Issues that matter
to Penticton.

Penticton's vacancy rate sits below 1.5%, and the city's own housing needs assessment found it's struggling to attract nurses and doctors partly because they can't find a place to live. Riley believes the solution is straightforward: build more homes.

Current council has done strong work approving new developments, and Riley wants to accelerate that momentum. The Innovation District — nearly 1,500 new units combined with commercial and office space across from the Regional Hospital — is exactly the model Riley wants to see replicated: mixed-use, walkable, and adding to the housing stock at real scale. But approving big projects isn't enough on its own. Riley will push to streamline the permitting process for smaller infill developments — the duplexes, laneway houses, and missing-middle housing that fill gaps across existing neighbourhoods. As an electrician, Riley works in the construction industry every day. He knows what regulatory delays cost, and he knows which ones are protecting safety and which ones are just adding time and money for no good reason. Riley's housing priorities: continue fast-tracking major developments like the Innovation District, streamline permitting for infill and missing-middle housing, work with BC Housing on underused city-owned and publicly held land, and oppose anything that adds unnecessary cost to new builds without a clear safety or community benefit.

Affordable housing and homelessness are deeply connected, but they're not the same problem. Penticton has residents sleeping in parks and doorways, and many of those people are dealing with addiction and mental health crises that housing alone won't solve. A roof over someone's head matters — but if the person under that roof is still in active addiction with no pathway to treatment, we haven't solved anything. We've just moved the problem indoors.

That's why Riley does not support expanding wet housing models in Penticton. Penticton already has over 150 supportive housing units operated through BC Housing — including facilities on Winnipeg Street and Skaha Lake Road. When the province proposed a 50-unit tiny homes project in late 2025 and insisted it be designated "wet" — meaning substance use would be permitted on site with an overdose prevention service built in — council voted 4-2 to reject it. Riley agrees with that decision. Not because people experiencing homelessness don't deserve help — they absolutely do — but because a model that houses people alongside active substance use, without prioritizing treatment, is not a pathway out. It's managed decline. Riley believes Penticton's approach should be treatment-first. That means advocating aggressively for what the city actually lacks: residential treatment beds, detox facilities, and recovery-oriented transitional housing in the South Okanagan. Right now, someone in Penticton who wants to get clean often has to travel to Kelowna or further for a treatment bed — if one is even available. That's unacceptable. Riley will push the province and Interior Health to fund treatment and recovery infrastructure in Penticton specifically, not just more low-barrier housing that accepts active use as a permanent condition. Riley supported the Car 40 program — a joint mental health crisis response unit pairing RCMP with health workers — and believes it's the kind of practical, compassionate approach Penticton needs more of. He will advocate for expanded Car 40 capacity, more treatment and detox options in the South Okanagan, and transitional housing models that are staffed, structured, and oriented toward recovery — not just containment. This isn't a choice between compassion and safety — Penticton needs both. Compassion means giving people a real chance to get better, not warehousing them in facilities where substance use is the norm. Safety means addressing the street-level disorder that affects businesses, residents, and the people struggling most. Riley will push for solutions that treat people with dignity and actually move them toward stable, healthy lives.

Most people think of wine and tourism when they think of Penticton's economy. They're important — but they're not the biggest driver. Penticton's industrial sector, represented by the Penticton Industrial Development Association, generates between $800 million and $1 billion in total economic impact every year.

Half a billion dollars in direct sales flow into the city from outside the province and outside the country — products manufactured right here and shipped to Australia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. Companies like Waycon Manufacturing. Like AC Motor Electric, operating since 1956. These are the highest-paying private sector jobs in our community, with workers earning $60,000 to $80,000 a year. And this sector is under threat. In 2025, Peerless — a trailer manufacturer in Penticton for over 50 years — was bought out and moved to Saskatchewan. Nearly 80 jobs gone. Industrial land is shrinking. Municipal taxes on industrial properties have doubled in four years. Electricity costs are punishing. Riley will be a champion for Penticton's industrial sector on council: push for a formal industrial land strategy, advocate for the Cantex lands (40 acres) to be developed for industrial use, fight to keep industrial tax rates competitive, and use the city-owned electric utility to offer qualifying industrial and manufacturing businesses subsidized power rates — a concrete advantage no other Okanagan community can match. Beyond protecting what we have, Riley wants to grow what's next: position Penticton as Western Canada's hub for UAV (drone) development and testing. Pendleton, Oregon — a town smaller than Penticton — invested less than $500,000 to transform its airport into one of America's busiest drone test ranges, hosting Amazon, Airbus, NASA, and Boeing, and creating over 200 direct aerospace jobs. Penticton has every advantage Pendleton had, and several it didn't. The startup costs? Funded through federal grants from PacifiCan and a portion of the $2.3 million the city receives annually from Cascades Casino — not property taxes.

Council should be accountable to residents — in how it spends money, how it plans projects, and how it holds itself to account when things go wrong.

Riley will push for three specific changes to how council operates: publishing plain-language budget breakdowns that show residents exactly where their tax dollars go; requiring community consultation before — not after — major infrastructure designs are finalized; and conducting post-project reviews on major capital works so council learns from what went right and what went wrong. He also believes Penticton's experience with a council seat sitting empty for over two years — while taxpayers continue paying a councillor on mandatory leave who cannot perform any duties — has exposed a gap in provincial law that needs to be fixed. The 2022 amendments to the Community Charter were the right call: councillors charged with criminal offences should be removed from duties. But the law doesn't address what happens when the leave drags on for years. There's no limit on how long taxpayers pay for an empty seat, and no mechanism to restore representation to the voters who lost it. Riley will advocate through UBCM for two targeted amendments. First, a 12-month threshold after which a councillor on mandatory leave transitions from paid to unpaid status — with full back-pay guaranteed if the charges are resolved in their favour. This respects the presumption of innocence while recognizing that remuneration is compensation for work performed. Second, a provision allowing council — by a two-thirds supermajority vote — to declare a temporary vacancy after 12 months and trigger a by-election, so voters aren't left without representation for an entire term. The original councillor's right to seek office again would be fully preserved. These aren't punitive measures. They're common-sense reforms that protect both due process and the public interest. Accountability isn't a slogan. It's a practice — and it should apply to the system itself, not just the people in it.

A living downtown — full of events, festivals, and foot traffic — is good for businesses and residents alike. Riley wants to invest in Penticton's cultural life and make the downtown core buzz year-round, not just in peak tourist season.

Riley lives in the downtown core. He sees firsthand what a festival or event does for the local economy — restaurants busy, shops buzzing, people out walking. He will advocate for a dedicated events fund that supports year-round programming — not just summer festivals, but winter events like Frost Fest that bring life to the downtown core in the off-season. He wants to work with the Downtown Business Improvement Area to reduce red tape for businesses hosting sidewalk events and pop-ups, and to ensure that Penticton's growing reputation as an events destination translates into real, sustained foot traffic for local shops and restaurants.

The lake-to-lake bike lane — and the South Main section in particular — became the most divisive infrastructure project in Penticton's recent history. And the frustration was understandable.

Residents along South Main saw concrete barriers installed on both sides of a major thoroughfare, parking eliminated near their homes and businesses, lanes narrowed to the point where some people felt unsafe pulling out of their own driveways, and a design near the Sikh Temple that raised serious emergency access concerns. The project came in over budget at $9.1 million, up from the original $8 million estimate. Active transportation infrastructure is a good thing for Penticton. Bike lanes, better sidewalks, and accessible routes help seniors who can't drive, families who want their kids to ride to school safely, and everyone trying to get around without a car. But good infrastructure has to be designed with the people who use the road every day — not imposed on them. What went wrong on South Main wasn't the idea of a bike lane. It was the process. Riley's position: the lake-to-lake route is built and it's not getting torn up. But going forward, Penticton needs to do infrastructure differently. He will push for genuine community consultation at the design stage — not an information session after decisions are made. He wants full lifecycle cost estimates published before council votes on major projects. He wants post-construction reviews that honestly assess what worked and what didn't. And he believes any future cycling or transportation infrastructure should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis — not treated as a political litmus test.

Penticton property owners have been hit with steep annual increases — 9.5% in 2023, 7.88% in 2025, and 6.26% in 2026. Some of that reflects costs deferred by previous councils. Some reflects real infrastructure needs. But the cumulative impact on families and small businesses is real.

Riley won't insult your intelligence with a blanket tax freeze promise. The city has a $38 million fire hall project, aging infrastructure worth $1.4 billion, and growing demand for public safety. Those costs are real. But he also won't accept that the only answer is to keep reaching into taxpayers' pockets year after year. Here's what Riley will do differently. The casino: Cascades Casino generates roughly $2 million a year in provincial revenue-sharing for the city, plus $300,000 in lease payments — over $2.3 million annually that goes into a Gaming Reserve. Riley will direct a portion of that reserve toward economic development investments that bring back ten times what they cost. The electric utility: Penticton is one of only five cities in BC that owns its own grid. The utility generates an annual dividend for the city. Riley's solar plan will grow that dividend — not by raising electricity rates, but by generating city-owned power that costs less than what we buy wholesale from FortisBC. Grants: Federal and provincial programs exist specifically to fund the kind of initiatives Riley is proposing. The microgrid project just secured over $5.6 million in external funding. Riley will pursue every available dollar from PacifiCan, Innovate BC, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and the FCM Green Municipal Fund before asking Penticton taxpayers for a cent. The green bin program will be funded through a small utility fee — $3 to $5 per household per month — not property taxes. "I can't promise your taxes will never go up. But I can promise that every time someone at that council table proposes an increase, I'll be the one asking: have we used the casino money? Have we applied for the grant? Have we looked at what the utility can fund? And if the answer to any of those is no, the increase doesn't have my vote."

Riley believes in practical environmentalism — not slogans, but real programs that reduce waste, lower costs, and build a more resilient city. He has two specific plans: a curbside green bin program, and solar power on city-owned buildings.

A Curbside Green Bin Program: Right now, every food scrap in Penticton goes into the garbage and gets buried at Campbell Mountain Landfill. That's 40% of our waste stream, by weight, producing methane underground instead of becoming compost that Okanagan farms could use. The RDOS has been trying to build a regional composting facility since 2016, but construction hasn't started and the Agricultural Land Commission has rejected applications twice. Riley won't wait. In January 2025, Net Zero Waste Eastgate — a regional composting facility in the Similkameen Valley already serving Chilliwack — presented to council and offered at-cost processing at $50 per tonne. Riley will push to launch an interim green bin program using Net Zero as a processing partner, getting bins on every curb within his first year on council, then transition to the RDOS's local facility when it's finally built. Estimated cost: $3–$5 per household per month on the utility bill — not your property taxes. Startup costs covered by provincial waste reduction grants. Solar Power on City-Owned Buildings: Council unanimously approved a solar microgrid project in February 2026 — solar panels on four city buildings plus battery storage, primarily for emergency backup at the hospital. That's a solid first step. Riley wants to go further. The SOEC, the Convention Centre, the Aquatic Centre, Public Works yards, and fire halls all have large roofs. The new $38 million fire hall should be designed with solar from day one. Penticton owns its own electric utility. Power generated by city solar panels has no FortisBC wholesale markup — it feeds directly into a grid the city controls. That means higher margins on every kilowatt-hour, reduced dependence on FortisBC rate increases, and the foundation for the subsidized industrial power rates described in Riley's Economic Diversification plan. With over 2,000 hours of sunshine per year, Penticton is one of the best locations for solar in all of Canada.