My name is Danny Turner. My family farm is Just A Mere Farm in Erickson, and I am the managing partner with Kootenay Peaks Advisors LP based here in Creston.

Thank you. I am honoured that Area B has trusted me to serve as its Director, and I take that seriously.

I grew up spending every summer in this valley. My grandparents owned Crescent Beach Resort, my grandfather drove the Creston Taxi, and our family home was in Boswell. I was educated at Oxford and spent my working life as a consultant in Toronto, San Francisco and London. In 2011 it was time to come home, and my family and I returned.

Thirty-five years in business taught me how to read an organization, find the gaps and push for real decisions. Here is the vision I will bring to the board:

• An economy built around the people who live and work here. Strong farms, strong families, and local jobs.

• Water and land we can count on, managed with the next hundred years in mind.

• Homes for our families and our workers. The people who make this valley work should be able to live in it.

• A valley that is prepared for wildfire and flood, with infrastructure maintained, not gold plated.

• Local government that answers to the people it serves. When a neighbour comes with an idea, the first words they hear should be “How can we help?”

My children are the fourth generation of Turners in this valley. I want a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. That is what this work is for.

I look forward to working with you.

— Danny Turner