Ray Thorogood Campaign Platform

My Election Platform
My name is Ray Thorogood and I was born and raised in Winnipeg.  My background is in policing as I was a member of the RCMP for 28 years, including three years in charge of our local detachment in the early 80’s.  Upon my retirement in 1993, my wife and I returned to Tofino and we have been residents of Tofino for the past 21 years.  Since retiring from the Force, I was your bylaw officer for 3 years before moving on to private enterprise in the hospitality business.
I was elected to council in 2011 and my goal then was to address our aging infrastructure and it is still one of my main concerns.  I have enjoyed my term on Council and believe that this council has done a good job working together even though we sometimes disagreed, we moved forward.
I pride myself in my honesty and integrity, being fair and unbiased, non judgmental, a good listener and a proud citizen of Tofino.
There are many issues facing our community now and in the coming years.  Some more pressing than others and unfortunately many are expensive.  In the past 30 years, our population has risen from around 800 to 2000 people.
Tourism is now the driving force of our economy but it also puts a great deal of demand on our infrastructure for water to accommodate the number of visitors as well as our population growth and future development.  All coastal communities are mandated to have secondary sewage treatment facilities.  Then there is the issue of roads, housing, parking and transportation.  I don’t have the answers to these issues but I do have my thoughts on them and council relies on staff and professional consultants to bring forth best options after which we (council) are tasked with making informed decisions.
Tofino has a relatively small tax base of about 2.2 M coming from property tax but almost half of that goes directly to salaries and benefits, the remainder goes towards operational expenses.  Approximately another million comes in from the province though RMI monies collected from the 2% tourism hotel tax but with restrictions on where and how it is used.
If re-elected, I have several pet projects I would promote; those being completion of Gibson Street (behind Shelter to 4th Street), reconstruct Hellesen Road, and renovation of our Community Hall.