Katie Neustaeter

Katie Neustaeter Answered

Education is without exception an essential service for a country that is planning for the generations to come, invested in its youth, and hopeful for its future.
Education is a fundamental right that should be accessible and affordable.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

The intersection of a housing crisis and escalating social issues (mental health, addictions, homelessness, crime) is currently our most pressing issue.
Housing: We need to listen to builders telling us that arbitrary/blanket requirements, inefficient processes, and unnecessary bureaucracy are barriers to building the attainable homes our population needs.
We must implement creative ways to cut red tape, change arduous zoning, and decrease permit processing time. Co-operative housing, multi-family housing, and other entry-level housing is necessary. We need options for the Missing Middle.
With only 3% of available land to build on in Kamloops, we must unlock it. The Chamber of Commerce has put forward a Land Trust policy document proposing a “robust mechanism for ecological land donations” – these are the kinds of solutions to seek.
Additional considerations include maintaining awareness that industrial land must be preserved for business development, and that social housing and its occupancy should be regularly inventoried.
Social issues: Addressing housing effectively will begin alleviating some of the pressing issues facing our community, but others require an approach that interconnects/consolidates wrap-around services and/or removes the greatest impacts to the public.
Evidence shows we can’t warehouse people in buildings and expect change to occur; we need policy that regulates the disbursement of tenants of supportive housing, prioritizing units for those seeking recovery.
Let’s examine the execution of harm reduction (meant to be 1 of a 4 pillared approach: treatment, harm reduction, education, and prevention) and rebuild strategies to improve the devastation of addiction/overdose by working with qualified service providers/social service agencies.
Furthermore, city council should work with/advocate to other levels of government to aggressively discontinue “catch and release” and enforce consequences for prolific offenders.
Finally, let’s find practical ways to build the connections that inspire individuals at the neighbourhood level to build community and feel less alone.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

While this isn't a direct area of responsibility for a municipal government, it should certainly be a top priority as it impacts the quality of life for the people who live here. Kamloops must become a more desirable place to work, live, and play of we want to see the shortage of healthcare workers decline.
We need available and affordable housing, the culture this demographic is seeking, and we should consider what incentives can be offered for relocation. Retention is also a vital consideration.
We should be motivated to make Kamloops a desirable place for healthcare workers to live and raise their families while motivating IH to change the environment they are asking workers to be a part of.

We need to lay down our egos and bring key stakeholders to the table to define how we can each play our part in alleviating this unjustifiable decline in both conditions and care so we can fix the broken system we are unreasonably asking workers to burn themselves out for.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

The city has been learning from the overlapping and increasing extreme environmental events that impact our citizens, but we have great work to do as we recognize that these will continue.
Climate change and the areas to prioritize when combating its effects aren’t my personal area of expertise, so I believe we should look to environmental scientists and municipalities seeing results in these areas so we can explore how we might adopt their methods in practical ways in Kamloops.

However, dealing with the social infrastructure of environmental crises is my wheelhouse. We need to proactively build strategies, partnerships, and procedures that mitigate confusion and trauma when events happen. A clear flow of communication ensuring activities performed by key stakeholders are not duplicated and that gaps are filled, anticipating and activating a coordinated response effort to house, feed, resource, and care for the mental health of people affected by environmental crises is necessary, and we must do it together.
EMBC, Tk’emlups, those working in food security, the hospitality and accommodation sector, adjoining municipalities. etc

As far as roads and services, I thin there is a time for short term and a time for long term solutions. With a predicted recession on the horizon and our currently pinched economy I'm currently hesitant to increase taxes when so many folks are already feeling the pressure of rising grocery costs, rental increases/shortages, increased goods and material expenses, etc.
I prefer at this moment in time to work within the current city budget and on its set priorities.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

In essence, fiduciary responsibility in this context means responsibly looking after the best financial interest of the taxpayer.
Is our budget reflective of our priorities? Does spending policy align with ethical practise? Is responsible oversight in place so that the need for discretion is limited because the scope is narrow? Is the right staff in place to ensure the pennies are counted so the dollars can be managed? And so on.
In my role as the Executive Director of a significant local nonprofit it was my highest priority to both manage and spend dollars with the highest and most transparent practise possible, recognizing that in order to both be accountable to donors and accomplish the goals we strive for, money must be managed well.
Due diligence, full disclosure, declared conflicts of interest, confidentiality and more must be prioritized in order for the taxpayer to be satisfied.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

We are currently in an active labour shortage. The job opportunities are prevalent and we need to concentrate on attracting the critical workforce we need for our economy to thrive by creating an affordable, accountable, and advocacy-based city that is reflected in our workplaces.
It is my understanding through consultation with union members that while there is something to be desired in the current culture of the city's employees and the union has a desire for stronger communication with council in order to rectify it, a strong and satisfactory collective agreement is in place.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

As a non-Indigenous person, it’s not my place to lead in this area, but to listen, learn, and enter with a spirit of humility and willingness.
I’m proud of the relationship that Kamloops and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc enjoy. It should be celebrated, never taken for granted, and needs to be fortified. Continuing the efforts of truth and reconciliation cannot happen without an honest understanding of our history and how Indigenous people have been intentionally disadvantaged through colonial systems. This learning should be promoted by the city through efforts like sharing circles and other educational opportunities in order that we decolonization both our thinking and our systems.
Furthermore, economic reconciliation is often misunderstood or ignored. Acknowledging that the Indian Act subjugated Indigenous people financially by removing them from our economy while squelching their own helps us move toward collaborative solutions.
Under the guidance of our neighbouring community, TteS, we can begin making these things right at the local level by offering innovative partnership opportunities on capital and infrastructure projects that benefit both peoples. Perhaps joint proposals at provincial/federal levels and a joint marketing approach that attracts economic opportunity through a unified strategy?
Tk’emlups, “where the rivers meet”; a great symbolism for how our two communities must come together and function as one.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

While the decisions are not made by City Council, it's important that elected officials understand how contracts are awarded and inform the process.
It's my understanding that the city of Kamloops now has a liaison to the labour council, which will hopefully be an important step in ensuring that our procurement policies follow the guidelines that result in local suppliers being involved in the procurement of goods and services.
Unions contribute to the health and well-being of our city at a very high level and should be symbiotically respected when there is opportunity for ethical reciprocity.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

It's my understanding from reading council minutes that the city is working toward equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives. Council recently approved a new position toward this end (I believe temporary) who will be conducting staff-wide training and the business case is publicly available.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

I believe this to be the most pressing and important question of this election cycle and our community's greatest current need.
There is no one solution to this crisis and we need to take the greatest of all ideas and allow them to work in symphony for the common interest.

Reducing red tape for developers to expedite process and lower risk/cost (ie. 18 months to be approved/rejected is too long), expanding opportunity for multi-family building, stop adding mandatory and subjective costs until units intended to be affordable housing are no longer so, incentivize mixed model housing that parcels out units designated for intended-use purpose (ie. low income or affordable housing set aside in every new build. This will also help address some of the intersecting social issues like supporting those in or seeking recovery), are a few places to begin.

We also need to look to other countries who have experienced this kind of housing crisis and addressed it effectively in the past instead of trying to do what has historically always been done.

And we need to do these things yesterday.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

To my understanding, Venture Kamloops is the primary implementer of these kinds of economic and environmental drivers as they relate to employment and business opportunities.
I recently met with the ED and we discussed how the role of that organization and Council intersect to create priorities around the key plans (ie. the City's Climate Action Plan) created to prioritize and meet the outlined objectives of the larger strategy.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

While Pay Equity still has a long way to go before being achieved outside of a North American, unionized environment, at the local level and within CUPE 900 it should certainly be recognized, applied, and implemented in the collective agreement.
If there is a gap in this area it should be addressed immediately by being brought forward to the local Shop Steward.
That being said, it's important to note that the policy has to extend beyond pay equity, and include a system that actually allows for TRUE equity (such as childcare supports, flexibility within a reasonable standard and schedules, etc.). We saw many of these gaps disproportionately impact local women (even within unions) during the pandemic shut down and pay equity policies mean nothing if women (in particular) aren't being supported in actually being in the workplace.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

A living wage for families should be prioritized. I'm proud to work for a unionized organization that is also a living wage employer and have championed that position since i have been in leadership.
If we want to see the workforce empowered and engaged in their work they have to know that it will provide for their most basic needs.
I am also a proponent of advancing the conversation about a universal basic income at the federal level and will advocate to our local MP about the issue.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

I believe in locally sourcing work as much as possible, but understand that it's not always realistic in every scenario (ie. sometimes there is no one qualified to meet the requirements, staffing shortages don't allow, etc.)

Contracting out and PPPs should only occur when there are no other options. Unionized workers at the local level should always be prioritized and these models should only be employed as the delivery of public facilities and services when no other options are available to meet the need.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

I have based my platform, which is being further informed by community consultation, on three pillars which I believe incapsulate the most critical issues facing our community:

1. Affordability:
For Kamloops to be a desirable and attractive place to live we must...
​- Draw and retain a new and targeted workforce
- Support innovative and advantageous development
- Cast a proactive (not reactive) vision for the future

2. Accountability:
In a time when polarization and a lack of responsibility to one another is increasingly the norm, we must transparently move toward...
- Action informed by community consultation
- Equitable, comprehensive, and practical supports for challenging community issues
- Strengthening the external partnerships that can create meaningful change

3. Advocacy:
In a community that works for all, we must work for all people.
Therefore, we must amplify...
- The needs of local businesses
- Children and families
- Health and safety

Katie Neustaeter Answered

Volunteer work:
City of Kamloops Social Planning Council (3 years), United Way TNC Campaign Cabinet Committee and Community Impact Council (7 years), Mustard Seed Coldest Night of the Year (3 years), McHappy Day (3 years), Blazers Game host (multi-season), TRU Foundation gala (multi year), Mayor’s Gala for the Arts, Kamloops Brain Injury Assoc Fundraising (multiple), BC Winter Games (2018), Kamloops Santa Claus Parade (multi year), Wildfire Response and coordination (2017 & 2021), various Rotary fundraising events and community food programs, United Way Workplace Campaign ECC (Pattison Broadcast Centre), Starfish Backpack Program (multi year), Kamloops EmpowerHER (event for leadership training for girls), Kamloops Alliance Church (10+ years, various capacities), City of Kamloops Parking Management collective (2 years), Period Promise Fundraising Campaign (4 years), Kamloops Marketplace Leaders Executive (2 years), Kamloops and District SPCA Furball Fundraiser (2 years), other community events (Overlanders Day, upcoming Tapestry Festival, Buskers Festival, etc).

I have served and volunteered in many capacities within these experiences and continue with many as well.
Because of the pause in most community events over the last 2.5yrs opportunities have been limited, but I’m so excited to reengage with my community through the avenue I love most - volunteerism!

Giving of your time has an invaluable impact on the health of the wider community and also serves as an extraordinary facilitation of learning.

Until you have considered the applications of organizations doing critical work in the community and helped determine how funding will be equitably distributed, it’s difficult to understand how paramount objective input is to the ability of our charities to function and run the programming so many vulnerable people depend on.

I continue to cherish the ability to understand the many agencies, organizations, and groups within our city that work collectively to create a community that works for all, and am committed to maintaining this level of community engagement.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

As I am currently a Director within my organization I am ineligible to be a member of the UWBC union, CUPE 1760, but value our positive working relationship and collaborative approach to all aspects of our organizational structure.

Katie Neustaeter Answered

Yes. I have volunteered on campaigns at all 3 levels of government throughout my lifetime. That experience can be credited with a lot of my commitment to civic responsibility and a sense of the need for community belonging today.

That being said, I have found that as our society has changed and polarization and political extremes are increasingly the norm, I am less inclined to entirely hitch my wagon to a singular party at any level of government.
That is why municipal politics appeal to me so strongly at this moment in time. The ability to make an individual vote based on my ethics, the voices of our most effected community members, and the overarching needs of our city must be paramount in our decision-making at this critical juncture.

The benefit of being a candidate with no slate, no party platform, and no voting block is that I can make decisions based on what I hear from the constituents who are most impacted by the questions at hand.