In the run-up to the Oct. 24 municipal election, the Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News printed condensed versions of interviews with all 20 council candidates, 11 school trustee candidates and four mayoral candidates. With a March 11 byelection scheduled to fill the eighth council seat declared vacant when candidates Chiew Chong and Andre Proulx tied on election night, we are republishing expanded versions of the interviews with byelection candidates Chong, Proulx and former councillor Blake Ellis. New interviews will be published next week.
How long have you been living in Thompson?
I’ve been in Thompson for 43 years. And then I’ve been running the restaurant for over 24 years. So it’s a long, long time. I go through the ups and downs, everything, the economic downturn, upturn, the prime. I remember years ago people getting $10,000 from a nickel bonus every three months. So I’ve gone through the prime and gone through the downturns. Now it’s a transition from integrated mining into milling and mining but the thing is talking about diminishing mining which is not true. It’s not really diminishing because there is maybe the same amount of ore coming from the ground and then maybe even more. It depends on the market conditions. All the people from the refinery and smelter that are being possibly laid off, they have a chance to transfer to the mine down there and learn new skills. I would say people still have a chance in the future. You never know, we might open up another underground mine or open pit mine. So there’s a lot of opportunity in Thompson that still has a future. That’s my opinion.
What do you for a living?
I’m a heavy duty industrial mechanic. I have a power engineer’s certificate from the province of Manitoba and also I took a course on occupational health and safety from the University of Manitoba. I’m also I’m running a Chinese food takeout business. I’m a busy person.
Why do you want to be on city council?
I’ve been attending the council meetings for the past four years. Some of the questions I ask I didn’t get an answer because I’m on the other side of the fence. I won’t be able to get to the details they have in the municipality or the city administration. For example, I want to know about how this money’s spent and when I ask a question I’m not going to get an answer. I found that some of the resolutions I might notice I don’t agree with because they didn’t do a further study. Council should have discussed, found out the invoice, why it costs so much, why they have to pay, why this happened. By attending the council meeting, I know lots of things down there are not really transparent. When you are there you know the whole story. When you’re not there, reading in the newspaper or listening to the radio, the story might change right because the details are not there.
What is the biggest local issue you’d like to see addressed?
To understand the finance, how money’s coming in, how the money’s spent. From there I will look at the public safety. We have a lot of people coming here, they’re roaming around, there’s vandalism going on, especially young people. They don’t have a lot of things to engage with after school. They don’t have a place for them to learn. They have lots of things to learn, like playing sports or participating in some of the cultural events. Those are important for young people. When you are young, you go and take up a sport like playing badminton and then you beat the other teams. It’s a lot of fun. You try to work hard so then you can have good skills in the sport. There are so many sports we can participate but because of lack of leadership, because people working for Vale, they work on a 24 -hour shift, a lot of the volunteers have disappeared. That’s one of the problems. It keeps them occupied, they don’t have a chance to go out and roam around and destroy so many things through vandalism. Those are big issues. Other issues we have are our streets. How many years have we seen all those potholes down there? I’m sad to drive around in Thompson destroying my car, driving through a pothole, not knowing because it’s covered in water. I have to fix my brakes, fix my joints to drive.
Anything else you want to add?
Above all I believe in working hard to achieve the things we want in our own life and if I’m elected you can be assured that I will take my belief and my credentials with me so I can serve this community to the best of my ability. I truly hope the people will consider my name.
