Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas joins the One Foot Off Center panel to make his case for a second term ahead of the October 17 election. Dyas walks through his record: restructured city finances, accelerated road and infrastructure projects, more RCMP, bylaw and fire staff, and a drop in the city's crime severity ranking. He's candid about his regrets, including the downtown outreach centre and the Rutland social services office, and explains why mandatory care is a provincial decision, not the city's. The panel presses him on construction fatigue, unemployment, homelessness spending, and business owners who have stopped reporting crime. Dyas also lays out plans for the airport's East Lands, new detox beds for Kelowna, and how he builds consensus with council and staff.

SPONSORS
Soil to Sod Landscaping: https://soiltosod.ca/
Kelowna Rockets: https://chl.ca/whl-rockets/
Jennifer Maddison, RE/MAX: https://www.jennifermaddison.ca/

ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED

Interior Health: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/
BC Housing: https://www.bchousing.org/
Kelowna International Airport (YLW): https://ylw.kelowna.ca/
Kelowna Chamber of Commerce: https://www.kelownachamber.org/

Rick and the One Foot Off Center panel sit down with mayoral candidate Ron Cannan, sitting Kelowna city councillor and former MP, for a long-form look at his platform. Cannan makes the case for a “Campus of Care” model to tackle homelessness and addiction, arguing the city needs real treatment and recovery, not just shelter, plus a regional approach with neighbouring communities. He digs into Kelowna's infrastructure deficit across roads, transit, and rec facilities, how growth outpaced planning, and his case for a third-party core review to find savings while holding taxes down.

Panelists Ron Mattiussi, Cassidy deVeer, and Scott Lanigan press him on funding, past council decisions, transparency, and how he'd build consensus as mayor ahead of the October 17 election.

GUEST
Ron Cannan, Kelowna City Councillor and mayoral candidate (former MP for Kelowna-Lake Country)

Sponsors
Soil to Sod Landscaping: https://soiltosod.ca/
Kelowna Rockets: https://chl.ca/whl-rockets/
Jennifer Maddison, RE/MAX: https://www.jennifermaddison.ca/

Rick sits down with former Kelowna city manager Ron Mattiussi and Cassidy deVeer to separate real

municipal election promises from empty ones — what city council can and can't actually do.

LINKS
CMHC (housing videos referenced in the episode): https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/

SPONSORS

Soil to Sod Landscaping: https://soiltosod.ca/

Kelowna Rockets: https://chl.ca/whl-rockets/

Jennifer Maddison, RE/MAX: https://www.jennifermaddison.ca/


HOST

Rick Maddison

REGULAR PANEL

Ron Mattiussi — Former City Manager, City of Kelowna

Cassidy deVeer — Executive Officer, Canadian Home Builders' Association Central Okanagan

Scott Lanigan — Lead Pastor, Trinity Church Kelowna (unable to join this episode)

The One Foot Off Center podcast panel broke down what ForChange Kelowna should be looking for as it prepares to vet this fall's council candidates.

Does it matter what a candidate did before city council? With roughly 80% of council votes tied to housing, how many names on this year's ballot really understand housing if pressed on the spot?

It's known that councils will spend an hour arguing over a $500 purchase, yet wave through an $84 million project without a second look. Is that a failure of oversight, or just what happens when a number gets too large to feel real anymore? What actually makes someone fit to lead. How do you measure character in a person you've only sat across from once?

Listen for more on how ForChange differs from a political slate, and why the group insists it will never tell anyone how to vote.

Host:

Rick Maddison

Regular Panel:

Ron Mattiussi — Former City Manager, City of Kelowna 


Cassidy deVeer — Interim Executive Officer, Canadian Home Builders' Association Central Okanagan

Scott Lanigan — Lead Pastor, Trinity Church Kelowna

Links:

ForChange Kelowna: https://forchangekelowna.com/

BC is Burning: https://bcisburning.ca/

Thanks to our sponsors: Soil to Sod Landscaping, Key West Mechanical, and Jennifer Maddison, RE/MAX Realtor.
Soil to Sod Landscaping: https://soiltosod.ca/

Key West Mechanical: https://keywestmechanical.ca/

Jennifer Maddison, RE/MAX: https://www.jennifermaddison.ca/


One Foot Off Center is a Kelowna-based panel show where local leaders debate the issues shaping our city. New episodes weekly.

🔔 Subscribe for more Kelowna conversations that don't play it safe.

Should seniors lose the right to vote on decisions they won't be around to live with? Host Rick Maddison is joined by former Kelowna City Manager Ron Mattiussi and CHBA Central Okanagan's Cassidy deVeer to debate age-restricted voting, municipal debt, and why Kelowna keeps falling behind Kamloops on rec facilities. Ron calls the idea "bullshit" and explains why. Cassidy pushes back on who Kelowna's low property taxes actually protect. It gets heated — that's the point.

One Foot Off Center's regular panel includes Ron Mattiussi, Cassidy deVeer, and Scott Lanigan, Lead Pastor of Trinity Church Kelowna.

A boardwalk that's supposed to be public is closed — and it's headed to court.

Rick Maddison talks with Cassidy DeVeer (Canadian Home Builders Association) and former Kelowna CAO Ron Mattiussi about the El Dorado dispute: who actually has rights to the lakeshore, how the city has handled fights like this before, and where private property ends

and public access begins.

🎙 Hosted by Rick Maddison 🎧 Guests: Cassidy DeVeer, Ron Mattiussi, Scott Lanigan📍Kelowna, BC

A BIG WIN for the One Foot Off Center Podcast! After talking about how Elon Musk should label The CBC as state-funded media, he did! Obviously, our influence helped Elon make the final decision, so we are going to carry on with a few other topics that we hope to resolve sooner rather than later.

Rick and Jeff dive into a variety of topics ranging from the terrible timing of the PSAC strike to Justin Trudeaus fancy taxpayer-paid vacation at a high-priced resort that happens to be a donor to the Trudeau Foundation (of which he says he has no involvement) to LNG in Canada, and the Ethics Commissioner resigning.

On this week's episode, the panel discusses development, and parking, in Kelowna.

Maddison says there seems to be a run of developments approved in the city that do not have enough on-site parking.

"This of course is due to their proximity to transit. However, driving through this city you can almost tell you which developments don’t have available parking because the streets are jammed with vehicles," says Maddison

Mattiussi suggested that these developments are "borne out of Vancouver and Victoria where density and transit meet the needs of many."

Cox asked if Kelowna should be striving to hit housing target numbers "no matter the cost."

"Are we beholden to the province to follow this initiative?" he said. "Should we build out transit first, then do away with parking close to transit centres?"

Castanet is proud to present One Foot Off Center, a podcast tackling the big issues facing the Okanagan.

Rick Maddison, Ron Mattiussi, Scott Lanigan and Jeff Cox will meet every month to discuss how those issues impact everyday Canadians.

Maddison is a well-known entrepreneur in Kelowna and owner of Tempest Media. Mattiussi is the former chief administrator of the City of Kelowna and has worked in local government across the province.

Lanigan is the lead pastor of Trinity Church, one of Kelowna’s largest churches, who has served with various community groups like Journey Home.

Cox is the founder and CEO of Kelowna-based Simply Benefits.
One Foot Off Center will be published monthly by Castanet, on YouTube and in an audio-only version on Spotify.