Monday, September 16, 2013

Election 2013 Dean Ward announces Candidacy

Below is the press release I provided to today's  Pass Herald regarding my official announcement to offer myself as a candidate for the upcoming election. If you have any idea's, concerns, questions or just want to help my information is at the bottom of the release.  


My name is Dean Ward I am very please to announce that I will be running for the position of councilor in the upcoming election October 21st.
I am very proud to be the husband of Debbie, father of three and proud grandfather of two beautiful girls. I have been a resident of the Crowsnest Pass for 31 years, I previously sat on the Historical society board for three years, currently I am sitting on the Crowsnest Pass Health Foundation. 

One of my greatest assets is experience I sat on council for six years (2004-2010), very few people can claim to have participated in six municipal budgets, my experience will become even more valuable if the next council is comprised of a majority of members that have never sat on council previously.

2010 this community voted for change, change is inevitable and will happen whether we want it or not. The questions with change are always, what, how much, and how fast. Moving forward the next council must focus on involving the community and allow the residents to have input and steer the directions of future changes.

The strategic plan of 2011 was put together by a group of people that do not live in the Crowsnest Pass for the most part. It lacked local support right from the beginning, the public was never given the opportunity to be a part of this plan. Even though the plan had some very good recommendations, it was never “our plan” it was councils.     

The greatest challenges we face in the Crowsnest Pass is the fact that we have no tax base, after the closure of the Devon Gas Plant approximately 10% of our tax base is commercial/industrial. Ninty cents of every dollar raised by the municipality comes from residential taxpayers. According to the last Canada Census on average we have the oldest citizens in the province of Alberta, in simple terms every time we increase the burden on our taxpayers, we make it less affordable for seniors to live here.  

If  you choice to vote for Dean Ward you will be choosing a candidate that believes very strongly in the following:

Fiscal responsibility, I will not brag about small tax increases for the next four years while at the same time taking an extra $400,000 a year out of the taxpayers pockets by increasing Franchise Fees a whooping 230% over three years. I will bring forth a bylaw that only allows the municipality to increase Taxes, Franchise Fees, Utilities, Permits, Fines all forms of revenue by a maximum of the annual Canadian cost of living rate. Governments job should be to minimize expenditures not maximize revenues we all must live within our means. This community does not have the luxury of being able to afford to spend $400,000 on a logo, or $50,000 to buy the rights to a Best Western brand for a private company.

Smaller government, we now employ more administrators than the Crowsnest Pass as ever had previously, with another new position currently advertised. With a staff of less than fifty employees, do we really need nine administrators, when you add up all the salaries, benefits, vehicles, cell phones, computers etc we will be spending in excess of $1.2 million a year. To put that in a different perspective out of the 3100 homes in our community, 600 of them will be paying taxes just to maintain our administration.

There is much more to my platform, which I will be sharing with the public over the next six weeks, I look forward to speaking to as many people as possible. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to help me with my campaign, feel free to call me at 563 4128 or email deanward4@msn.com


16 comments:

Loreena Russomanno said...

Thanks for stepping up Dean! Just about every one I have spoken with (including myself) wants to see you back on council. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Dean the key for me is looking for candidates that stay away from the arrogant attitude. There are things this present council did, that I could have lived with if they had just communicated a little better and cut the attitude.
Good luck to you.

peter rosner said...

Should have run for Mayor I guess we will look at the next option. Good luck Dean you have the knowledge and experience that this community needs. If you are elected it will definitely benefit the new council and us taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Good luck Dean

Anonymous said...

Looks like the choices are getting better with each announcement. Time for a few of the locals who are down to earth to get elected. Then we will have a voice and get things back on track here. How nice it will be to see the residents at a meeting discussing the needs of the Crowsnest municipality, and not being fed a bunch of bunk as we are now.

Anonymous said...

I agree the administration is way to big for a community of this size. How many of these administrators have shown any commitment to this community. IE buying a home here?

Anonymous said...

quote from other candidate

"He believes some sort of restitution should be made to the people let go from the fire department"

how would you vote on this if this candidate gets elected and proposes a motion for restitution?

Debby said...

Doesn't have to be financial restitution. Sometimes a good old letter of apology for mishandling a situation works wonders! Maybe invite all parties involved in on future conversations as to where we go from here. That might be a good way to value them as community volunteers once again. Perhaps that is what he means.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...


Here is my position.
This community plain and simple does not have the money to take care of everything that needs to be done. So volunteers step up and do a lot. I think this community needs to rebuild bridges with volunteer groups. This community needs to recognize the efforts of all volunteers both past, present and future. Without them we would lose a lot of things we enjoy.

So restitution No. recognition and rebuilding of bridges 100%

Dean Ward

Anonymous said...

Dean, what will happen if you are elected and you once again sit on a divided council? How will you approach bridge building then? Are you concerned that you have created too much of a divide with your blog to rebuild any bridges or get along well with fellow council members to improve our community? My biggest concern with the election is that people will be too bogged down in old grudges to move forward.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

If I am elected I can work with anybody if their intention is to do what's best for this community, with the input of the taxpayers recognizing the needs, interests and desires of the public. Not with an attitude that we know what's best for you and one day you will thank us.
As far as my blog I have never gotten personal and have a right to express my opinions on the various issues. If you want to read comments that have attacked people go check out the Mayor's Corner in the municipal archives.
To be honest with you criticism comes with the position. Politicians are suppose to be professionals can you think of a business where everybody likes everybody.

Dean Ward

Anonymous said...

Our current Council may appear very united, but they have divided and damaged our community like no other council before them.

Being united, but going in a wrong direction is much worse than a council that is more divided, but going in the right direction.

This council. until very recently, showed absolutely no meaningful debate on any important issue. This kind of unity is not what we need. The $50,000 fee to reserve a hotel brand for non-existent hotel investors is just the latest example of this "wrong headed" unity.

Anonymous said...

12:16,

A good point. A 'divided' council can be a good thing. It is important in our political process and can lead to progression. Let's hope our next council is willing to listen to a good argument (in pubic) and vote according to their convictions. Balances and checks are usually beneficial.

What we don't need is a divided council continuously voting as a block or following one person like a pack of lemmings. I don't think that what has happened in the last three years even came close to the definition of democracy.

Anonymous said...

The Mayor is talking about a new hotel across from the high school. The land is still for sale, wouldn't they build the hotel on the center site first?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
The Mayor is talking about a new hotel across from the high school. The land is still for sale, wouldn't they build the hotel on the center site first?

No 05:29 . It makes perfect sense. The mayor may run again and if re-elected will announce the future construction of our new international airport. Rezoning is just a technicality to him. Let's call it 'fly in commercial'. Bruce seems to have his mind invested in a blind trust.

Anonymous said...

5:29 :
1)Buy pasture.
2)Get it upzoned to commercial.
3)Sell for profit.

Also works for
single-family ---> multiple
or
bush ---> acreages.

This describes much of the so-called "development" here. Remember Livingstone Ventures' "Gold Creek Acreages"? The BridgeCreek Boyz pulled a variation on this, instead of selling the real estate, they sold mortgage units to investors.

I'd be interested in Dean's thinking on this.