kelownaelections.ca

Tim Down

Candidate for Councillor

Background

Tim Down is a real estate broker, property-tax advisor, and former Terrace city councillor now running for Kelowna City Council.

Down was elected to Terrace City Council in November 1996 and served as an active councillor; the City of Terrace's December 16, 1996 council minutes name "new Councillors" including Tim Down (p. 5, resolution 918), and he appeared as "Councillor Down" at that meeting commenting on Mills Memorial Hospital funding and moving resolutions. The 2026 Kelowna candidate's link to this record rests on his own described Terrace council service plus contemporary candidate reporting, not the minutes alone.

He is currently an Associate Broker with NAI Commercial Okanagan and owner of PacWest Commercial Real Estate Advisors. He holds the CAE, CCIM, and RI professional designations and has worked in property valuation, municipal taxation, real estate, and business advisory services for nearly four decades.

His LoopNet broker listing describes him as specializing in IC&I (Industrial, Commercial & Investment) Sales and Leasing.

2026 Campaign

Down announced his candidacy on August 5, 2026. His campaign tagline is "Better decisions. Better services. Better value."

His platform identifies five priorities: Better Value for Every Tax Dollar; Safe Streets / Effective Care; Smart Growth / Attainable Housing; Jobs, Investment & Local Business; and A Fire-Resilient and Water-Secure Kelowna.

Core pledge: "I will ask better questions before asking taxpayers for more," and: "Good government is not measured by spending the least or the most. It is measured by spending the right amount, for the right reasons, in a way that leaves our community stronger."

Down stated: "Every dollar the city spends began as money earned by a resident, a family or a business… Before asking taxpayers for more, council should clearly define the need, compare reasonable alternatives, understand the full long-term cost and determine how success will be measured."

He was named one of seven council candidates at the first election forum at Revelry Kelowna on September 16, 2026.

In an undated ForChange Kelowna candidate questionnaire, Down described a "Better Value Test" for operating and capital decisions — define the need, compare alternatives, disclose the full lifecycle cost, and establish measurable outcomes before approval — and called for "clear standards for public spaces" with coordinated RCMP, bylaw, fire, outreach and health responses and transparent reporting on repeat calls and response times.

At the first Castanet election forum (Revelry Kelowna, September 16, 2026), Down cited a 9% unemployment rate for August and characterized the current homelessness response as "managed misery," calling instead for bylaw enforcement focused on conduct that "a civil society will no longer accept" while health and police authorities handle their respective roles. On housing, he proposed a concierge service to process development approvals in roughly 15 days. The unemployment figure is as stated by Down and has not been independently verified.

Campaign site: https://www.timdown.ca Contact: info@timdown.ca / media@timdown.ca. Financial Agent: Tony Parmar. Social media: Instagram @timdown.ca (https://www.instagram.com/timdown.ca/); LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-down/.

Questionnaire responses

Answers to the standardized Kelowna Elections questionnaire, sent in identical form to every councillor candidate. Published verbatim; received 2026-09-27 after a resend.

Tim Down's first reply to the questionnaire (2026-09-21) directed voters to his campaign website rather than answering the questions directly. He subsequently said he had not received the original questionnaire — his September 21 reply is on record — and the questionnaire was resent on 2026-09-27. The answers below were received the same day.

1. Housing affordability

Kelowna needs more housing, but approvals alone do not make housing affordable; housing policy should begin with the needs and incomes of the people who will live here, not simply the form of development that produces the highest residual land value or return. I support more townhomes, family-sized apartments, co-operative, non-market and middle-income housing, with additional four-to-six-storey development directed to locations where transportation, water, sewer, fire protection and other infrastructure can support it. I would also review well-located, infrastructure-ready City lands before they are sold, comparing a long-term ground lease for affordable, co-operative or middle-income housing with an outright sale so the community retains the land and can secure lasting housing outcomes. I am prepared to accept appropriate increases in density and reduced parking requirements, but DCC reductions and other public incentives should be transparent, financially sustainable and tied to measurable affordability, tenure, construction and occupancy results.

2. Public safety

Public safety requires both effective enforcement and effective care. Police and bylaw resources should focus on criminal behaviour, dangerous conduct and maintaining safe public spaces, while qualified health or alternative-response teams should handle calls that do not require police authority. I would measure the public-safety levy and related programs against outcomes such as response times, repeat calls, workload and public-space conditions, while continuing to press the Province for treatment, complex-care, supportive-housing and justice capacity that municipalities cannot provide themselves.

3. Homelessness & the supervised consumption site

I would not have supported locating a supervised consumption site at 1649 Pandosy Street. The site operates under a federal exemption, and with its renewal before Health Canada, I would ask that its location, neighbourhood impacts, public safety and the concerns of residents and businesses receive meaningful reconsideration and its relocation. Vancouver's recent 900 Helmcken case followed a different regulatory process, but it demonstrated that siting and community impacts can be taken seriously. Within the City's jurisdiction, I would review and, where legally supportable, strengthen and consistently enforce bylaws dealing with behaviour, conduct, nuisance and interference with the public's use of parks and public spaces, while advocating for mandatory treatment for those struggling with complex-care and recovery capacity with all levels of Provincial and Federal Governments.

4. Taxes & budget

The questionnaire cites the preliminary 4.37% increase; Council ultimately approved 4.40% and a budget over $1.1B. I would protect frontline public safety, essential services and maintenance of existing infrastructure, while reducing, redesigning or deferring lower-priority spending, duplication and capital projects that cannot demonstrate sufficient public value. Before increasing taxes or fees, I would require major spending to pass a Better Value Test: define the service standard, examine alternatives, disclose five-year and total lifecycle costs, show measurable results, and account for the full public cost because there is ultimately only one taxpayer. The objective is not simply to spend less or more, but to control costs first and spend the right amount on the community's highest priorities.

5. Growth & infrastructure funding

Growth should contribute to the infrastructure it requires, but costs should be allocated according to who benefits and over what period, using an appropriate mix of DCCs, reserves, user-supported utilities, senior-government funding and general property taxation. If I must identify one current infrastructure project, I would prioritize the Clement Avenue Extension from Spall Road to Highway 33 because it would create a fourth east-west corridor through constrained Midtown and improve network capacity and redundancy. Before final construction approval, however, I would apply my Better Value Test to the updated cost, funding sources, alternatives, lifecycle obligations and measurable transportation benefits.

6. Transit & getting around

If required to choose one mode, my immediate priority is the road network, led by the Clement Avenue Extension, but I do not see roads, transit and active transportation as competing systems. Clement can add needed east-west capacity while maintaining the Okanagan Rail Trail and creating greater flexibility for future transit improvements on Harvey Avenue/Highway 97. My complementary long-term priority is the UBCO-Gateway-airport transit network, anchored by the future Regional Transit Centre, to better connect homes, education, employment and the airport as that part of Kelowna grows. Transportation investments should ultimately be measured by improvements in capacity, reliability, travel times, safety and value for taxpayers.

7. Downtown & the local economy

A successful downtown must be safe, welcoming and economically viable for the people who live, work, visit and invest there. I support consistent conduct-based enforcement in public spaces, coordinated police, bylaw and appropriate outreach responses, together with a Business and Investment Concierge that gives qualifying businesses and employment projects one accountable path through City Hall with clearer requirements and timelines. The City should also make approvals more predictable, support accessible and attractive public spaces, and strengthen business retention, expansion, tourism and year-round activity rather than simply measuring economic activity after it occurs. Publicly funded economic-development, tourism and event programs should have clear costs, targets and reported results so Council and taxpayers can see what is actually producing investment, jobs and downtown vitality.

Follow-up responses

Answers to the Kelowna Elections follow-up questionnaire on three live community issues, sent in identical form to every councillor candidate. Published verbatim; received 2026-09-27.

1. Audible bird-scare devices ("bird cannons")

Yes. I would support a Kelowna bylaw incorporating agricultural best practices: reasonable setbacks, daylight operating hours, a midday quiet period, firing-frequency and device-density limits, regular relocation, registration and a Bird Predation Management Plan demonstrating that cannon use is justified by actual bird pressure. I would have the proposed 300-metre setback specifically evaluated for homes, schools, daycares and other sensitive uses rather than select an arbitrary distance and require management plans to consider lower-impact alternatives such as netting, visual and predator deterrents, raptor measures and lower-impact electronic devices as part of an integrated approach. Where substantially tighter restrictions impose significant transition costs on established farms, I would also explore senior-government or agricultural cost-sharing for effective alternatives rather than simply transferring the entire cost to farmers. Transparency and accountability.

2. Prospera Place / MNP Place operator and transparency

Taxpayers should be able to understand how a major long-term public contract was awarded. I would want the City to release the evaluation criteria and weightings, overall scoring, financial comparison, staff rationale, taxpayer obligations, performance requirements and the final agreement once executed, while protecting only information that must legitimately remain confidential under procurement and privacy law. If negotiations remain underway, Council should clearly state that fact and identify what can be disclosed now and what will be released when negotiations are complete. Transparency and accountability.

3. Highway 97 right-of-way protection

I would not treat widening Highway 97, transit and an alternate route as mutually exclusive choices. Before committing to decades of protecting and eventually acquiring a 50-metre right-of-way through approximately 14 kilometres of developed Kelowna, I would ask the Province and City to update the comparative business case for that approach against transit improvements, intersection and signal upgrades, the Clement-Glenmore-Hollywood parallel network, and a future regional bypass or alternate corridor; B.C. communities including Nanaimo, Campbell River and Quesnel provide useful precedents for separating regional highway traffic from established urban corridors. Any option should disclose its full lifecycle cost, measurable congestion and goods-movement benefits, property impacts and timetable, with affected owners consulted early and treated fairly under the applicable property-acquisition framework. Transparency and accountability.

Registered campaign links

From the official candidate registration record; presence here is not an endorsement.

Financial agent: Tony Parmar

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