(Joanne Bray is running in the September 21 by-election in Oliver. Here are her responses to our questions.)
Joanne Bray is president of the Oliver Lions Club and past president of the Oliver Elks Lodge #267.
Lyonel Doherty photo
Q: What prompted you to throw your political hat in the ring? What influenced your decision?
A: I have always tried to better myself and learn new things. My daughter told me once that she has been to more of my graduations than she has had. There are things in Oliver that have always bothered me and maybe I can help come up with solutions.
Q: What is your background?
A: I was born in Toronto, ON. I had three children, two boys and one girl. I am married to Harry Bray and we have seven children, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. I have always worked with the public and have a good insight into many occupations.
I have worked in the taxi industry and the nursing industry. I have also had a renovation business, owned and operated a farm with cattle and race horses and owned and operated a motel/restaurant. I am immediate past president of the Oliver Elks Lodge#267 and am president of the Oliver Lions Club.
Q: What is your platform? What issues concern you in Oliver?
A: Helping children, youth programs, home care for senior citizens, expanding our town and working on doing something about the vandalism and the drug problem.
Q: What do you think the Town can do better?
A: We have a great little town here in Oliver, but one of the biggest problems is that it is not expanding. A lot of elderly people are comfortable with the small town atmosphere. Something has to be done to encourage younger families to come to Oliver to live and work, as well as keeping young families here.
Q: What are your thoughts on youth delinquency? Some youth have no respect in this community re: vandalism. What can we do about that?
A: This is a problem in every town. Children have to be taught from the beginning, at home and in the schools that vandalism is destructive and hurts people; it is not cool or fun. There should be more effort put into catching them in the act. There is finally something being done about bullying, why not vandalism?
Q: What would you do to boost economic activity in Oliver?
A: There is no sense working on boosting economics in Oliver until we get a hotel to accommodate people when they do come to Oliver. For example, the Oliver Elks were asked to host the annual convention, which would be hundreds of people from all over Canada and money for the town, but there would be no place for accommodation so the Elks had to say no.
Q: If you could change one thing in Oliver, what would it be and why?
A: I would like to see a Costco or Walmart store in our town. Our money is going to the United States or Penticton for shopping when it should be staying in our town.
Q: How can we enhance tourism in Oliver?
A: I would like to see our town work on something for tourism other than just being the Wine Capital of Canada. We need more than wine to attract visitors.
Q: What more can we do to accommodate summer transients and fruit pickers?
A: The wineries, vineyards and fruit growers need these pickers to get their crops ready and fruit off.
There are some that have no accommodations for these people, and it is left up to the town to cope with. We do have Loose Bay for them but they have a hard time getting to and from there. Having a shuttle service to and from would be a great idea. If the wineries, grape and fruit growers could all make a donation into this shuttle service, they would be helping and the people would feel better about all this.
Q: If you could pick one problem in Oliver and offer a solution, what would it be?
A: Here is one I don’t think anyone has thought of and probably doesn’t want to. The service clubs, legion and thrift store are all looked after by volunteers. Take a look at the average age of these people. What is going to happen when their time is up? Volunteers are the heart of every town, but they are dying out. People are too busy.
We are losing service clubs that spend endless hours making sure children have hearing aides and glasses, and that families get to Vancouver when the children are in need of surgery. Money goes to camps for children, cancer, youth groups, housing for the elderly, and the list goes on.
The solution for this is for the next generation to join a service club or legion. They are all in need of volunteers. It doesn’t take a lot of time; four or five hours a month isn’t a lot of time and you will feel great knowing you have done something for children, youth, the elderly and your town.
