A 19-year-resident of Thompson who moved her from Cross Lake, council candidate Joyce McIvor says she’s watched the city head in the wrong direction since she arrived and that the pace of decline has accelerated in the past few years.
“I’ve seen Thompson spiralling down so fast in these past 19 years,” she says. “In just the recent three, four years, it’s going down so fast.”
The mother of two girls, one of whom is autistic, McIvor has spent most of her working career in child and family services, the field in which she is currently employed.
“CFS, I always say, is my calling,” she says.
McIvor remembers loving to come to Thompson during her childhood and youth.
“It was a treat to come to Thompson,” she said. “We always wanted to come here.”
She believes it could be like that again, that Nickel Days could grow, the Winterfest could be turned into a bigger event. She would also like to see more celebrations of the various cultures that make up Thompson’s population.
“We should know each other more,” she says.
In general, more togetherness is something that Thompson needs, both within City Hall and outside of it, in McIvor’s view.
“We have to get along,” she said. “We need more input from the people of Thompson. We need them to help. It takes a community to build a community, a village to build a village.”
Though McIvor said she didn’t want to give all of her ideas away, she is certain that the city needs to do everything it can to get Manitoba Hydro to repair non-functioning streetlights more quickly.
“Nothing’s being done about it,” she said. “We’ve been in the dark for how long?”
Council and the city also have to create conditions for developers to create more housing.
“We have three, four families living in one two-bedroom apartment,” says McIvor.
In addition to better lighting, more visible and effective police, security guards and community safety officers could help more people feel safer out on Thompson’s streets.
“We need to see training for [CSOs], better training more training. We need the RCMP to walk the beat.”
If elected, one of McIvor’s goals is to work for more recreational opportunities and other activities in the city, particularly for youth
“We need to get more stuff into Thompson for people,” she said. “We need to keep them busy and we need to get our [crime severity index] ratings down.”
McIvor says that, as a rookie councillor, she could bring a fresh perspective to the job.
“I’m new to this,” she said. “I’m on the outside looking in.”
