Making strong decisions today for a better outcome tomorrow.
Regional District of Central Kootenay
Area B
I am Danny Turner — farmer, neighbour,
and your candidate for Area B Director.
The decisions that shape life here
— on water, on land,
on long-term finances —
deserve focused, practical attention.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
Polls are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vote.
Every vote in Area B counts. Bring a neighbour.
Not registered? You can register at the poll. Bring ID.
Questions: 250-254-6798
MEET DANNY
Rooted here. Working for here.
My name is Danny Turner. My family farm is in Erickson; we bought the farm from the Malyk family in 2011 and we have been here ever since.
I grew up spending every summer in this valley. My grandparents owned Crescent Beach Resort, and my grandfather drove the Creston Taxi. Our family home was in Boswell. I was educated at Oxford and spent my professional life as a consultant living in Toronto, San Francisco and London. However, In 2011, it was time to settle down, and my family and I returned.
I am running for Area B Director because I think we can do better on the issues that matter most. Water has been a slow-moving problem for years — and when growers in Area B found out at a meeting that even though newly installed water meters were not reporting data the board had still approved moving forward with the next phase of installation, that was the moment I decided to run. We deserve stronger accountability than that.
I spent thirty five years in business. I know how to read an organization, find the gaps, and push for real decisions. I am not running to sit on a board — I am running because I know I can lead with clear focus and decisive action. I care about what this place looks like for the next generation.
Area B deserves the best leadership it can get, and I would like your support to do exactly that.
— Danny Turner
WHERE I STAND
Seven issues.
Clear positions.
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Roads & Rural Infrastructure
Roads: Province · Water: RDCK
Roads belong to the Province, so our job is to hold them accountable for plowing and repairs. Water is ours — and it's where I'll focus. I'll lead the renewal of our aging system, keep it on stable financial footing, and build to a sensible standard. Affordable, safe, future-proofed — not gold-plated.
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Emergency Services
Fire: RDCK · Police: RCMP · Ambulance: Province
Fire is ours, policing is RCMP, ambulance is provincial — and none of it happens in isolation. Area B and the Town of Creston deliver fire and policing together, and that partnership makes the service better and cheaper for everyone. The RDCK should lead that conversation, not pretend it's a solo job.
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Wildfire & Flood Preparedness
Response: Province · Prevention: RDCK
The heavy lifting — suppression, dikes, stream flows — is the Province's, and we hold them to it. Our lane is prevention: FireSmart, emergency management, evacuation planning. As the climate changes the risk, our prevention has to keep pace rather than rely on outdated plans.
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Growth & Development
Enable, don't duplicate
A strong economy needs the RDCK to provide the infrastructure and services that support residents and business — with a "how can we help" attitude. Development belongs to the private sector; our job is to enable it, not bury it in rules the Province already covers. We apply the ALR; we don't gold-plate it.
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Local Taxes & Financial Management
Live within our means
"Our means" is what residents can afford, not what the RDCK wants to spend — so no tax increases above wage growth. All public money comes from taxpayers and must be treated as precious. We also have a real unfunded infrastructure deficit: close that gap before building anything new, and only invest with a fully funded lifecycle plan.
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High-Speed Internet & Cell Coverage
Telecom: Federal · RDCK advocates
Telecom is federal, so the RDCK can't be the provider — but connectivity is now a safety issue. Building on our Columbia Basin Broadband legacy, I'll keep pushing providers and Ottawa to improve rural and highway coverage.
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Parks & Recreation
MAINTAIN FIRST · OPEN TO ALL
Parks, trails and wildlands that are open, accessible and looked after. The Creston & District Community Complex must be run efficiently and to a high standard. Maintenance comes before expansion, and any new development must come with a fully funded lifecycle plan. Finally, the volunteers who keep our halls and trails will get a partner, not a roadblock.
A Letter of Support from the Tilling Family regarding the Good Company Coffee closure in Erickson
Needing Change.
As many of you might know, our family has had its challenges this past year. Did I make some mistakes, and could I have done things differently, yes! But we did our best to move forward. We had hoped that our Regional District and our elected officials would have done all they could do to help keep us going. Maybe they were restricted to rules and regulations, and yet at times they just didn’t seem to care. My challenge with the whole situation is that it was enforcement-led instead of community-led.
There was room for them to keep us open but chose to punish us instead. The ALC report stated two reasons for not supporting our application and one of them was punishment. While there is little chance the coffee shop reopens in Erickson, a place that was loved by many, we want to work with Danny to ensure business owners have a strong advocate in situations like these.
After meeting with Danny Turner who I have known and done business with for many years, it has become very clear that if he had been our area B Director things would have turned out very differently. The Turner family has been living in our valley for three generations, and Danny has a clear understanding on farming and a vision moving forward. There is little time for weak leadership and difficult decisions by strong leaders must be made.
Danny told me this is about our children’s children. I had to laugh when he told me that some people have said he is behind ‘Big Fruit’. There is no big fruit here in our valley, and I would know this as I have a commercial cherry orchard and was a part of BC Tree Fruits in the 80s. Our family is fully endorsing Danny Turner and we hope you will too.
Please feel free to contact me at True Build Contractors.
Sincerely,
Don and Grace Tilling.
Don Tilling
Owner
My prepared remarks for the All-Candidates Forum on Oct 6.
I have a vision for how I see our community and our valley. Let me share my vision with you.
My vision is an economy built around the people who live and work here. Strong farms. Strong families. Living together. A path for dual and non-farm income. A plan for the next generation. Agritourism. Food processing. Forestry. Small business. Local people, local jobs.
My vision is water and land we can count on. Secure. Plentiful. Affordable. Managed with the next hundred years in mind.
My vision is homes for our families and our workers. The people who make this valley work should be able to live in it.
My vision is a valley that is prepared. For wildfire. For flood. Infrastructure maintained, not gold plated.
My vision is local government that answers to the people it serves. Decisions made by people who live here. And when a neighbour comes with an idea, the first words they hear: "How can we help?"
This vision is what will make my children, all of our children, come back and build their lives here. They are the fourth generation of Turners in this valley. We want a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh.
We can't wait for someone else to do it for us. We can't wait for the perfect time. If not now, then when?
Let's get started today.
Danny Turner
Candidate RDCK Area B Director
Creston Valley Advance Letter to the Editor re: July 20 community meeting on Erickson Water System Metering
To the Editor:
Monday night's public meeting on the Erickson water system was a reminder of how much this community cares about its water — and how much strain the system is under.
It's worth remembering how we got here. The Erickson water system, drawing from Arrow Creek, was originally built by the farming families who settled this valley, to serve agricultural use. Over time it was converted into a drinking water system serving both Erickson and the Town of Creston, without the kind of forward planning that a dual-purpose system really needs. That history matters, because it shapes where today's tension is actually coming from.
Metering is being framed as a fix for that tension, but on its own it risks placing the responsibility solely on users — agricultural and residential alike — rather than addressing the infrastructure gaps that exist on both sides of the connection. There was a time when farms in this valley planned their water use with each other to match supply. Under the management of the RDCK that cooperation has eroded, and what's left too often looks like a free-for-all, where everyone draws what they can rather than what the system can sustainably provide.
Rebuilding that cooperation isn't just about meters. It's about infrastructure investment, and about restoring the kind of coordinated planning this valley once had — between users, the community, and the RDCK.
Water issues on this scale take time, technical work, and follow-through at the board table. I believe Area B deserves a director who stays engaged with this file year-round — especially when tensions rise.
I would welcome the chance to be that voice for Erickson and the rest of Area B — and to keep listening to the people who know these properties and this water system best: the people who live here.
Sincerely,
Danny Turner
Candidate RDCK Area B Director