Candidates for the upcoming byelection in the Village of Beiseker gathered at the community hall on Oct. 3 for a public forum, where they answered questions from the public and shared how they would represent the Village on council.
Mike Duffy, David Ledoyen, and Stephanie Young were each in attendance, starting off the night with opening remarks.
In his opening remarks, Duffy said he fixes computers for a living and hopes to help fix the issues facing the town. Using his knowledge of running his own business he hopes to improve revenue generation, lower property taxes, and he also mentioned ideas like student-run businesses to occupy youth and encouraging local development to expand the tax base.
Ledoyen presented facts the village is facing like an increasing mill rate, water utilities, and property taxes. He said the lack of snow removal and road maintenance is what originally led him to watch council meetings, and he has now attended almost every council meeting over the past 21 months. As an engaged resident, he said he has brought change to council from the sidelines and hopes to continue that from within a council seat.
Young spoke about moving to the community with her family and becoming involved with the village as a recreation coordinator, and later became a rural mental health animator. With a vast background in education, special needs, and social work, she spoke of the importance of communication and compassion within the community. She hoped to represent the village on council and keep Beiseker as a place proud to call home.
Each candidate spoke about reducing taxes, which prompted a resident to ask how they planned to do that.
Ledoyen said measures have already been taken to reduce taxes, including selling the airport. Although no final decision on the airport has yet been made as local users are still debating about what to do with it.
His first step toward reducing taxes, he explained, would be to focus on utilities and look into solar energy for buildings.
Duffy admitted to not knowing everything about the Village budget, but understood budgeting from his own business perspective.
“If taxes are too high, we don’t have a big enough tax base and we need to address that,” he said. He added that he lives in an empty development and said attracting more house builders would help grow that tax base.
Young spoke about increasing infrastructure, which means encouraging more people to come into the village. She added that the Village of Acme, north of Beiseker, is adding a mill that will bring 120 jobs to the area, an opportunity she felt Beiseker could take advantage of.
“Where are those people going to live?” she asked. “Acme doesn’t have the capacity. I’m not saying it’s a quick fix, but there are options coming down the pike and things we can look at for the Village of Beiseker.”
Another resident stood up to voice her concern about the lack of communication around council meetings and the decisions council makes. She asked what each candidate would do to address communication.
“Recently, I made a proposal in June to make the council packages available to everybody in Beiseker,” Ledoyen said, adding the request was for digital copies to avoid wasting paper. “As of Sept. 11 our administrative staff now produce those, they’re always on the website. We not only get to see the agenda and minutes, but there’s more detail – all the stuff that council sees.”
He noted that was just the first step to better communication.
Young responded that not everyone has access to information online, like the website or social media, and wanted to look at different ways to relay information to the public.
Communication strategies could include adding information to water bills or newsletters, which are already going to the public, or electing a council member as communication coordinator to take notes and relay information to the villagers.
Running a business deeply rooted in communication, Duffy spoke about improving communication through its social media channels, the newsletter, and a communication person on council.
He noted the minutes and agenda contain a lot of information and it would help to have someone breaking it down before and after council meetings using things like, “a quick Facebook live post.”
The forum organizers then asked what changes each candidate would want to implement and how.
Ledoyen said the biggest change he wants to see is uniting the village, suggesting a polling system included with water bills or the newsletters to which residents can respond anonymously about local issues and current decisions council is being faced with.
Young added that through canvassing she realized a lot of concerns people have are about not being heard, and said if elected she would hope to improve communication with residents.
Duffy then added he would like to deal with Main Street by attracting businesses and encouraging cooperative businesses to employ local teenagers.
To a question regarding the candidate’s vision of Beiseker over the next five years, Ledoyen said he wanted to unite Beiseker as a community, bringing citizens together. Duffy’s vision was to bring in more neighbours and build the tax base, while Young said her vision was around sustainability and affordability –supporting life in Beiseker.
Additional questions were asked about the candidates knowledge of the Municipal Governance Act, transparency, how they will make themselves heard, which boards candidates are currently part of and how many council meetings they’ve attended, which skills prepared them to be on council, how they would spend a million dollar grant, and which major issues they feel council needs to address.
Beiseker’s byelection is scheduled for Oct. 17. There will be no advance voting prior to election day.
