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Roth Hall Answers 3 KCFN Questions - Cranbrook 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.
Roth Hall is running for Cranbrook City Councillor. You can learn more about their candidacy through their website and Facebook page — but first, please see below for Roth'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 attended the “Innovate for Impact: Social Hackathon” at College of the Rockies on September 26, focused on The Future of Food in Cranbrook. It was organized by Community Futures East Kootenay.
I find it particularly encouraging that Cranbrook’s new Our Path to 2042 Official Community Plan includes food-security policies supporting urban agriculture, community gardens, backyard hens, and partnerships with community organizations. The City is also moving to add the Community Food Charter to the OCP.
We have a foundation; now we need to implement it. As a Council member, I would support putting these policies into action and would carefully consider food-security initiatives brought forward to Council.
That could include protecting appropriate agricultural land through good long-term planning, supporting community gardens and public growing spaces, making sure zoning and permitting processes are not unnecessarily difficult for appropriate food-related businesses, and supporting farmers’ markets and other ways for local producers to reach consumers.
I believe good municipal planning should look beyond today’s needs and help build a more resilient community for the future. A stronger local food system is an important part of that resilience.
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?
KCFN emphasizes collaboration rather than trying to have one organization do everything itself. Its network includes food banks, food recovery, community gardens, an urban farm, a commercial kitchen, farmers' markets and other organizations.
I believe the City has an important supporting role, but I don't think City Hall should try to replace the organizations and volunteers already doing this work exceptionally well.
KCFN itself is a good example of the value of bringing these organizations together rather than having everyone work separately.
I would support the City developing more regular communication with local food-security organizations to understand where the greatest needs and gaps are. Where appropriate, the City could provide practical support through access to municipal spaces or land, partnerships, promotion, coordination, and assistance in identifying provincial, federal or other funding opportunities.
Most importantly, I would want Council to listen to the organizations doing this work and ask a simple question: What could the City do that would make your work more effective?
Sometimes the most valuable municipal contribution isn't creating another program — it's helping good existing programs succeed.
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?
Food security should be considered part of community resilience, not treated as a separate issue.
Wildfires, drought, extreme weather or a disruption to Highway 3 could affect both our ability to produce food locally and our ability to bring food into the community. We should therefore think about what happens if normal supply chains are interrupted for several days or longer.
I would support incorporating food security more explicitly into the City's emergency and climate-resilience planning. That means identifying the organizations, facilities, food supplies and infrastructure that would be important during a prolonged emergency, and establishing relationships and communication plans before a crisis occurs.
This is another area where collaboration is essential. The City already works with the East Kootenay Emergency Management Program and many community organizations during emergencies. I would like to see local food-security organizations included in those conversations so their knowledge and resources can be part of our preparedness planning.
We should also continue strengthening the local food system during normal times — supporting local growers, community gardens, food recovery, food storage and other initiatives that increase our capacity to produce and share food locally.
We can't prevent every wildfire, drought or transportation disruption. But good long-term planning can make Cranbrook less vulnerable when those things happen.
Many thanks to Roth Hall 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 Roth's campaign through their website and Facebook page, and you can read responses from other candidates through our Municipal Election 2026 page (which we will continue to update as more responses come back from candidates).
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: Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network (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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