Several heated debates occurred during a Sundre municipal candidate election forum on Oct. 10, with each of the nine candidates put on the hot seat at least once.
The two-hour forum, which was hosted by the Sundre & District Chamber of Commerce, attracted a full house at the West Country Centre. Dr. Rob Warren mediated the forum.
The two candidates for mayor, Annette Clews and Terry Leslie, were put on the hot seat the most. Tom Mennear, longtime Sundre resident, challenged them a few times.
“This is a good opportunity to put them on the hot seat,” said Mennear.
“The town implemented this five per cent on our power bill. If we are to encourage development and industry in this town, why are we charging five per cent on our power bill through the town?” he asked Clews.
Clews said she was not at the council meeting when the increase was passed.
“The previous council, when I sat as a councillor, I can say that I honestly did not support a franchise fee and I still do not support a franchise fee,” defended Clews.
“I do know some of the logic that was used when the council made that decision and it was to generate innovative revenue from those that don't pay property taxes. The franchise fee in my opinion actually harms the not-for-profits and I don't agree with it.”
Mennear also asked Clews about the recently adopted bylaw regarding water and sewer hookup fees in town.
“I love to push and promote Sundre, but right now the council put in a $15,000 hookup for water and sewer and $25,000 for commercial. This is a great way of promoting the town,” he said sarcastically.
He asked Leslie if he was strong enough to stand up to Mountain View County council.
“We've got a big tax base to the west that borders us. What are you going to do about it? I'm talking the county and are you strong enough to face them and say this should be Sundre? Why is it the county?”
Leslie said the town has to work together with the county and needs to review agreements on a regular basis.
“No municipality wants to hand out their taxpayers' dollars to another municipality, but when you are the county of Mountain View and your residents in this particular community pay taxes to you, and facilities are paid for from another municipality, it's unfair to those ratepayers,” said Leslie.
“Can we grow then? If we're looking at your point of view, the county's got us all around. Where are we going?” asked Mennear. “I don't know why the Town of Sundre went out to the county of Mountain View and put their shop up there. We have land, I had land to sell them, and they went out to the county and bought land. Pretty sad.”
Warren asked Mennear if he had a specific question.
“Well, that was. Terry kind of answered me, but he didn't.”
Sundre resident John Poirier said progress with flood mitigation work has come a long way and prided incumbent Myron Thompson for his dedication to it, but said there is still a lot of work to be done.
“How are you going to work with the county to ensure that the problem is looked at and a solution is found to the problem west of the town, which eventually is going to affect the town?” he asked Leslie.
“If I'm sitting in that chair come the day after the election, I need to call the reeve and say ‘when are we going to get together to talk about a coordinated approach to how were going to mitigate potential flood, potential damage, all of those kinds of things',” replied Leslie.
He said if need be, he will arrange a trip to the legislature in Edmonton with representatives from the county and MLA Joe Anglin.
Sundre resident Lori Berg said she lives north of Sobeys and disagrees with the rezoning of the area to high-density or single-family development, in the town's Municipal Development Plan.
“When you opened all the lots on the north end and built all those houses you felt it was better to make those large single-family homes and go to a pre-existing neighbourhood where there's very few children and it's very quiet. Why would a decision like that be made?” Berg asked Clews.
Clews asked if she participated in the MDP open houses and Berg said she was unable to, but did speak with Erin O'Neill, the town's manager of planning and development.
“A lot of the rezoned areas came from the community, what the community would like to see there in the future,” said Clews.
Former mayor Roy Cummings defended council.
“A time comes when you have to take it upon yourselves to approach council to figure out how they can help to you to improve your place of business,” said Cummings.
He asked Leslie what he plans to do to better utilize town facilities and Leslie said if elected he will ask people in the community how they think they could be of better use.
Someone from the audience said the town logo should have never been changed and the new one is a “piece of garbage”.
“Why do we have all these fancy people in town office with fancy titles that cost a lot of money? That's one of the reasons our taxes are so high,” he said, and the audience applauded.
Clews said the town aims to have efficient staff to help council make the right decisions for the town.
During the forum, each candidate had five minutes to deliver his or her promises.
Cheri Funke said she joined council for the parks issue, but soon realized there are other issues and has developed an open mind for them.
“I'm not a natural politician, I'm a mom,” said Funke. “But I have come out of my mommy bubble.”
Paul Isaac said he represents families in the community. He referred to when his son was on the Handyman Superstar Challenge and when he was asked why he should be on the show he said ‘because you like me'.
“You should vote for me because you like me,” said Isaac.
A lady from the audience asked: “what if we don't like you?”
“I hope you like me because I have absolutely no reason to be a councillor other than that. I live here and I love this place and I have no agendas,” replied Isaac.
“Sundre is a community and we're a family. It takes both of us.”
Tony Jordan said sitting on council is a love/hate relationship.
“We need to consider every dollar we spend and where we spend that dollar. We need to consider that our representation is maximizing our dollar and that we're doing it right,” said Jordan.
Verna McFadden said when she was door knocking she had many uplifting conversations. She referred to a couple she met that said young people were friendly in Sundre and didn't mind if their taxes were high if they were going towards the children.
She promised to listen to people and help make sure their voices are heard.
“Every small-town story of success has a community working together,” said Jodi Orr. “Your concerns will be my concerns.”
Myron Thompson said he has 46 years of public service under his belt and wants to get to 50.
“I'm asking for your vote because I have a goal. First of all, to hit 50 years of service. Four more years and I'll do it and I can go to my grave a happy man,” said Thompson.
He said he wants to improve relationships with other governments and cracked politician jokes.
“I don't want to see new development go down in the river. We've got to get things done.”
Chris Vardas said priorities include attracting businesses to town and making Main Street, which he referred to as Sundre's Deerfoot Trail, safer.
“I'm proud to be here, I'd be proud to be serving you one more time and I will fight with everything I've got. I've been in business 21 years and I know what it takes,” said Vardas.
“What makes one community succeed and another fail? The answer is the community itself. Communities that fail don't address access to quality water, they don't attract and support business,” said Clews.
Leslie talked about communication with the community as a priority.
“I want to bring positive and optimistic leadership to a community I have admired, bragged about and enjoyed for 34 years.”
