The director of the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation is hoping her experience in economic development will pay dividends if she is elected to Trail city council.
“The main reason [for running] is I love this city and I think it has a lot of potential,” Rebecca Richards says. “I want to be part of making it even better.”
Richards says her experience with the LCIC has provided her with knowledge of the city’s best assets as well as where work is required. It has also meant working closely with Greater Trail municipalities.
If elected, she says she would work on improving communication between city hall and the public and maintaining the amenities residents are accustomed to.
“The city already provides a huge number of high quality services,” she says. “Just making sure those continue is very important to me. Residents deserve to have good value for their tax dollars. I want to see those services being provided for everyone.”
Richards says the city is facing “very big and complex issues” around things like housing and access to health care. While those are federal and provincial responsibilities, she believes communities have a role to play.
“I think it’s going to be challenging trying to address some of these big problems from a community scale,” she says. “But I think it’s also going to be a really interesting time with lots of new opportunities and ways of exploring how to best serve residents.
She also points to “new, exciting fields” like active transportation, where the city is in the midst of planning.
Richards grew up in Castlegar and has a long family history in Trail, where her great grandparents arrived at the start of the 20th century. She says she was happy to move back to the area after university.
While she “vaguely” considered running for council before, “I didn’t think it was something I could do at a young age. But this year I decided why not? I have the time, so I can make a positive contribution to the community. I can also bring quite a lot of energy and commitment to the role of councillor.”
Richards holds a bachelor of arts in sociology and economics as well as a master of arts in political studies. An active person outside of work, she enjoys skiing, running, and hiking, and has started to learn to play hockey.