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Keenan Dennehy (BC Greens) Answers 3 KCFN Questions - Kootenay–Rockies Provincial Election, October 2026
Provincial elections matter.
From household affordability and housing to Indigenous rights, community services, agriculture and local food systems (to name just a few)... politics and public policy have real consequences in our everyday lives.
With British Columbia heading to the provincial polls this October — Advance Voting runs from Friday, October 16 through Wednesday, October 21, with Final Voting Day on Saturday, October 24 — the Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network recently narrowed our many possible interconnected food-system questions down to three (3) that we sent to candidates running for MLA in the two ridings covering our communities: Columbia River–Revelstoke (which includes Kimberley) and Kootenay–Rockies (which includes Cranbrook).
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 our communities on important matters such as the three questions we asked below.
Keenan Dennehy (BC Greens) is running for MLA of Kootenay-Rockies (which Cranbrook is a part of). You can learn more about their candidacy through their Facebook and Instagram (or official party page) — but first, please see below for Keenan's responses to our three KCFN questions, which we have shared as submitted.
Q1. Household food insecurity is primarily an income and affordability issue. What provincial policies would you support to reduce food insecurity and improve access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food for people in our region?
Food insecurity is an income problem. The BC Centre for Disease Control says the strongest predictor is household income, not the price of food. In 2025, 23.2 per cent of people in BC lived in a household that struggled to afford food, up from 16.3 per cent in 2018. At the Cranbrook Food Bank, working people went from about 13 per cent of clients to about 21 per cent in one year.
I would push to raise social and disability assistance above the poverty line and tie it to inflation, move the minimum wage toward a living wage, and bring in vacancy control so rent can't be raised every time a tenant moves out. A single person on income assistance gets $1,060 a month. The average one-bedroom in Cranbrook rents for $1,054, with very little vacancy.
I would also push for a target in law to cut food insecurity, reported every year, as Food Banks BC is asking for, and for multi-year funding for the Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program. More than 3,600 BC households wanted in last year and could not be served. The coupons are spent with local farmers at the Cranbrook, Kimberley and Fernie markets.
Q2. Indigenous food sovereignty, access to traditional foods and Indigenous-led food systems are part of a strong regional food system. What actions would you support in these areas, and how does your position on B.C.'s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) shape your approach?
I support DRIPA and want it implemented through legislation. For food, that means First Nations decide what their food systems look like, and the Province backs those decisions with steady funding and access to harvesting areas.
The Province's $30 million Indigenous Food Security and Sovereignty Program is fully exhausted and taking no more applications. I would push to bring it back as ongoing funding.
Traditional foods depend on healthy land and water. I would push for no clearcut logging in the watersheds towns drink from, and for forestry reform that brings greater access to and abundance of traditional foods.
Q3. Community food-security organizations and local food-system initiatives are often asked to address long-term challenges through short-term project funding. What role should the Province play in providing sustained support for local food production, food-security infrastructure, organizations and regional collaboration?
Food banks are a stopgap. Food Banks BC says so in its 2025 report, and I do not see them as the long-term plan. The long-term plan is income and rent, my answer to Q1.
While people still need a food bank, the groups running them should not have to re-apply for the same work every year. The Cranbrook Food Bank gets no core government funding. I would push for stable funding while the need lasts, tied to the target in Q1, and multi-year funding for food recovery, shared kitchens and storage, and networks like yours. I would also ask the people running the Cranbrook Food Innovation Centre what they need once its $1 million grant is spent.
On growing food: 145 of the 307 farms in the East Kootenay took in under $10,000 in 2020, and BC farms as a group lost money every year from 2019 to 2025. What helps is households with money left after rent, and farmers with land they can afford and buyers they can count on. I would push to keep funding land matching, which pairs new farmers with idle farmland, and for schools and hospitals to buy more from East Kootenay farms.
Many thanks to Keenan Dennehy (BC Greens) 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 Keenan's campaign through their Facebook and Instagram (or official party page) — and you can read responses from other candidates via our Provincial Election 2026 page (which we will continue to update as more responses come back).
For official provincial voting information please visit Elections BC.
And then remember, for the upcoming Provincial Election, whether you live in Kimberley or Cranbrook or somewhere else… these are the dates for voting in the upcoming Provincial Election:
Advance Voting: Friday, October 16 to Wednesday, October 21
Final Voting Day: Saturday, October 24
Please Note: Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network (KCFN) sent the same three questions to candidates running for MLA in Columbia River–Revelstoke and Kootenay–Rockies that we were able to find contact information for on Sunday, October 4 (6 candidates in total between both ridings). Candidate responses are published as submitted, with only minor formatting changes if necessary for readability. KCFN does not endorse individual candidates — we endorse informed & engaged voters (and we hope people find these Q&As as engaging and informative as we do).
And don't forget to check out our Municipal Election coverage too!
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