Lots of ideas heard during virtual Municipal Election Forum

For additional information on all candidates, visit elections.reddeer.ca.

The forum began with the candidates opening statements followed by a question and answer period and some debate between them. Due to the number of candidates, they were divided into three separate groups. Hot topics on the night included economic recovery, the pandemic, downtown businesses, homelessness, crime and mental health.

Two main questions were asked throughout the forum.

The first was how does the candidate intend to retain existing businesses and what is their plan to attract new ones?

The second question asked to outline their strategy to deal with ongoing social issues and how they will make Red Deer a more attractive place to live, work and play?

First up for the city council candidates was Graham Barclay. Business owner and volunteer, Barclay has been involved with a variety of community groups, such as the Red Deer Chamber, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and Bridges Community Living.

He says when it comes to crime reduction he would start by talking to local RCMP and the City to audit their crime reducing stats.

“I know they are short-staffed with officers and they are overspending in other areas. I’d like to add more peace officers to deal with the more minor infractions while the RCMP deal with more dangerous crimes. I’m looking forward to implementing successful programs targeted at our homeless population. Agencies have got to do better, and they need help achieving the results we want to see.”

Former Red Deer Rebel Kraymer Barnstable was asked the first question next, and the business owner was asked about how he could make the downtown area more attractive to businesses.

“I want to make sure the City is going forward in the right direction, and I’ve seen that it’s been going backwards. As a business owner myself, I wouldn’t want to plant myself in places like the downtown just because the taxes are too high and public safety is an issue.”

Bruce Buruma, Executive Director for the Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools said reputations matter, and Red Deer has had a challenging time attracting businesses.

“Ultimately, businesses are going to go where it makes the most sense. One of the challenges we face is that we haven’t been necessarily listening to the challenges the businesses have, we have to be responsive to those; we need to be services orientated. Red Deer has to be competitive and in many cases we haven’t.”

Brenda Campbell has worked as a school counsellor for 20+ years and lived in Red Deer for over 40. She says when it comes to both safety and economic development, relationship building is essential.

“It’s paramount we turn things around and address our reputation as being difficult to deal with in the business community. If we honour, support, and incentivize businesses, it’s a win-win, because generally businesses employ residents, and owners themselves often live within our city limits, so our tax base is expanded in this regard.”

Matt Chapin was the lone candidate at the forum who was running for Red Deer Public School trustee. The recipient of two mayor’s awards, the former Red Deer Royal says trying to attract business to Red Deer has been an ongoing issue for a long time, and the City should be working more with Red Deer’s outlying communities.

“We should start thinking about a regional business plan to work with our local communities like Red Deer County, Lacombe, Innisfail, Sylvan Lake, and all the other areas so we can all reap the benefits and income of it.”

Craig Curtis is no stranger to the Red Deer scene. The former city manager helped design the Waskasoo park system, as well as the first trail system along the river valley. He also oversaw the City’s role in staging the Canada Winter Games.

He says in the early years, Red Deer’s location was enough to attract business. But things have changed.

“In terms of post-pandemic, one of the things that’s happening is more people can live and work in different locations. Perhaps we could attract people from Edmonton and Calgary to live in a more affordable community like Red Deer.”

Incumbent city councillor Michael Dawe was elected in 2017, and was also the 2014 Citizen of the Year. Dawe has been on numerous community boards.

He says we need to work with the province in creating youth drug courts.

“The idea there, is you stream the people out of the current cycle, break the patterns, and get them into something productive in terms of actual improvement and not just repeating the same catch-and-release program.”

COO of Insurance Brokerage and executive director of Central Alberta Refugee Effort Victor Doerksen spoke next regarding economic development.

He says it starts with strong, basic infrastructure like water and wastewater systems, power, transportation coordinators, and recreation infrastructure.

“Add to that a predictable, competitive tax and competitive regulatory regime, and you have the environment that will attract investments. After that, get out of the way and let developers and investors do what they do best.”

Grace Joy Engel, a single mother who started her life in Red Deer at the women’s shelter, has since become a business owner.

She says when it comes to crimes and social disorder, Red Deer needs more police on the streets.

“We need to combine the forces and funds as far as our police are concerned, and also have greater visuals on them and have them around more often. We need rehabilitation instead of our safe-injection site, and regular availability of health care opportunities so that we can collectively succeed as a whole.”

Sarah Harkins, who has lived in Red Deer for 17 years and holds a university degree in Sociology, as well as a legal assistant diploma, says she would make the push for a municipal police force.

“We need to also start pushing our governments for stiffer penalties so that the process of a repeat offender is stopped. Detox is right beside the safe injection site, it defeats the purpose of getting sober. I think we need to look at the zoning again especially in that area. That area seems to have high crime and we need to start establishing something about it.”

Hans Huizing, principal of Escuela Vista Grande School in Red Deer, says there is a lack of services for mental health, and the supports need to be easily accessible for people who need them.

“I would call upon AHS and the City to advocate for a mental health triage unit at our hospital. I would call upon our social diversion team to be expanded so that it would actually be an ambulance that could go to calls. We all need to come around the table; we all have a piece to play in this.”

Incumbent councillor Vesna Higham says the current process is completely unattainable when it comes to Red Deer’s addiction and mental health situation.

“Get the existing shelter and OPS (Overdose Prevention Site) out of the downtown core. Second, we need to consulate as many social services as possible to the new permanent shelter site to stop the mitigation of people in the downtown. We have to insist on a strictly monitored, good neighbor operating model for the new shelter services. We must get our two drug treatment centres operational ASAP.”

Cindy Jefferies served as a trustee for Red Deer Public Schools from 1995-2004, and was also a member of Red Deer city council from 2004-2013.

She says like most cities, Red Deer is challenged by social issues.

“People in our community are struggling. Mental health, alcohol and drug addiction, homelessness, prostitution, drug dealing and crime take a toll on our citizens, businesses, and community. When businesses begin to leave, when people don’t want to be here, it is a problem for our city. It is our job to advocate for those services and make sure the necessary services are available for our citizens.”

Sadia Khan is a County and Community Support Worker with Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre, as well as executive director and co-founder of a non-profit organization.

She says shaping policies should rely on direct experience from the groups involved, and adds, we all need to work together to come up with solutions for community issues like mental health and addiction.

“My strategy would be to look at the viable mitigation strategies together with all of the stakeholders to create an environment where we can all live safely. Really creating those communities where all visitors and citizens enjoy a sense of belonging, and where it adds diversity to all the social and economic vibrancy of our community.”

Chad Krahn is the volunteer president of the Riverside Meadows Community Association, and has worked on issues as the manager for Red Deer-South constituency office.

He says city council has gotten in the way too much when it comes to things like the homeless shelter and policing, and said he would invest more money into technology to help police solve crimes faster.

“I also think there is an element to making sure people know their neighbours, are more involved in their communities, and watch out for one another. That’s how we build a strong city, by looking for bottom-up change together.”

Ryan Laloge says his focus will be on the bigger issues of employment, crime, social disorder, and property taxes.

He says we can’t “be all things to all people”, and moving services to Gasoline Alley is not a viable option for Red Deer.

“We need to be very good at what we are and not try to mimic Edmonton or Calgary. We can accept less in some services if the core services are at the level needed, including policing, security, homelessness, and addiction resolution services.”

Incumbent councillor Lawrence Lee says as a community builder, their next practical step in the fight against mental health and homelessness is to build a permanent shelter.

“The facility has to provide not only shelter space, but be designed to provide food service, addictions and mental health counselling, primary health care, and transition users to permanent housing.”

Nurse manager Nicole Lydiard spoke next, talking about wanting to develop a more age friendly community, increase health equity and develop health access projects.

She says for her, it’s about improving the community experience.

“We need to collaborate with the college (RDP) to retain our talent. We need to attract business through incentivizing and reducing taxes, but ultimately, we need to make this a place where people really want to live, and work and stay. We are the hub of Alberta.”

Jason MacDonald is a small business owner with four kids, and volunteers his time coaching many of their sports teams.

He says we need to make our city more attractive to local businesses.

“I believe growth comes from within. To support this growth we need to supply our community and our businesses with a municipal framework that is built to succeed.”

Sheyi Olubowale immigrated to Canada in 2005, and is a physiotherapist and business owner.

He says building relationships is the most important thing to him.

“There’s a lot we can do as a city when we bring people together. We are so divided. A city that is divided cannot stand. There’s no way we can move forward if we are disagreeing on ideologies and we can’t find common ground.”

Harish Ratra is an accountant and warehouse manager, and hopes his business management experience will help serve Red Deer.

He believes a strong economy is key for a strong and healthy community, and feels Red Deer needs to diversify into new trades like supply chain and other technologies in order to survive in the modern world.

Janise Somer has spent the majority of her career in the non-profit sector, and has also spent the last three years in crime prevention and working in and around the downtown area.

She says the downtown is the one area of a city where outsiders can judge the entire community on one area, and the image of Red Deer’s downtown is hard to shake.

“Every city’s reputation is largely based on the downtown. The downtown doesn’t look good, the city doesn’t look good. People don’t want to move here and it’s much harder for businesses to feel good about the place they’ve chosen to live. A beautiful and vibrant downtown can be the rising tide that lifts all ships.”

Prior to the pandemic, Lisa Spencer-Cook owned and operated LV’s Vinyl Café in the downtown, as well as receiving the Mayor’s Recognition Award for community building in 2020.

She says we can’t expect to be able to attract new business downtown without being able to retain existing businesses already there.

“Locally owned businesses are our greatest asset and we have to assess industry clusters and work with them alongside preexisting organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Arts Council, etc, to act on our needs immediately and create the infrastructures needed for those to survive.”

Dax Williams is an entrepreneur who’s lived in Red Deer for nearly 20 years. He says when it comes to promoting economic growth, City Hall needs to get out of the way.

“City Hall and city services need to operate as business accelerators by way of reduction of red tape in their procedures. Red Deer needs to incentivize business, both new and existing, by way of fee forgiveness and reductions, as well as tax rate reductions. Our current internet connectivity rates needs to be specifically improved and upgrade to 5G and fibre optics.”

Incumbent Councillor Dianne Wyntjes had the floor last. The 11-year councillor says there is a lot of competition out there for business these days, so it’s important Red Deer knows its strength and weaknesses as a community.

“The whole conversation about regional relationships is important because when regional wins, Red Deer wins as well. We all share that narrative and lets promote Red Deer to be that better city.”

There are 62 candidates running in this year’s municipal election in Red Deer. They include six candidates for mayor, 30 candidates for eight seats on city council, 16 candidates for seven Red Deer Public School Board trustee positions, and 10 candidates for seven positions on the Board of Trustees for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools.

In 2021, the number of candidates matches records for the mayor’s seat with six, set in 1974, and for councillor seats with 30, set in 2013.

Election Day is Oct. 18, with official results to be released Oct. 22. Advance polling takes place Oct. 4-16.

MORE DETAILS: Advance polling for Red Deer’s municipal election runs Oct. 4-16.

by Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

Lots of ideas heard during virtual Municipal Election Forum

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