Rick Wiljamaa, a Rocky View County (RVC) staff member, is one of the five candidates to announce their intentions to represent the Macleod riding for the Conservative Party in the upcoming federal by-election.
“This is something I’ve been thinking about for a few years now,” said Wiljamaa, RVC’s manager of engineering services and Okotoks resident for nine years, about making the leap from municipal work into a role with the federal government.
Former Macleod MP Ted Menzies announced his retirement last fall, which Wiljamaa, 42, said encouraged him “to seize the opportunity” and begin his campaign.
A progressive conservative for more than 20 years, Wiljamaa said it’s his passion for politics and desire to represent constituents that interests him in working in Ottawa.
He said one of the key components of his platform is to focus on the economy, which he said is a common concern he hears when knocking on constituents’ doors.
“People are concerned whether we are coming out of the recession or if we’re reaching a point where it’s leveling off and then we’re going to start to go back into recession,” he said, adding he believes the economy is headed in the right direction and will continue to if the federal government “stays the course.”
His campaign website states it’s the Conservative government’s commitment to “strong fiscal policies” that keeps the nation at the top of the G7 countries, accomplished by a number of factors such as keeping taxes low and investing in important infrastructure.
But Wiljamaa said he thinks the federal government needs to address the infrastructure deficit and the funding structure for municipalities, which has lead to the decay of infrastructure nation-wide.
“We have aging bridges, and aging water and sewer pipes. We have aging roads, hospitals and schools,” he said, adding the estimated cost to update the infrastructure across Canada is $57 billion, but could be as much as $110 billion by 2027.
“If I go to Ottawa, I would push the Conservative’s mandate (to invest 53 billion over the next 10 years into addressing the infrastructure deficit), and make that a priority,” he said.
Wiljamaa said because of the funding structure, municipalities only receive a small portion of the federal tax dollars to address the infrastructure concerns within its boundaries, in particular, to improve roads.
“RVC has 22,000 kilometres-worth of roads. It’s not cheap to maintain those roads. Dollar-wise, we get very little money out of the Federal Gas Tax Fund,” adding he will work to ensure municipalities are provided stable, annual funding for long-term infrastructure initiatives.
He said the catch is the economy needs to be stable in order to be in a situation where the government is generating surplus budgets to be able to commit to these long-term goals. That comes down to creating initiatives to support businesses – especially small businesses, he said.
Specific to the McLeod riding, Wiljamaa said work needs to continue to recover High River and Bragg Creek - areas hit hard by the flood.
“Especially in High River, businesses were devastated and that means people are out of work. We need to establish those businesses and get people back to work, and obviously address the infrastructure issue there.”
Wiljamaa said he will continue to go door-to-door and meet individuals for coffee to hear about the issues he should focus on if he is successful in the by-election.
Although a by-election has not yet been called in the Macleod riding, it must occur within six months of an MP’s resignation.
Other conservative candidates entering the race include John Barlow, Melissa Mathieson, Scott Wagner and Phil Rowland. Conservative Party nomination applications must be completed by Feb. 10, and residents of the Macleod riding must buy their membership by that date to be able to vote for their preferred Conservative candidate.
