Fresh Ideas. Real Roots.
Lifelong Port Moody resident, entrepreneur, and advocate for responsible growth. I'm running to make sure Port Moody's future is planned as carefully as its past was protected.
I am proud to be a lifelong resident of Port Moody. At 27 years old, I represent a new generation that is invested in protecting the future of the city we all love. I was born and raised in Port Moody, and I've watched our community grow from a quiet, family-oriented city into one of the most desirable places to live in British Columbia.
Port Moody isn't just where I live, it's my home. It's where I grew up, built lifelong friendships, started my career, and launched my business. Everything I have accomplished has been built here, and that's why I'm committed to giving back to the community that has given me so much.
I've spent my life in Port Moody, and I've watched this city change more in the last decade than in the decades before it. As an entrepreneur, I've built my career on asking hard questions and testing answers before I commit to them, and that's the approach I want to bring to council. I'm not running on slogans. I'm running because I've seen specific decisions play out here: development that outpaced infrastructure, green space under pressure, and a widening gap between what residents are told and what actually gets built. Port Moody's past was protected with care. I want its future to get the same.
These diverse fields of study have shaped how I approach challenges: looking at evidence, planning for the future, understanding the impacts of decisions, and putting the community first.
URSA Supplements is a Canadian health and wellness company. Growing a business has taught me the importance of fiscal responsibility, long-term planning, leadership, and accountability. Decisions I make every day affect employees, customers, and the future of our company. I believe City Hall should support local businesses, encourage entrepreneurship, and create an environment where businesses can succeed while strengthening our local economy.
Four priorities guiding my campaign for Port Moody City Council.
The current Official Community Plan sets Port Moody on a path to grow from roughly 39,000 residents today to 74,300 by 2050. I do not support this level of growth as currently planned. It exceeds what our city's infrastructure can reasonably support. I will advocate for changes to the OCP so future growth reflects the real capacity of our roads, recreation facilities, parks, schools, and emergency services, while helping attract good paying local jobs so residents have more opportunities to work close to home. Growth also has to work with our environment, not against it. I want a Port Moody where we can cohabitate with the wildlife and natural spaces that make this city so beautiful, not push them out to make room for density. Growth should improve our community, not overwhelm it.
We need more housing, but housing that serves the people who actually live and work here. Young adults who grew up in Port Moody should be able to stay in the community they call home. Families should be able to afford to raise children here, and seniors should be able to age in place near friends and loved ones. Simply building more units doesn't automatically create affordability. I support Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing, the provincial legislation that allows triplexes, quadplexes, and townhomes on traditional single-family lots without a lengthy rezoning process, alongside mid-rise and low-rise buildings with the right mix of unit types. I will also advocate for inclusionary zoning requirements so a share of new developments include units residents can actually afford, rather than leaving affordability entirely up to the market.
My studies in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, through my diploma at JIBC, reinforced the importance of planning ahead rather than reacting after problems arise. As cities grow rapidly, demands on policing, fire services, emergency response, and bylaw enforcement grow too. Port Moody currently has about one officer for every 714 residents, compared to roughly one for every 522 in Vancouver, according to the Province's 2024 Police Resources report, and larger urban centres typically see greater public safety pressures than smaller communities like ours. I believe Port Moody should remain one of the safest communities in B.C. by ensuring community safety, and health supports like urgent and primary care, keep pace with population growth rather than catching up after the fact.
My B.Sc. in Biology shaped how I think about our natural environment, habitat, biodiversity, and ecological impact aren't abstract concepts to me, they're something I studied directly. Our forests, creeks, shoreline, and green spaces are home to a remarkable range of wildlife. Local inventories of the Shoreline Park and Rocky Point Park system have documented over 116 bird species, and Burrard Inlet itself is internationally recognized as an Important Bird Area. This isn't just our home, it's theirs too. Future development, including proposals for towers near the inlet, should respect environmentally sensitive areas, preserve wildlife habitat where possible, and protect the natural spaces that define Port Moody's character.
The current OCP's projected population growth by 2050, a pace I believe outstrips our roads, parks, schools, and emergency services. I'll push to align growth with real infrastructure capacity.
Fewer than a third of Port Moody residents cast a ballot in our last municipal election, and turnout among young people is consistently even lower across Canada. When I talk with young people here, most don't even know who our mayor is. Getting the next generation engaged, informed, and voting is one of my core missions this campaign, because the decisions made at City Hall today will shape the city they spend the rest of their lives in.
In the Press
Did you know that approximately 73% of the City's revenue comes from taxation? On top of that, homeowners currently bear about 68% of Port Moody's property tax levy, up from close to 54% twenty years ago.
At the same time, Port Moody's Official Community Plan anticipates growth to approximately 74,300 residents by 2050. It's tempting to think the answer is simply to build as much as possible, since more residents mean more contributions to the City's tax base. But more residents also mean more demand on roads, parks, recreation facilities, emergency services, utilities, and schools.
I want to be clear: I am not against development, I am against irresponsible development. I support responsible, sustainable development that fits our existing infrastructure, protects our environment and community character, and is focused on the actual need for housing in Port Moody, including family housing.
I also think we're asking the wrong question. Why aren't we putting the same energy into growing our commercial tax base? By attracting tech companies, life sciences firms, clean tech companies, and other good employers, we grow our local jobs market and our commercial tax revenue at the same time. A healthy business sector diversifies the City's tax base, eases the long-term pressure on homeowners, and supports our local economy.
As we grow that commercial base, council will also be better positioned to review Development Cost Charges (DCCs) and Amenity Cost Charges (ACCs) to keep them competitive, without unnecessarily driving up the cost of building the family-friendly homes Port Moody needs. I believe Port Moody's future depends on a balanced economy, sustainable development, and sound fiscal management, not on placing an outsized burden on our homeowners.
Sources: City of Port Moody, 2025 Budget Consultation FAQ (taxation share of revenue); City of Port Moody, 2026 Budget Guide, "Let's Talk Taxes" (residential tax levy share, then and now); Port Moody Official Community Plan (2050 population projection).
I have just done my reading of the Official Community Plan, which determines how Port Moody will develop until 2050.
First of all, I must give credit where credit is due, because I strongly believe in the principles of being honest and fair. There are many positive statements in the plan, for instance, "protect and enhance environmentally sensitive terrestrial and aquatic areas and biodiversity." There is a specific target to increase the proportion of protected natural areas from 38.5% to 48.7% by 2050. It also mentions "no net loss of fish and aquatic habitat." And this is definitely a good thing.
But that's where the actions and words stop coinciding. One of the first goals of land use in the same plan promises to "incorporate climate change risks and vulnerability assessments into land use planning and development."
Meanwhile, the same plan admits sea level is "conservatively expected to rise 0.5 metres by 2050 and 1 metre by 2100." So what's the plan for our shoreline, where high-rises are now approved near the water at Coronation Park and on the old Flavelle mill site? In Chapter 12, one line: "Conduct a coastal flood risk assessment to update flood construction levels." Which means that it has not yet happened. The city's own 2020 Climate Action Plan specifically identified the need for such an assessment six years ago. Engagement on the matter starts in 2027. We set the growth targets and postponed the flood risk assessment to a later date.
And then there is our wildlife. According to the very plan, our waterfront belongs to the "Burrard Inlet Important Bird Area." According to the master plan of Rocky Point Park developed by the city, 116 documented bird species use our Shoreline and Rocky Point park systems. And since we want to construct towers close to the inlet, how do we protect those birds from glass high-rises? "Encourage mitigative design strategies to reduce bird strikes in proposed developments depending on the location and scale." Encourage. Not require. The words "migration" and "migratory" do not occur anywhere in the Natural Environment chapter. We are planning towers next to a known bird area and the plan never mentions their migration routes.
And the same thing happens below water. The eelgrass beds, the undersea meadows that harbour our young salmon as they grow up, are never mentioned. The forage fish, the tiny fish that feed our salmon and our herons, never mentioned. And back in 2020, the city's own climate risk assessment ranked "shoreline habitat squeezed out by rising waters and hardened shorelines" as tied for the highest risk rating in the entire assessment. Their own people put it there. Top of the list. Six years ago. Our new plan still does not mandate us to fix it.
I am not opposed to development. I am opposed to doing it the wrong way. You check for flooding potential before you green-light the skyscrapers. You set aside the airspace before you build on top of it. This isn't radical, this is just how any of us would build our homes.
I have linked the relevant chapters below for you to fact-check my assertions. If I got something wrong, do let me know.
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