Klaus Kuhn is running for re-election in the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s Electoral Area I (Youbou/Meade Creek).
Kuhn, who has been the area’s director for a total of 11 years, has lived in Youbou for 22 years.
Born in Germany, Kuhn has 31 years of banking, finance and investment experience and was an initiator of the Cowichan Lake and River Stewardship Society.
He said his priority is to make Youbou/Meade Creek a livable area, which means to have residents of all ages, to have successful businesses, and to have well looked after recreational facilities, parks and trails.
“I encourage business to locate here, we need jobs especially for young people,” he said.
“I will continue to work to strengthen our partnership with Mosaic to open up forestry lands for recreational use. Also, I will work towards Bald Mountain Park to become a regional park. This will reduce our costs of maintaining that large park and trail system.”
Kuhn said federal and provincial governments have not kept up with their fiscal responsibilities, and the consequence has been that local governments felt they have to step in to fund and provide programs that are traditionally funded by senior levels of government.
He said a current example of this is the Lake Cowichan weir project.
“I have been an opponent of taking on any fiscal responsibilities for the construction of the new weir,” Kuhn said.
“There are ambiguities with regard to the finances of the weir. I am against local taxpayers having to fill the gap that might develop because of a shortfall in funds.”
Kuhn is also asking voters in the electoral area to vote in favour of the referendum on regional recreation that will be held at the same time as the elections on Oct. 15.
“I spearheaded the idea of user-pay funding,” he said.
“If the referendum is passed, there will be a substantial reduction of the tax share to be paid by Area I property owners towards the Cowichan Lake Arena. Please vote to re-elect Klaus Kuhn.”
Kuhn can be contacted at klaus.kuhn@cvrd.bc.ca, k.k@shaw.ca or call 250-745-6243 or 250-701-3145