The municipal election is over three months away, but the candidates for the City of Dauphin are already preparing. For the first time since 2010, the election for Mayor of Dauphin will be contested, as Kerri Riehl and David Bosiak have both announced they'll be running.
Both candidates are hearing about issues from people around the community, and working on plans to address those issues to the best of their abilities. Riehl spoke about meeting with elected officials at all levels of government to share ideas.
"I was able to meet with Wab Kinew, the leader of the official opposition for the legislative assembly who represents the NDP," said Riehl, "I've talked to the MLA, and just this week I had lunch with the Member of Parliament. That one was very exciting for me. One of my passions when I was on Council and Deputy Mayor was, I certainly would like to see a restorative justice center here, built in Dauphin, and that was the focus of our conversation with the MP."
Bosiak also spoke about some of the issues that have been brought to his attention.
"The issues that seem to be common place in the sense of economic development, you know, Dauphin has to grow," said Bosiak, "The issues related to the perception of crime, and is there more crime or not, is Dauphin a place that people want to live? It's been a variety of things that have been brought to my attention and I don't think there's any one overwhelming issue."
The candidates were also both asked about the labour shortage that the City and the Parkland as a whole are facing right now, and how they might address that if elected. Bosiak talked about making Dauphin a place where people want to live, and the things that come with that.
"Affordable housing, can people find a place to live? Can families be here? We have good education, we have a good healthcare system, but can we connect the people to the jobs. I think we have to create a climate where people want to work again, and I think that by making Dauphin a great little place to live, we might be able to address that issue." said Bosiak, "One of the responses I've had to a lot of people was, there's very rarely one specific answer to any of the issues that are brought forward."
When asked the same question, Riehl focused on education and making people want to come back to the community after their done getting an education.
"I'm an active business owner and it's a problem I face every day, I don't have enough staff," said Riehl "I think it all ties together to education, providing opportunity locally to obtain an education. For instance in Yellowknife when I was there, people moved out to get educated, to get a degree, they never came back, and that was me. I left in '85 to go to university, then I joined the RCMP for 27 years, had another life, and came back. If you send people away, it's very difficult for them to return."
The election takes place on October 26th province-wide, and people have until September 20th to register to run for both Mayor and Council.
