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Angela Symes Answers 3 KCFN Questions - Kimberley Municipal Election, October 2026
Updated: Oct 5
Municipal elections matter.
From land use and infrastructure to affordability, emergency preparedness, community services and local food systems (to name just a few)... politics and public policy have real consequences in our everyday lives.
With Kimberley and Cranbrook soon to be hitting the municipal ballot boxes — Advance Voting is open Wednesday, October 7 & Wednesday, October 14, with General Voting Day on Saturday, October 17 — the Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network recently narrowed our many possible interconnected food-system questions down to three (3) that we sent to all candidates for Mayor and City Council in both communities.
We're sharing their responses on our website/socials as they come back to us to help residents (which includes ourselves) hear directly from the people seeking to represent us all on important community matters such as the three questions we asked below.
Angela Symes is running for Kimberley City Councillor. You can learn more about their candidacy through their Facebook and Instagram — but first, please see below for Angela's responses to our three KCFN questions, which we have shared as submitted.
Q1. What specific actions would you support at the municipal level to strengthen local food production and access to local food in our communities?
We are fortunate in our community to already have many supportive and collaborative programs in place to address food insecurity in our city. The Healthy Kimberley organization plays a key role in addressing and finding solutions to the many areas of our community where food insecurity directly affects our residents. I am an active volunteer with the Food Recovery Depot and have seen first hand the amazing work that has happened and how this program has grown to serve even more community needs. I think it is our responsibility as councillors to make sure we stay in tune with these organizations and support them in whatever capacity they require as needs change throughout the seasons and the growth of our city. The city can support local food production by continuing to provide communal garden spaces that offer fresh grown options to our community as well as support for our local food recovery and our food bank. When approached by any of these organizations at the city level, our response should continue to be unwavering, supportive and collaborative.
Q2. Food insecurity is affecting households in our communities, while local organizations providing food access and food-security programs are often working with limited resources. What role do you think the City should play in supporting this work, and what specific actions or partnerships would you pursue?
The city should play an important role in not only supporting these programs through local grant funding and tax exemptions but as a partner in all these organizations do. It is also important to keep our residents informed about what is available locally to assist with food insecurity and stay in constant contact with those who are directly working with organizations that lessen the burden on our most vulnerable residents. We need to remain approachable and consistent in our support for every sector of our vulnerable population. This includes our school systems, seniors associations, young parent programs and seasonal initiatives. Again grant supported funding as well as cost of business exemptions should always be considered.
Q3. Wildfires, drought, extreme weather and disruptions to transportation can affect both local food production and our communities' access to food. How should the City incorporate food security into its emergency preparedness and climate-resilience planning?
The city works closely with our emergency response teams. It is important that there is an emergency response plan that highlights plans for our residents. There needs to be clear communication and updates with the greater community in times of extreme uncertainty. It is important to work with our food insecurity programs such as our local food bank to make sure we can access and deliver to residents that may not be able to leave their home in an extreme situation. It is my understanding that the city of Kimberley has a great line of communication with all of our emergency response teams. This summer was a great example of a time of uncertainty where all the city partners were very transparent in regards to what was happening with nearby fires and what our evacuation plan would look like. Having open and up to the moment communication, allows our city leaders to get alerts out to the greater population inorder for them to be prepared ahead of a disaster.
Another option we could look at would be emergency bylaws that would allow temporary relaxed food handling and donation liability protection to allow distribution in times of emergencies. Without these emergency bylaws, food distribution during a crisis could be shut down due to regulations set out by the province. We saw an example of this during the 2013 floods in Calgary where emergency food support was shut down during clean up efforts where services were not available but very much needed.
Many thanks to Angela Symes for taking the time to respond to our questions — and cheers to all of the candidates who have put their names forward to serve our communities in these important roles (and thank YOU for stopping by to read & add some more context to your voting decisions/discussions).
You can learn more about Angela's campaign through their Facebook and Instagram, and you can read responses from other candidates through our KCFN Municipal Election 2026 page (which we will continue to update as more responses come back).
For official municipal voting information and full candidate information, remember where you live and then visit the City of Kimberley 2026 Election page and Kimberley candidate profiles (if you live in Kimberley), or the City of Cranbrook 2026 Election page and Cranbrook candidate profiles (if you live in Cranbrook). And for wherever you live, ElectionsBC is always a good spot online to visit for trustworthy election information.
And then remember, for the upcoming Municipal Election, whether you live in Kimberley or Cranbrook or somewhere else… these are the dates for voting in the upcoming Municipal Election:
Advance Voting: Wednesday, October 7 & Wednesday, October 14
General Voting Day: Saturday, October 17
Please Note: KCFN sent the same three questions to all candidates for Mayor and City Council in Kimberley and Cranbrook that we were able to find contact information for on Sunday, October 4th (27 candidates in total between both communities). Candidate responses are published as submitted, with only minor formatting changes if necessary for readability. KCFN does not endorse individual candidates, we just endorse informed & engaged voters (and we hope people find these Q&As as engaging as we do).
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