Wednesday 23 October 2013

It was a good election in Grande Cache

Grande Cache has elected their council and mayor and did a good job in doing it. The people picked a good mixture of experience and fresh minds. It was interesting and I am quite pleased with the result. Congratulations to all the candidates for doing their part in ensuring democracy works and best of luck to the new mayor and council.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Grande Cache Election Forum

The local Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum last night for the 3 mayorality candidates, 2 school board trustee candidates and 11 of us candidates running for 6 council seats. The chamber did a great job hosting the event and the Metis hall was standing room only as many citizens showed up to participate.

The mayor's seat is open as the incumbent decided not to run. Running for that office is one term councillor Herb Castle, a Grande Cache businessman and one time councillor Terry Corey, and a new comer to municipal politics Lisa Steciuk. All three did a decent job of presenting themselves and answering submitted questions. No biggies, no tough questions given nor strong stands taken. All three presented themselves quite well.

The councillors section went very well with all candidates presenting their similar views quite well. The incumbents (well one didn't show) did a fine job showing the gathered what and why they did in their past term. Honestly I have to say incumbents Shawn Moulun and Yo Zwart did very well and showed the potential voters that they deserve to be returned to office. Past council had a tough time this past term and did leave the town on solid footing for an incoming government to build on leaving a little room for them to facilitate desirable growth. I would be happy to serve on a council with them if we are all fortunate enough to be given the nod to represent the people of Grande Cache.

Yvonne Rempel is returning to the game after a short absence and articulated all of her desires for a new council and direction in a professional manner. A number of new comers, Aaron Aiken, Mary Nelson, Annette Stad, Bert Optiz, Rod Head, and an old name Bob Krewusik, expressed them selves with passion and a good understanding of some of the problems our town faces. Fresh faces with fresh ideas on a council is always a good thing and voters will have a tough choice to make from all of us running for the six seats. No matter how the people choose to make up their next council I am sure they will be well  served

I am hopeful the citizens present saw that I have the experience and qualifications that would be beneficial to the next town council in the discharge of their duties. Guess we will find out in a couple of weeks.

Friday 4 October 2013

Buiding an Open and Transparent Council in Grande Cache

One of the very first things I noticed when I attended my first council meeting in Grande Cache is that there were no microphones or recorders. I then looked over at the secretary to see if she was typing verbatim. That wasn't happening either. From my experience I thought it was a must that all open council meetings be completely recorded. I then find out that it is against the procedural bylaw to record here. Amazing.

It is important to have a complete and accurate record of all that is said in open council. The bylaw has to be changed and proper equipment installed in council chambers to insure every word spoken in open council is recorded and kept on file. Doing this is just one step in in insuring openness in council proceedings.