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Cariboo Local Affairs · Cariboo Signals

• 0:00
  Riley: Hey there, glad you're tuning in. Today on Cariboo Signals, Williams Lake voters head to the polls, and we're digging into the candidates behind four city and regional races. We've got Mayor Rathor's endorsement from Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars, a Tribune report on how Indigenous governments see the city's relationship with its leaders, and the Deep Dive question: when the clearest record belongs to someone already in office, whose word counts as evidence? Stick around.
• 0:44
  Riley: Welcome to Cariboo Signals, an AI-generated review of the latest tech news and ideas that impact our rural communities. I'm Riley. It's Saturday, October 17th, 2026, and today's theme is Cariboo Local Affairs. Voting day is today for the Williams Lake city and regional district races, so the local ballot is the story. Reaching you from the heart of the Cariboo, the homeland of the Secwépemc, Tŝilhqot'in, and Dakelh nations.
• 1:11
  Casey: And I'm Casey. Most of us will mark four races today, and we're going through every one of them. Out at Horsefly Lake this morning, it's mainly clear and around 6 degrees, with a high of 12 and a low of 3 today. Light drizzle is likely through the day, with a 67 percent chance of precipitation and about 0 millimetres. Across the Cariboo, 100 Mile House is around 8 with clear skies, Williams Lake and Quesnel are both around 6 with clear skies, and Alexis Creek is around 4 and mainly clear.
• 1:41
  Riley: Right. Casey, what's happening out there?
• 1:44
  Casey: Most of today's stories are close to home, and a lot of them are people asking for your vote.
• 1:51
  Riley: Students from Columneetza Junior Secondary spent Tuesday at the Thompson Rivers University campus in Williams Lake for Big On STEM. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Williams Lake ran the day with Cenovus Energy, and professionals from eight organizations set up hands-on stations for students in Grades 7 to 9. Sugar Cane Archaeology ran a garbology activity, where students sorted garbage and tried to work out what it says about the people who threw it away. BBBS executive director Kaitlyn Saunders said it was the organization's first career day.
• 2:23
  Casey: Garbology as a career pitch. That's a new one.
• 2:28
  Casey: The BC Wildfire Service and the Cariboo Chilcotin Natural Resource District plan a prescribed burn in the Siwash area, about 100 kilometres west of Williams Lake. The work covers about 112 hectares west of Yunesit'in and southwest of Alexis Creek, and it aims to control mistletoe in the forest stand. Ignition is expected to begin Sunday, October 18th, and may continue periodically until October 31st. Crews will only light fires in favourable weather, and they will stay on site until the fire is out. Drivers on Highway 20 will see smoke and flames.
• 3:02
  Riley: Mistletoe control is slow work. The smoke on the highway is the part drivers will notice.
• 3:08
  Riley: The Cariboo Regional District issued a boil water notice Thursday for residents on the Horse Lake Water System, at the request of a Drinking Water Officer. Bring tap water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before you drink it, cook with it, brush your teeth, or wash produce you plan to eat raw. Water for animals is covered too. The CRD also suggests bottled water where possible. The notice stays in place until the regional district issues an official rescind notice.
• 3:38
  Casey: Linda Lou Howarth of Tatla Lake has been selling homemade bread at markets all season so she and her husband can fly to Las Vegas in December. Their grandson, Tanner Loring, is 16 and from Riske Creek. He qualified for novice bull riding at the YETI Junior National Finals Rodeo, where more than 700 young riders will compete. At the Bewitching Market in Williams Lake on October 10th, Howarth and Tanner's great-aunt Ivy Bowe sold frybread and fry dawgs, and those sales went toward the flights.
• 4:08
  Riley: Linda says she's glued to the screen when he's on television. That's a reason to sell bread.
• 4:14
  Riley: Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars has endorsed Mayor Surinderpal Rathor. We mentioned the endorsement yesterday. The Tyee reports that Indigenous governments say Rathor has turned around a relationship that the previous mayor's comments had damaged. The Tyee doesn't name that mayor, but the city's record does: Walt Cobb held the job before Rathor, and he's on the ballot again.
• 4:38
  Casey: So the endorsement speaks to the man on the ballot, and the trust problem belongs to the man before him.
• 4:45
  Casey: We went through Nathan Wiebe's profile on Monday. He says he was raised in Williams Lake, and that he has managed projects from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions, including international infrastructure work. He lists budgeting, contractors, government agencies and funding programs among his experience. He's running on keeping Williams Lake financially responsible.
• 5:07
  Riley: Kayla Zaruk's profile also ran Monday. She says she is an Indigenous woman who has called Williams Lake home for 19 years, and that she is finishing an MBA. She says she worked four years with the Tŝilhqot'in National Government and has taken a new role with Tŝilhqot'in Nidlin Children and Family Jurisdiction. Her pitch is a younger perspective, fresh ideas, and making residents feel heard at the council table.
• 5:33
  Casey: Four years with a named government is a claim you can check against the employer.
• 5:39
  Casey: The District of 100 Mile House held its last regular council meeting of the 2022 to 2026 term on Tuesday, October 13th. Several candidates for the new council attended to listen and take notes. The incoming council is sworn in on Tuesday, November 10th. Mayor Maureen Pinkney's final report said talks to keep the CN Rail corridor between Prince George and Squamish are ongoing. Pinkney, who sits on the BC Rail Corridor Alliance, said the group keeps pushing CN to make a deal. She said, "I'm very positive about what's been going on; just the speed of it is very sad."
• 6:15
  Riley: Quesnel's council deferred its centennial celebration and gold pan projects to 2027, as we reported yesterday. Mayor Ron Paull said most of the plan is on track. The Quesnel Junior School lands transfer has been delayed, and Cariboo Field will soon progress.
• 6:31
  Casey: A bylaw department short on staff is a complaint line that never gets shorter.
• 6:37
  Casey: The Ulkatcho First Nation swore in Tina Alexis as Dayi, its chief, on Tuesday, October 13th, at the community hall. Former Dayi Derech Sill resigned in September. Alexis will serve until the nation holds an election in April 2027. She says her goal is to restore trust, accountability and transparency, and to bring people back into decisions that strengthen Dakelh governance systems.
• 7:00
  Riley: Six months is a short runway for rebuilding trust. She says the community asked her to step forward, and she did.
• 7:08
  Riley: The Kendall Square Association held its 18th annual meeting Thursday at The Engine, a nonprofit startup incubator in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Business leaders, elected officials, residents and students attended. MIT Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu asked how AI could become a tool that expands what workers can do, instead of an enemy of work.
• 7:30
  Casey: A question that could be asked in any council chamber in the Cariboo.
• 7:36
  Casey: Tom's Hardware reports that Chinese startup Langdao Silex showed a prototype laser-produced plasma EUV light source at a trade show. The report says the technology will likely take many years to reach usable EUV power levels.
• 7:50
  Riley: Upper Nicola Band councillor Brian Holmes walked a kilometre-long stretch of the Nicola River in September where no surface water remained. IndigiNews reports that drought is leaving parts of the watershed dry, threatening fish, ceremony and his family's connection to the water. The river runs through the Nicola Valley in BC's southern interior. Holmes is 44 and has two children.
• 8:14
  Casey: A dry riverbed doesn't need a headline to make its point.
• 8:18
  Casey: Researchers report that a gene called DEAF1 becomes overactive with age and interferes with muscles' ability to clear damaged proteins and repair themselves. Exercise helps restore that balance and lets older muscles rebuild, though the benefits may shrink when the system is too disrupted.
• 8:35
  Riley: So the boring advice still has a mechanism behind it.
• 8:40
  Riley: Scientists captured a black swallower fish on camera at 1,259 metres, near Trinidad and Tobago. The fish usually measures 10 to 20 centimetres and can gulp prey up to ten times its own mass. Diva Amon of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the expedition's chief scientist, says she first saw one nearly a decade ago in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 9:02
  Casey: Ten times its mass. I'll skip the second helping.
• 9:06
  Casey: The Atlantic reports that just-war theory, which has guided Vatican teaching for centuries, may be on its way out. The piece traces how the Catholic Church is rethinking its framework for war. That framework tells believers when a war can be justified, so a change to it changes what the church is willing to say about any conflict.
• 9:25
  Riley: Then the question is what replaces the rulebook. And closer to home, there's a group that already helps families through hard stretches.
• 9:33
  Riley: If your family is facing a hard stretch in the South Cariboo, Loaves & Fishes Outreach is a volunteer society in 100 Mile House that provides emergency food, clothing, and household goods. They do it every Wednesday for families facing hardship across the South Cariboo. If you're able to help, they're the people to talk to.
• 9:54
  Casey: Every Wednesday is a schedule a family can plan around.
• 9:57
  Riley: Now to the ballot itself.
• 10:00
  Riley: When the clearest record in a race belongs to someone already in office, whose word counts as evidence? Today's material starts with the mayor.
• 10:09
  Casey: Rathor won in 2022, and we had those numbers last Saturday. What's new is the endorsement. Chief Willie Sellars has endorsed him, and The Tyee reports that Indigenous governments credit Rathor with turning around a relationship the previous mayor's comments had damaged. His budget votes and project record this term aren't in today's sources.
• 10:30
  Riley: The endorsement is a record. It names a person, a relationship, and a claim that can be tested. The Tyee also reports a WLFN statement, issued before the vote, praising what it calls his constructive and respectful approach. That's the Nation describing its own dealings with city hall.
• 10:48
  Casey: With the man it's endorsing. That's a statement about a relationship. A vote is a different thing.
• 10:53
  Riley: The relationship affects the job. A mayor who can't work with the Nation has a harder council, and the council is where the budget gets made.
• 11:02
  Casey: Then look at the other side of that relationship. CFNR reported in November 2021 that Walt Cobb removed himself from all external boards amid continued backlash over social media comments about residential schools. Cobb stayed on as mayor, and CFNR's report carries his response.
• 11:19
  Riley: And his most recent result was the 2022 third-place finish. The backlash came before that vote, so voters already had it when they decided. The question is what they did with it.
• 11:30
  Casey: A result can't tell you that. Third place says he lost. It doesn't say why.
• 11:35
  Riley: Then ask him. The Tribune can put it to him. That's the job, and no reason to shrug.
• 11:40
  Casey: Rathor's own Facebook page says he served seven terms on council, from 1993 to 2014. That's his description, and it's unverified.
• 11:49
  Riley: Council minutes check it. Every term is in the record. Pull them.
• 11:52
  Casey: Pull them, and then what? A minutes search tells you he was present. It doesn't tell you how he voted.
• 11:58
  Riley: The votes are in the minutes too. Nobody has put seven terms next to the 2022 platform yet.
• 12:04
  Riley: Scott Nelson is the one with the open file. We went through the August 2025 suit last Saturday, so the filing stays there. His lawyer said none of the accusations have been proven in court, and Nelson called them fundamentally incorrect. What's new is the petition.
• 12:22
  Casey: The Tribune reported in November 2024 that Nelson said, in an October 23rd video, that an online petition for a safe-use site was being signed by outsiders. That's his remark, not a finding.
• 12:34
  Riley: It's a petition about a service in this city, and that makes it a public voice. If the signers are outsiders, the city can say so and prove it. If they aren't, the petition still counts.
• 12:46
  Casey: The petition was started in 2024 by Cianna O'Connor, who is now on the council ballot. If anyone checked the signature list, it isn't in our sources.
• 12:56
  Riley: Then the list is public, or it isn't. If it is, check it. If it isn't, that's the gap.
• 13:01
  Casey: A count of voices doesn't tell you who lives in the neighbourhood where the site would go. I'd ask that before anyone calls a petition a mandate.
• 13:09
  Riley: Nobody's calling it a mandate. You are.
• 13:11
  Riley: On council, Jason Ryll and Paul French are returning, and the rest are newcomers or incumbents we covered last Saturday. Ruth Lloyd is on the list too, and since she works at the Tribune, you should know that.
• 13:23
  Casey: Several newcomers have one self-written profile and nothing else in our sources.
• 13:28
  Riley: Sahibzada has something else. The Tribune reported in June that he appeared on a delegation to council on June 16th, with the Central Cariboo Islamic Centre, about safety concerns and Islamophobia. That's a candidate who already used the council's public input process.
• 13:45
  Casey: A delegation is a voice, not a vote. Did council respond? That's the question, and our sources don't answer it.
• 13:52
  Riley: The delegation happened. That's a public record, and it's more than many candidates can show.
• 13:57
  Casey: It's a record. I'm not sure it's the one a voter needs.
• 14:01
  Riley: Whitney Spearing has no electoral record in our sources. My Cariboo Now describes her as the Band's natural resources coordinator and an archaeologist, which differs from the directory title we mentioned last Saturday.
• 14:13
  Casey: Then ask the employer which title is current. Directories lag.
• 14:17
  Riley: Kayla Zaruk is the clearest example of the problem. Her own profile says four years with the Tŝilhqot'in National Government. An undated CMHA Cariboo Chilcotin board page lists her as executive director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Gymnastics Association, and as an executive assistant at the Tŝilhqot'in National Government. LinkedIn lists her as clinical coordinator at Cariboo Dental Clinic.
• 14:41
  Casey: Three employers. Which one is current?
• 14:43
  Riley: The one she wrote. The others are third-party pages that may be out of date.
• 14:49
  Casey: Possibly. A candidate with three employers and one profile hasn't yet said which of those jobs she'd bring to the table.
• 14:56
  Riley: Paul French served on council from 1993 to 2008, according to his profile, and he was a United Steelworkers president.
• 15:04
  Casey: Fifteen years on council, then out in 2008. Our sources don't say why he left, or whether he ran again before this year.
• 15:11
  Riley: That's two decades of council and business experience. That's a bench.
• 15:16
  Casey: A bench from 2008. A city changes a lot in eighteen years.
• 15:20
  Riley: Sheila Boehm's profile says she has served two terms as a councillor, and that she has been a chiropractor in Williams Lake for more than twenty-five years. She was a registered nurse at Cariboo Memorial Hospital before that.
• 15:34
  Casey: The Tribune called her a two-term school trustee in another item this week. The 2022 results match council. We haven't resolved which item is right.
• 15:44
  Riley: Michael Moses is seeking a second term. The Tribune says he was elected in 2022 with support from Indigenous leadership, and it quotes him describing four years of service.
• 15:56
  Casey: "Support from Indigenous leadership" is the Tribune's description. It isn't a record of how he voted.
• 16:02
  Riley: It's a relationship the Tribune recorded, the same kind of record as the Tyee endorsement.
• 16:07
  Casey: Same kind, different source. Two records of relationships, and neither one is a vote.
• 16:12
  Riley: Jason Ryll served two council terms, from 2014 to 2022, and he's running again.
• 16:18
  Casey: He's a returning candidate, so his council record is the one to check. His 2022 council result isn't in our sources.
• 16:25
  Riley: Now the regional and school races. Area D and Area F were acclaimed, so voters there get no ballot for those seats.
• 16:32
  Casey: The BC Gazette and 100 Mile Free Press show Forseth acclaimed in 2018 and in 2022 as well. That's three acclamations in a row.
• 16:41
  Riley: That's a record of the field, not only of the man. The Tribune says he was first vice-president of the North Central Local Government Association and later its president. That's a regional job.
• 16:53
  Casey: We had the acclamation point on Saturday, and it still holds. No budget vote for him is in our sources.
• 17:00
  Riley: LeBourdais won a by-election with 315 votes, against 50 and 27. That's a real mandate for a small area.
• 17:08
  Casey: It's a by-election with small turnout, and the year isn't in our sources. Call it what it was.
• 17:13
  Riley: Fine. A by-election win with 315 votes. Her profile put emergency preparedness first, citing the 2017 wildfires and the Mount Polley tailings.
• 17:23
  Riley: Melynda Neufeld has held Area E since 2022, when she beat incumbent Angie Delainey. She has been CRD vice-chair.
• 17:31
  Casey: We covered her earlier by-election loss to Delainey last Saturday. So she's lost one race and won one. The one she won is the one that counts now.
• 17:40
  Riley: Her challenger, Mary Forbes, is also on the school board ballot. Both races are real. The Tribune calls Forbes a long-time trustee and the board's vice-chair.
• 17:49
  Casey: The school district's board page lists Forbes as trustee for Area 2. The Tribune says she's seeking re-election in Area 5. We haven't reconciled that, and the district should.
• 17:59
  Riley: Her last result in our material is a 2018 Zone 2 win with 69.4 percent. That's old enough that it doesn't describe where she stands today.
• 18:10
  Casey: Then it's a 2018 result. The board page is a current claim, and it contradicts the Tribune. One of them is wrong.
• 18:17
  Riley: Area 4 is Melissa Coates against Laura Zimmerman. Coates won a June 7th, 2025 by-election, after Ciel Patenaude resigned in November 2024.
• 18:28
  Casey: The Tyee's coverage of that by-election reported allegations of bullying, racism and violence at schools. Those are allegations in that article, not findings. A Penticton Herald item, undated, names Coates as a founding member of Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake.
• 18:44
  Riley: Zimmerman is on the Elections BC list for a Williams Lake address. Her record is not in today's sources.
• 18:51
  Casey: So there's nothing to weigh on her yet.
• 18:53
  Riley: Area 5 is Nicole Berreth against Mary Forbes. Berreth is on the district's declaration of candidates, and no prior election for her is in our sources.
• 19:03
  Casey: A 2022 Tribune item named a Nikki Berreth among district staff moving into new roles. A ZoomInfo page, which is third-party, lists a communications role at the district. It could be the same person. We haven't confirmed it.
• 19:16
  Riley: Someone who worked in the district's communications office would bring real knowledge to a trustee seat. That's an asset if it's true.
• 19:25
  Casey: It's also a conflict question if it's true. Ask her which side of the table she'd sit on.
• 19:30
  Riley: Michael Franklin is acclaimed in Trustee Area 6, the City of Williams Lake. Voters in that zone get no ballot for it. His school board record is not in today's sources.
• 19:41
  Casey: A My Cariboo Now item names a Foundry Cariboo-Chilcotin manager, Michael Franklin. It may be the same person. Nobody should assume it.
• 19:49
  Riley: The school board can confirm it. It holds the declaration and the board minutes.
• 19:54
  Casey: There's a harder question under all four ballots: whose view should weigh more on a decision like a school closure or housing vote, the families who have to stay or the residents who could move away? Staying is a fact about someone's life, and a delegation or a petition is how those people get heard.
• 20:11
  Riley: Then weight it that way. Families tied to a mortgage, a job or a territory live with the outcome for decades, and the delegation record shows who is actually asking council for attention. Someone who can leave still gets a vote, but the stayers are the ones who show up in the minutes.
• 20:29
  Casey: Except nobody tells you who stays by looking at a petition. Nelson's remark about outsiders shows how fast that argument becomes a way to dismiss voices. And a renter who can't afford to stay is not the same as a landowner who can't afford to leave.
• 20:44
  Riley: Which is why I'd ask each incumbent a specific question, on the record, before the next term starts. Which of your votes this term would you take back?
• 20:53
  Casey: Put it to the ones who answered badly too. Rathor, Nelson, Boehm, Moses, Neufeld, Coates, Franklin, Forseth and LeBourdais. Acclaimed incumbents are the ones who face no question at all.
• 21:03
  Riley: Acclaimed incumbents still have to answer for their votes. They just don't have to answer to a rival.
• 21:09
  Casey: Endorsements and delegations are public, and a voter can read them. Read them as references. A reference tells you who vouches for someone. A receipt tells you what they delivered, and I'd want to know what council did after the delegation before I weighed it at all.
• 21:24
  Riley: I'd still weight a delegation as a record of someone asking for council's attention, and I think the stayers deserve the louder voice. We don't agree on how much an endorsement should weigh, either. Feedback at cariboo signals dot c-a if you have a candidate record we missed, or a detail we got wrong. The Williams Lake ballot is four races deep, so take your time with it.
• 21:47
  Casey: Read the filing, then the endorsement, then decide what each one proves. Keep the flyers out of the decision and take the filings with you.
• 21:55
  Riley: Have a good weekend, and go vote.