.
First, the City should identify suitable City-owned and underused land for community gardens, edible landscaping, and small-scale food production. I would promote the idea of utilizing the unused lands by the irrigation spray field, such as a co-op greenhouse operation. We should also review zoning and permitting to ensure we are not creating unnecessary barriers to greenhouses, backyard hens, farm stands, neighbourhood markets or shared gardens in multi-unit housing. These actions are already contemplated in Cranbrook’s Official Community Plan.
Second, I would continue supporting successful initiatives such as the Cranbrook Farmers’ Market, Public Produce Garden, Urban Farm and Farm Kitchen. The Public Produce Garden was created through a partnership involving the City, Community Connections, Rotary, Columbia Basin Trust and UBCM—showing what can be accomplished when the City brings partners together.
Third, I would work regionally with the RDEK, local producers, agrologists, neighbouring municipalities, and the Ktunaxa Nation. Food production does not stop at the city boundary. We should examine season-extending greenhouses, efficient irrigation, food processing, cold storage, distribution, and institutional purchasing. The RDEK Agricultural Plan has already identified land access, processing, and a regional agri-food strategy as priorities.
The City should not try to become a farming business. Its role should be to remove unnecessary obstacles, make appropriate land and infrastructure available, help secure outside funding, and support projects with credible plans for water, energy, operating costs, and long-term viability.
Q2. Community organizations
Food insecurity is affecting households in our communities, while local organizations providing food access and food-security programs are often working with limited resources. What role do you think the City should play in supporting this work, and what specific actions or partnerships would you pursue?
The City should be a dependable partner and coordinator, without duplicating the work of organizations that already have expertise and community trust.
I would support a regular food-security roundtable involving Community Connections, the Cranbrook Food Bank, Food Recovery, schools, Interior Health, producers, retailers, the RDEK, Ktunaxa partners and people with lived experience. Its purpose would be to identify gaps, coordinate grant applications, avoid duplication, and bring a short list of measurable priorities to Council. The Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network already provides a strong foundation for this cooperation.
Where a clear community benefit can be demonstrated, the City could provide modest multi-year grants, access to suitable municipal space, help with permits and assistance pursuing provincial, federal and foundation funding. Stable access to kitchens, refrigeration, storage and distribution space may sometimes be more valuable than a one-time grant.
The scale of existing community work deserves recognition. Cranbrook Food Recovery reports that in 2025 it distributed more than 201,000 pounds of food to local charities, redirected over 96,000 pounds to farmers, and supported more than 21,000 community-meal servings. The Food Bank also offers mobile pickup and limited delivery for residents facing transportation or mobility barriers.
Food access should therefore be considered in transit, housing and neighbourhood planning—not treated as a stand-alone charitable issue. At the same time, Council should advocate for stronger provincial and federal action on incomes, housing and social services, because municipal taxpayers cannot be expected to address the underlying causes of household food insecurity alone.
Q3. Emergency resilience
Wildfires, drought, extreme weather, and disruptions to transportation can affect both local food production and our communities' access to food. How should the City incorporate food security into its emergency preparedness and climate-resilience planning?
Food and water should be treated as essential services in Cranbrook’s emergency planning—not addressed only after a highway closes or grocery shelves begin to empty.
I would support adding a specific food-security component to the City’s emergency plan. It should identify critical food facilities, suppliers, warehouses, commercial kitchens, cold storage, backup generators, and potential neighbourhood distribution sites. It should also establish working contacts and procedures involving grocery retailers, trucking companies, producers, the Food Bank, Food Recovery, community kitchens, the RDEK, neighbouring communities and Indigenous governments.
The plan must identify residents most likely to lose food access during an emergency, including seniors, people with disabilities, evacuees, low-income households, and residents without vehicles. It should cover food delivery, emergency transportation, dietary and medical needs, potable water, backup refrigeration, and continuity of community meal programs.
This planning is increasingly important because Cranbrook expects hotter conditions, drier summers, more extreme weather, and greater pressure on its water supply. Preparedness should therefore include drought planning, water-efficient food production, backup power, alternate transportation routes, and periodic emergency exercises with community organizations and businesses.
I would also pursue provincial, federal, and Columbia Basin funding for resilience projects rather than placing the full cost on municipal taxpayers. B.C. programs have previously supported local emergency planning, training, water-storage infrastructure, and regional livestock-relocation planning.
Food Security
Emergency Response
Cranbrook must be ready before an emergency happens. As a councillor, I will support regular testing of the City’s Emergency Operations Centre, updated wildfire and evacuation planning, reliable backup communications and power, and clear public information that residents can understand under pressure. We need to work with Cranbrook Fire & Emergency Services, the RDEK, RCMP, Interior Health, BC Wildfire Service, utilities and community organizations to ensure that our plans are coordinated and practical. Preparedness is not about predicting the next emergency—it is about making sure Cranbrook can respond, communicate and recover when one occurs.
Specifically:
1.Update Cranbrook’s emergency plan and publish a clear public summary.
2.Test the Emergency Operations Centre through regular exercises and equipment checks.
3.Improve warnings and evacuation information so residents know what to do and where to get reliable updates.
4.Protect critical infrastructure with backup power, supplies and continuity plans.
5.Coordinate with the RDEK and first responders to protect vulnerable residents and support effective recovery.
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