Bill Sarai
Candidate for City Councillor
Contact Information
Email: Click to Send
Twitter: Click to View
Phone: 250-819-8527
Personal Information
Resident of: Brocklehurst
Age: 60
Current Occupation: Current City Councilor | Retired Canada Post letter carrier of 30 years
Political Experience:
I have served as a City Councilor for the beautiful City of Kamloops since 2018.
I am currently serving my third term as a member of the Southern Interior Local Government Association. I am also Chairperson of the Civic Ops committee. Additionally, I have served as a member of the development, engineering, finance, and sustainability committees. I hold the Vice-President position of the Kamloops Airport Authority Board as well.
Prior to becoming a City Councilor, I worked for over 30 years at Canada Post as a letter carrier, immersing myself daily in the local community. I was part of the Kamloops Social-Planning Council, PAC Committees, and coached local youth sports teams.
When I decided to run for council in 2018, I wanted to bring the community’s voice to City Hall. Over the past four years, I have dedicated myself to attending meetings, functions and spending time with committees and business owners across the city to try and help make Kamloops a better place. I am seeking re-election to continue upon my passion in helping make Kamloops a brighter and stronger community. I pride myself on not missing one meeting where I have been a member or representative of. A vote for me is a vote for someone who will represent you everyday, be an ambassador for the city, go out and communicate with business members, residents, and elected officials daily while being transparent and available in the process.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Bill Sarai
Biography
Kamloops has been my home for over 25 years. I am a proud husband and father of three, with all three of my children having attended K-12 and post secondary education in Kamloops. They have also taken part on various local sports and recreation teams.
In my spare time, I am taking my grandson for walks in the beautiful parks around our city, playing golf at the magnificent greens Kamloops has to offer, or watching our local sports teams play at arenas around the city.
External Page Links
| KTW |
Posted: April 18, 2022 Sarai confirms he will seek re-election in fall |
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Organization Endorsements
Kamloops & District Labour Council
We are the elected representatives of roughly 13,000 unionized workers in the Kamloops area covering Merritt to Valemount and Chase to Lillooet.
Our affiliates work collaboratively to advance the economic and social welfare of workers and with other progressive organizations in the promotion of social justice and human rights as described in the United Nations’ Charter of Human Rights.
We are members of the BC Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress, the latter of which represents over three-million unionized Canadians.
View WebsiteEndorsements
Bill Sarai – Candidate for City Councillor
Bill is the kind of person that when you're speaking with him, you know he's listening and hears you. Bill is well informed on city issues in a way that only comes from being passionate.
Answers to Questions from the Public
Do you think education should be treated as an essential service?
Bill Sarai Answered
Absolutely! As an affordable education for all our students will be a huge positive benefit for our future.
How would you address the challenges of the current funding structure for students with special needs?
Bill Sarai Answered
I believe that the government should not only increase the funding for all 3 levels of Special Needs Assistance. But also needs to provide more complex training and higher wages to the very specialized union support staff that are instrumental in the not only this student growth, but also allowing the teacher the time and resources to manage and teach the rest of the class. No student should be left behind in the classroom or playground due to special needs. The other obstacle is from what I hear from parents of these gifted children. The lengthy delays in getting an assessment and or specialist to support the findings or dispute them. That has got to be addressed, the longer you leave it, the further that child could fall behind.
Please describe the principles of public education and how education should be funded.
Bill Sarai Answered
Public education should continue to be partly funded by local and provincial taxation in our K-12 . I do believe that more funding should be allocated to post secondary diplomas and degrees including trades for students that are having financial difficulties.
I also believe there should be a student loan forgiveness if a student goes into a field that we are critically lacking in, and locates to a part of our province for a duration that would assist that city, town or rural district get back to where it has no ongoing issues.
What do you believe are the critical issues facing your community and school district?
Bill Sarai Answered
Past decisions on school closures, and the fact that past governments slashed the teacher student ratio. So we are now scrambling 10-12 years later to catch up on both fronts. We will assist in identifying and securing future school sites with SD73 for lands from private owners.
We also have to fix the issue of Sun Rivers and Tobiano residents and students using our schools and hospitals, but paying no taxes into the tax base for them to operate.
That has to change.
Many communities are facing drug addiction challenges, homelessness and have seen increase in crime and property crimes. How would advocate for our disadvantaged community members and what solutions would you propose?
Bill Sarai Answered
This is a major issue every community small and large are facing throughout our country.
I am elected to represent my city of Kamloops, so what I see is a major gap in all the initiatives the other levels of governments provide for the individuals on our streets. IHA is always absent from any real dialogue or collaborative work to address this issue. Mental Health and Addiction, is in my opinion a health issue, and we need to treat it as such. We also have to put pressure on our federal laws to swing back the pendulum that is such favour of the criminal. Whether it’s an armed robbery or breaking a window to steal a window display, a crime is a crime and we must have deterrents. The majority would be in my opinion, mandatory health intervention including detox and recovery for those that can’t keep themselves or our community safe! That should be the compassion shown that has eroded to the current level of compassion fatigue.
I truly believe that all homeless individuals are not criminals, and not all criminals are homeless. But in the last 1 to 2 years it is very hard to separate the two. That has to change. We are better than that in Kamloops.
So please do not buy into anyone that has all the answers. I can honestly tell you we are in unprecedented times with unprecedented issues. I have never pointed fingers at other governments, instead I’ve put out my hand to ask for assistance. I will strongly continue to do so on behalf of our city, and work along side anyone who has other solutions that can help us with these complex issues.
Many municipalities are facing ongoing problems and are dealing with staffing issues as part of the current health care crisis. Describe from a local government perspective how would you plan to recruit workers to our community?
Bill Sarai Answered
We have just made improvements to our working hours in our DES department. This has led to 3 new hires. We have to be creative and offer things outside the box that other communities are not offering.
I would like to see the city maybe lease a condo or townhouse to assist new hires in a temporary stable housing environment for say 3-6 months till they can find a place on there own. We have lost a couple of great recent candidates due to the fact they could not secure housing. Attend job fairs throughout our province, and have an online presence across the country. Our Covid protocol was well received by our unionized staff as we paid for the testing that allowed them to come to work.
Describe how you would prioritize fire and flood management and other infrastructure issues such as poor roads and services in our community. Are you prepared to raise taxes to pay for improved infrastructure?
Bill Sarai Answered
Being elected as the Kamloops representative to the SILGA board, Southern Interior Local Government Association. We represent 38 small medium communities, including districts and villages. The idea of our communities always being hit with the cost of fighting the events or hosting ground crews and evacuation centers. In my opinion we are always left with some sort of expenditure that wasn’t covered. The province and feds need to be more proactive than reactive in these all too familiar recurring events. I truly believe that having a non union outfit come in and do major paving and line painting could be brought in house. On the other hand, if our staff do not have the very expensive equipment, and the outfits are unionized, that would have to be a future discussion. I believe we are at a stage in size of growth in area and population, we should invest in the equipment for big savings in the long run.
I do not believe we need to raise taxes for improvement in infrastructure and road and sidewalk improvements. Just put them at a higher priority than they currently are set at. If you are talking about “New” infrastructure, that’s a whole new conversation. I take great pride in our staff seeking out and being successful at grant funding before I support a stand alone project with tax implications.
Define Fiduciary Responsibility and how would you personally apply this to an elected role in Council or the TNRD.
Bill Sarai Answered
Fiduciary duties to me have been an important role as to my duties to all the residents of Kamloops. I have and will continue to debate and vote on matters only after I have all the relevant information. I also will make sure that I am in no way in conflict of the issue.
I will strictly follow all provincial and municipal guidelines on spending allowances and will listen and engage in any future councils decisions to debate pro or con.
If I get elected to the TNRD board I will follow the same principles as above .
Millions of jobs were lost during the pandemic. Describe how you will advocate for replacing those lost jobs with good union jobs.
Bill Sarai Answered
Our city has multiple union job openings as does many union businesses in our area. We and the private union sector need to roll out our collective red carpets and reach out to individuals across Canada to come Live, Work and play here.
It will take the city to support the union workspace and its employer in any way it can. We have been creative in the tax break we give Domtar each year. That is a testament of how much we value an employer that gives back and is always investing in initiatives to cleaner energy sources and reducing green house gasses. We need to attract more IT specialists as that will a key industry moving into the future.
What steps will you take to work towards action on Truth and Reconciliation?
Bill Sarai Answered
I can proudly say, this council and myself have personally heard from communities across our province and throughout Canada. We have a solid meaningful relationship between our Mayor and council and the Chief and council of TTS.
We have and will continue to build on these amazing relationships moving forward.
The announcement of the 215 was a gut punch to us all. So when our neighbouring community was hurting , we as good neighbours, stood with them and supported them in anyway they requested. That is something special to build upon.
The chief and council of TTS have publicly stated of how our two councils have a great working partnership.Recently we were jointly given an Provincial Award for that strong positive relationship. I am personally very proud of that accomplishment.
How will you promote ethical purchases, including local unionized goods and services, where available?
Bill Sarai Answered
We have a solid procurement policy in place I’m told. What I would like to see myself, is if a local union bids on a city job, they should get heavier positive marks for being local. It bothers me when local unionized businesses, who support our community in various ways, supporting recreational sports, funding a local event, holding community events for our residents.
That should count for something. Support local wherever possible.
What steps would you take to ensure your local government hiring practices reflect the community’s population diversity? Are you aware of any existing Employment Equity policies in your community or other communities?
Bill Sarai Answered
Yes I would hope that we follow some form of Equity Hiring practises.
As an elected council should reflect its community, so should the make up of it’s workforce. This should be in every HR’s toolkit.
Describe how you will address housing needs and housing that people can afford in your community?
Bill Sarai Answered
We as a city need to work with our development community. Along with our large private land owners to increase the amount of buildable land. We then can be creative in giving incentives to builders to address the missing middle and also with that is to increase density in our downtown and allow more 4- 6 plexes to be built on large lots throughout our city where we can change the zoning restrictions.
I am in total support in trying something outside the box as we are in uncharted times. Past zoning is not the answer for todays issues of affordability. We need to address this asap as we will keep losing local talent to other provinces.
What can local governments do to attract and create green jobs and businesses in their community?
Bill Sarai Answered
Our council recently approved .05 of a tax increase, to go directly into a climate change initiative fund. This fund will be built up to over $5M in a few years, which will enable us to invest in low to no carbon city fleet vehicles, upgrade our older civic buildings, without having to impact our residents with a one time increase in taxes. With these changes, we will require qualified staff to purchase, program and operate these new green opportunities.
What steps would you take to ensure a Pay Equity policy is in place and that the policy is applied to all staff employed by the local government?
Bill Sarai Answered
Pay equity is a very important issue as well. As you can see at the City level, all staff are paid equally and our management team wether male or female are paid to the level of their job requirements. Not on what sex they are.
I will continue to support this at every level, municipal or private.
Do you support the Living Wage for Families Campaign? Please explain why or why not.
Bill Sarai Answered
Yes I do, I voted in support of a motion before us in council recently. Living wage gives all workers a fighting chance to stay financially afloat. I totally support this initiative moving forward, as I can see it becoming more serious in the very near future. A living wage should be a legislated requirement.
Describe your position on Contracting Out and Public Private Partnerships and how they effect existing jobs.
Bill Sarai Answered
I do not support contracting out especially if will eliminate well paying union jobs.
The change over of IHA unionized laundry staff comes to mind right away. That is not something I want our city to accept again. Having good paying union jobs transferred to a neighbouring community.
What are the top three critical issues facing your community?
Bill Sarai Answered
Top 3 issues are all somehow related. First we must address the pendulum shift of our courts for social disorders. Any type of criminal activity should lead to consequences. Along with that we must hold our local health authorities to task to have meaningful engagement in the local mental health and addiction issues facing the said individuals, but also for the safety of our community. Some sort of mandatory imposed recovery or health assistance must be provided to those who pose the greatest safety risk to themselves and our community as a whole, more importantly it has to be in a timely manner.Lastly tied in to all this is the housing affordability issue facing all our current and new residents in all the housing spectrum, including our thousands of international students. We as a city with our developers and large privately held land owners, have to be work together and get creative in having a local solution.
Are you or have you ever been active in any community organizations, actions, or campaigns?
Describe your volunteer work, positions, and any tangible change to the community from your involvement. Are you still involved with this work?
Bill Sarai Answered
Since moving here in 1995, I have volunteered for the AE Perry PAC till 2010. I also was a volunteer coach and was appointed to Norbrock soccer association executive committee from 1997-2010. Also served one term on the Kamloops Social Planning committee in the 2002-2003.
Have gladly volunteered on both the Summer and Winter games held in Kamloops.
If you are a Union member, does your union (provide union/local name) offer endorsement to members running for public office? If so, have you applied for/received endorsement from your union?
Bill Sarai Answered
When I ran in 2017 and 2018 I had requested and received unanimous support for endorsement from my local CUPW executive committee. Retired in April 2019 after 31 years as a Letter Carrier with CPC.
Have you ever been a candidate or volunteered in a previous civic, provincial, or federal election? If so, please give details.
Bill Sarai Answered
Was a proud CUPW member in good standing for over 31 years. I along with our local CUPW have volunteered for federal NDP candidate in a past election. Was a big union supporter for the Jack Munro and civic leaders like Harry Rankin in my days growing up in Vancouver.
I was a candidate in the 2017 by-election and again in 2018 civic elections. Currently I am a elected Kamloops City Councillor.