Election 2013 - Dean Ward
My name is Dean Ward and I am very pleased to have this opportunity
to ask for your vote in the upcoming election.
I am very proud to be the husband of Debbie, father of three
and proud grandfather of two beautiful girls. I have been living in the Crowsnest
Pass
I sat on the Historical society board for three years;
currently I am a member of the Crowsnest Pass Health Foundation. In addition, I
have six years experience sitting on council, which makes me very familiar with
municipal budgets and all the other duties expected of a Councilor.
We do have challenges: a declining population, the oldest
population in Alberta , high
percentage of residents on a fixed income, and one of the lowest
commercial/industrial tax bases in the province
In 2010 this
community voted for change, but how much and how fast should have been the
question.
Strategic Plan
was put together in 2011 by mostly people that do not live here. It has many good
recommendations, but it was always Council’s plan and it was never “our plan.” The
Mayor tells the media “now that a
lot of hard work has been done, they can move on to more sophisticated work”
when, where and what he is hoping to do to us sometime later.
My positions moving
forward 2013-2017
Taxes : Government’s
job should be to minimize costs, not maximize revenues. Many of our residents
live on a fixed income that never increases by more than the cost of living. I
will work very hard to ensure that all municipal taxes, franchise fees, utility
costs, permits, fines etc do not increase by more than the cost of living at
the most.
Smaller Government:
We cannot afford to have an administration that costs us well in excess of $1
million dollars a year. One out of every five homes pays taxes each year just
to finance Council’s “Dream Team”.
Seniors-York Creek
Lodge is a valuable asset for this community that is in dire need of up
grading. Previous council had passed a motion putting aside $100,000 a year to
prepare for that future opportunity. This year six months into the budget
process administration realized that they had totally miscalculated the tax
base, scrambling council agreed to balance the budget by dropping the $100,000
to the Lodge.
Seniors-Town Rounder is
one of the unique services the municipality provides to its seniors. After the
last driver retired, his position as only been filled by a temporary employee and
this concerns me. I will commit to support and maintain this service if
elected.
Frivolous Spending: Our
municipal brand/logo, sadly at the same time council cut the $100,000
contribution to the lodge, they approved an expenditure of over $300,000 to
hire an expensive consultant to throw together numerous triangles, to build
entrance signs, to put up banners and to put this mess on every piece of municipal
equipment and stationary. Can anybody explain to me how the logo relates to the
Crowsnest Pass
Consultants: Will
we ever really know how much money we have spent on consultants over the last
three years? Now we have another one conducting a Recreation study. Our
recreation board could have designed a survey, made it available to our
residents and gathered the results at the municipal office?
Peace Officer Program:
We were originally told that the project would pay for itself because the
municipality anticipated an Automatic Traffic Enforcement program would be put
into place. They were wrong. Do we really need two peace officers to enforce
bylaws and educate the local residents? We need a full disclosure on what this
program is really costing us. As our reputation grows as a speed trap, the
revenues will only decrease, but the costs will remain.
Employee Morale: The
level of the relationship between the municipal staff and management as sunk to
an all time low, so low, that a consultant was brought in to look at the
situation. This did not come about over the last two weeks, the next council
needs to direct and demand that administration sit down with CUPE and resolve
this quickly.
Communications: Newsletters
are good until we have our representatives insulting us. Town hall meeting are
great until they are used as a tool to attack and embarrass the people that pay
the bills. Next council should communicate both professionally and in town hall
meeting where council “listens” to
the public’s input. Some how in the last year over 2500 residents felt that
council was not listening?
Hotels: I will
demand that next council not spend $50,000 or any amount to purchase a
franchise for a private company, and let’s get the first hotel built before we
start fantasizing about a second one.
Housing Affordability:
Most elections, we hear candidates speaking about affordable housing. So
many of our residents are seniors on a fixed income we need to keep our housing
“affordable”. Municipal government cannot control the costs of everything in society;
but there are some things they can. To vote to keep tax increases down while at
the same time taking substantially more money from our residents in the form of
Franchise Fees, Utility bills and every other dollar we can take out of your
pocket achieves nothing for the average taxpayer.
On October 21, vote for Dean Ward
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact Dean at
563-4128 or deanward4@msn.com
