I have lived in Bashaw for almost 49 years and have been the executive director of the Bashaw Adult Learning Council for 35 of those years. I have been privileged to serve on governance boards both regionally and provincially as well as one national organization.
I have also served as a community volunteer since I was 18 years old (a long time ago!) and have come to love and cherish this community and the people in it. I have a huge passion for the sustainability of rural communities and believe our community has created several successful models of support and service that are worthy of duplicating in other rural areas. Over the past nine years in Bashaw, we have produced some pretty extraordinary outcomes with whole community collaborative efforts. I am excited to see what more we can accomplish.
There are issues our community will have to face like every other community right now. The pandemic has had a huge impact on some of our businesses. Some have lost their jobs and are desperately seeking financial stability. It will be important to create a culture that allows all businesses to thrive including our physical, home-based and e-commerce businesses.
I believe a small business development centre could make a difference in Bashaw as it is much easier to retain jobs and businesses than to let them fail and hope someone else comes in to fill the void.
I also believe it is important to allow for community voices where possible to ensure the council understands the impact of their decisions. Still today community members lament the loss of our own water system and councillors who had little to do with the final outcome have had to try and defend a position they did not create. In that case, a community-wide consultation could have either accepted the decision that was ultimately made, or provided the council with a reason not to accept what was being offered.
Finally, I think it is important to acknowledge the strong foundation built by previous community leaders and councilors.In recent years we have attracted new and vibrant families to our community as well as further strengthened what currently exists. That only happens when the culture of the community is open and accepting which previous leaders and councils helped to create.