Crowsnest election candidates come forward

Joni MacFarlane, Crowsnest Voice

After weeks of speculation, candidates filed their nomination papers this morning formally announcing their intentions to run for a municipal council position.

At 18 candidates – 15 for councillor and three for mayor – there are less people running than in 2010, although residents expect an intense and passionate discussion about the future of the Crowsnest Pass.

Candidates seeking a four-year term on the next municipal council are as follows:


MAYOR
Decoux, Bruce
Painter, Blair
Prince, John

COUNCILLOR
Anctil, Marlene
Filipuzzi, Dave
Gallant, Brian
Glavin, Doreen
JaegerBaird, Sasha
Juhlin, Tim
Kovach, Bill
Lazzarotto, Shar
Lonsbury, Jerry
Mitchell, Larry
Saindon, Emile
Saltarelli, Paul
Strembicki, Ed
Thomson, Jamie
Dean Ward

Three years ago, a total of three people contested the top job of mayor and a staggering 19 individuals were in the race for the six councillor positions.

With four weeks until the polls open, candidates have a short period of time in which to make their case for voters’ support.
Crowsnest Pass has always had an active political climate in which residents passionately engage in the political process and display a deep concern for the direction of the municipality. This election proves no different and many people believe current issues will play a pivotal and defining role for the future.

Although not all candidates were available for comment, many shared their reasons for running in the election as well as the challenges they see ahead.

Dave Filipuzzi said after working for the municipality for many years, he understands the issues and would be a big asset to council.  “The next council has to be open minded and work together diligently to move forward,” he said.

Candidate Tim Juhlin said he’s coming not from an angry perspective with anything that’s happened, but hopes to bring common sense to the process. One the biggest issues he sees is moving ahead with the annexation of the Municipal District of Ranchland – a move that is strongly opposed by Ranchland council, administration and ratepayers. He also believes more creative thought it necessary to bring business to the community.

Doreen Glavin said she’s worried about the future of Crowsnest Pass and wants to be able to afford to retire here. Sustainability, spending and a decreasing tax base are the main issues she added. “I don’t think the strategic plan now in place is sustainable,” said Glavin.

Incumbent Larry Mitchell said he hopes to be re-elected to finish the things council started and to “create a future by not dwelling in the past”.

Incumbent Jerry Lonsbury said council needs to finish the initiatives of the strategic plan. “A lot of thought and work went into it. It would be nice to run it through to completion.” A major issue for Lonsbury is to unite the community. “We need to point out that there really are not alternatives. We cannot afford to exist as individual communities and unless we get together and get our act together, I think we’re going to be in some serious trouble.”

Candidate Jamie Thomson said she loves the community and wants to “get it on the map”. In addition, a surgeon has deemed her “unemployable” and so, she’s able to “dedicate every bit of energy that I have into the community”.

Shar Lazzarotto said she’s concerned about fiscal responsibility, volunteerism, communication and listening to constituents.
“I’ve been so involved in so many things in the community and just feel that it’s my turn to step up to the plate too,” she said. “I think I have a good handle on some of the things that are going on… I’m concerned for the future of the community.”
Incumbent Brian Gallant said council started a lot of initiatives to help improve the community and wants to see them through. Some of these are continuing with the hotel project, annexation of a portion of Ranchland, and working with the economic development committee to diversify the tax base.

Marlene Anctil said she’s concerned about a report released last week that suggested, “council requests a viability review” by the province.  “They don’t think the Crowsnest Pass is viable. I do. We’ve always been viable and I think if we have controlled spending and we put our priorities first on what has to be done here, I think we’re going to be ok. This has always been a viable community and there’s no reason we can’t be again… We’ve got to pull the community back together. We can’t have the dissension that we’ve got.”

Incumbent Emile Saindon said we wants to continue working for the residents of the municipality and to finish what council started. The top issues for him are the economy and continued growth of residential and industrial business.

Bill Kovach, who is also president of the Crowsnest Pass Ratepayers Association, said he wants to continue some of the work started when the association formed. In addition, he hopes to work to alleviate some of the concerns highlighted by the recent municipal inspection report such as low morale between employees and administration. He admitted there were some good recommendations in the report including getting together with staff and involving them on the decisions being made.

Candidate Dean Ward said some of the top challenges as pointed out in the municipal inspection are communication with the public and labour relations with municipal staff. He believes the next council needs to focus on taxation, cost of living and affordable housing.  “We can’t hide behind the screen of low taxation and then nail the residents on every other possible fee we can, i.e. franchise fees, utility fees,” said Ward. “Smaller government. We’ve built a bureaucracy here that I believe is unsustainable in the long term. We’re spending in excess of $1 million a year just on administration while we have pot holes that haven’t been fixed in three or four years.”

Ward said council has focused solely on maximizing revenue, when they should also be looking at minimizing costs.
“Being accountable on taxes is more than just once a year voting against a tax increase just because you know it’s going through by a six to one vote anyway. It’s being responsible financially week after week after week.” Ward also said council needs to honour the 10-year commitment made by contributing annually to the expansion of York Creek Lodge.

In 2009, the council of the day committed $100,000 annually towards a reserve for the expansion and upgrade of the senior’s lodge. This year’s contribution was deferred.

Lastly, Paul Saltarelli said he has the knowledge, experience and entrepreneurial spirit necessary to work on council and to move the community forward.

Vying for the mayor’s chair, Blair Painter said he’s concerned about the direction the community is going. “I really want to stress fiscal accountability and moving our community forward,” he said. “I’d like to invest in our infrastructure, our business growth, and bringing our community together as a whole.”

Mayor Bruce Decoux said he wants to continue on the current path. Although not releasing his platform until the public forum, he said now that a lot of hard work has been done, they can move on to “more sophisticated work”.
He admitted the issue of communication is puzzling to him as there are more avenues of communication now than ever before.
Decoux described the inspection report as “brutally truthful”, saying it backfired on the ratepayers and gives council a clear mandate to move forward on its recommendations.  “What we’ve done in the past three years is we’ve effected change and in some cases it was rapid and it was difficult but we knew it had to be done fairly quickly. Now we’re going to look at improving that change.”

John Prince, who is also running for the mayor’s chair, said some of the issues he would like to tackle are the “out-of-control spending”, to bring back a sense of pride and spirit in the community, and to improve relations between the municipal employees, administration and volunteers. Although opening up a number of avenues, Prince believes past council’s efforts at communication have “failed miserably”. He would encourage delegations, committees and volunteer groups to air their concerns and ideas, as well as hold public town hall meetings, which hasn’t been done since June 2012.

“In other words, have more dialogue with the people that you’ve been elected to serve and not take the position of we know best, and a dictatorial type of management style.”  Prince’s slogan is “Vote for me, I’ll set you free”.

A public forum hosted by the Crowsnest Pass Chamber of Commerce will be held on Thursday, Oct. 10 at the MDM Community Complex at 7 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to attend and ask questions of the candidates.

Crowsnest Pass residents go to the polls on Monday, Oct. 21 and an advance poll will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.