Michelle Nex Answers 3 KCFN Questions - Kimberley Municipal Election, October 2026

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.

---

Michelle Nex is running for Kimberley City Councillor. You can learn more about their candidacy through their Facebook page— but first, please see below for Michelle'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?

I actually feel quite strongly that we should be producing as much of our own food locally as is reasonably possible.

Obviously, we can't produce everything we need here, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking at what we CAN produce and how we can make it easier for people to do that.

We already have some great people and organizations doing this work. I think the City should be asking them what would help. Is there City-owned land that could be put to good use? Are there bylaws or other barriers that make growing or selling local food unnecessarily difficult? Are there opportunities we haven't thought of yet?

The more food we can produce here, the less dependent we are on everything having to come from somewhere else. And when we buy food that's produced here, we're also supporting people right here in our own area.

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?

Honestly, my first step would be to ask the people doing the work what they need.

They're the ones who know where the gaps are and what's making their jobs harder. I don't think Council should assume it knows the answers.

Maybe they need space. Maybe they need help finding funding. Maybe the City can help connect different groups or help with something that's getting in their way. I don't know what all of those answers are, and I don't want to pretend I do.

What I would do is ask, listen, and then see where the City can actually help.

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?

This is actually one of the reasons I think producing more of our own food is important.

We live where we live. Roads can close. Wildfires happen. Bad weather happens. Things can happen that interfere with getting food into our community.

We're obviously never going to be completely self-sufficient, but I do think there's some security in knowing that at least some of what we need is being produced close to home.

As far as emergency planning goes, I think we should already know who our local food producers are, what resources are available, which organizations are helping people with food, and how everyone could work together if our normal supply was disrupted.

And we need to think about the people who would be affected first. Someone who is already struggling to put food on the table doesn't have the same ability to stock up for an emergency as someone who can afford to go out and buy a week's worth of extra groceries.

Those are things we should figure out before we need them, not while we're in the middle of an emergency.

Thanks again for including me. These were good questions and definitely worth thinking about.

---

Many thanks to Michelle Nex 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 Michelle's campaign through their Facebook page, 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).