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91ƵLong overdue91Ƶ: BC United leader tours 75-year-old Kelowna middle school

B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon is in town for a town hall happening at 7 p.m. on Wednesday
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B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon (black jacket, centre) toured Rutland Middle School on Wednesday, Feb. 7 ahead of a town hall taking place later in the day. (Jordy Cunningham/Capital News)

Before attending a town hall event on Wednesday night (Feb. 7), BC United leader Kevin Falcon and Kelowna MLAs took a tour of Rutland Middle School.

The purpose was to see the changes that need to be made at one of the oldest schools in the Okanagan.

91ƵI91Ƶm here not only to tour through the school to see what a 75-year-old school with 11 portables hosting 300 students looks like, but also to reaffirm to the community we are going to build a new replacement Rutland Middle School, and we are going to build it to a similar quality to the Mission-Canyon Falls Middle School,91Ƶ said Falcon. 91ƵRutland deserves it, it91Ƶs long overdue. The superintendent who we met with, the school board trustees, and the chair were all in agreement this has to happen.91Ƶ

While Falcon noted he likes the nostalgia and history of the school, he recognized it91Ƶs time for it to be replaced.

91ƵThere91Ƶs a part of me that loves the incredible history of this school and even the wooden lockers all tell a story with the carved names of the different generations that have come through,91Ƶ said Falcon. 91ƵOn the other hand, we also have to recognize that the growth in the Okanagan, particularly in Rutland requires that we have to get a new, modern school and the community deserves it.91Ƶ

Falcon toured the school for about half an hour with MLA Renee Merrifield, MLA Ben Stewart, MLA Norm Letnick, candidate for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream Pavneet Singh, and School District 23 superintendent Kevin Kaardal among others. Letnick has continuously advocated for RMS to be replaced.

91ƵHe got it down to the one-yard line and it was moving forward,91Ƶ said Falcon.

The BC United leader is in Kelowna for a town hall at the Ramada Hotel & Conference Centre at 2170 Harvey Avenue.

91ƵI91Ƶve been going around the province, talking to hundreds of people at different town hall meetings and just talking about the issues we see, the challenges B.C. faces, some of the opportunities we have going forward,91Ƶ said Falcon. 91ƵMore importantly, listening to the public, letting the public ask their questions, good, bad, or indifferent, I want to hear it all because frankly, that91Ƶll make me a better Premier, it will help me as an opposition leader, but it91Ƶs about really engaging with the public and doing it in a way that politicians don91Ƶt do it anymore because they try to manage all their crowds and I don91Ƶt like that.91Ƶ

More specifically in Kelowna, Falcon is concerned about population growth, housing, healthcare, crime, and the drug crisis.

He will also reveal the name of the party91Ƶs candidate for the new riding of Kelowna-Centre at tonight91Ƶs town hall.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event begins at 7 p.m.

READ MORE: Family of missing West Kelowna man fundraising for resources

READ MORE: Kelowna RCMP asking public for help finding missing Indigenous man

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Jordy Cunningham

About the Author: Jordy Cunningham

Hailing from Ladner, B.C., I have been passionate about sports, especially baseball, since I was young. In 2018, I graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree
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