We have to work to provide more housing opportunities, it's one of the major reasons people don't choose Kamloops is the difficulty in acquiring a rental, or finding one at a reasonable price.

The next is in providing a higher quality of life and better experiences for the people potentially joining our community. When comparing what Kamloops has to offer for restaurants, bars, music venues, etc., we are eons behind other BC cities like Kelowna or Nanaimo. We have to build a local identity through promoting small business, arts, and culture so that Kamloops is more of a city to experience and not just a place to drive through or visit for tournaments.

Making our city more appealing is key to attracting new workers in all sectors, not just health care. I recently had a friend who is a surgeon decide to forego a job offer at Royal Inland Hospital for a lesser job offer in Nanaimo for substantially less money. These were some of the concerns that swayed them to choose a different city than ours.

The city needs get creative in ways to attract other workers by using non-traditional methods. We are competing with many other great cities in BC for these workers so we have to think out of the box and find solutions other municipalities aren't considering yet.