Murray Gray running for Moosomin mayor
September 30, 2024, 9:39 am
Moosomin town councillor and Economic Development Chair Murray Gray has decided to run for Mayor of Mooosmin.
“After eight years on council, I feel that the time is right,” he said. “I feel that my passion and leadership can help the community so I think the time is right to throw my hat in the ring for mayor.”
Gray said he first ran for council because he believed he had something to contribute.
“I was involved in the community in minor hockey, Playfair Daycare, some boards and some other aspects of it and I thought it was my time in order to give it a go and I’ve really enjoyed my time on council.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished in economic development—going from starting a board up to the Housing Accelerator Fund grant of $1 million and where we’re at now with the incentive. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done on that and I look forward to the rest of the work that we need to do in order to continue that.
“I’m very proud of having the junior councillor added to council and bringing that on board—that’s exciting in order to engage with the youth and find out what they’re thinking because they may be thinking different than the rest of us. I sat on HR for four years and that was a real learning curve but it helps you understand that the people who work for you are really what make your organization.
“Then there’s Recreation. I’ve been on Rec for eight years and there’s been lots of growth in the Recreation Department and we continue to grow it. It all adds up to learning about what makes the town go and gives me the incentive to want to try to run for mayor.
“I love the community and I really love the challenge of tapping the greatness that hasn’t been tapped yet in Moosomin and in the area. That’s what motivates me to put the work in and spend the time because I know how great a place this is and can be.”
What does he hope to accomplish if elected mayor?
“To continue on the path of what we’ve been working on with our growth targets and our housing development,” he says. “We’ve identified some needs in the community that we’ll work towards. We’ll work on our infrastructure that’s aged and we’ve got a pretty good program going on with that. So we will continue to work on the things that we have been working on and look forward to collaborating with our neighbors. The successes from that has been incredible.”
He said economic development is of prime importance in a community like Moosomin.
“We’ve grown because we’ve put in the work to attract businesses and services, to attract doctors and attract all of the things that you need in order to be a successful community. If you want to grow then you have to put in the effort in order to grow and if you want new businesses you have to work at it.
“Daycare was identified early on in our economic development meetings and it was holding us back on being able to add jobs in the community. We worked with the board at Playfair Daycare and talked to them about how we could assist them in growing and adding more spaces. It didn’t go anywhere at first. I wrote a letter and resent that application into the Ministry of Education, making some points on why we needed it, what we’ve had going on in town and how the daycare spaces not being here would handcuff us going forward. We received a letter stating that we were able to add 90 spaces.
“That’s huge if you want to have people to work in your businesses and to add new businesses because without daycare spots you have a large part of your workforce at home with their kids.”
He said bringing new businesses to town as part of his economic development role has been a highlight.
“For Anytime Fitness I just talked to the owners, Jolene and Edward De Vries. They had come to town and I had met them talking about a vehicle at the dealership and from there I told them there was an opportunity there for them so we started working back and forth with them on helping them find some lots and building a gym. After a year and a half or two years of communication he was able to sign on with a local developer and now they’re up and running and doing well. Those always make you proud, those success stories, for sure.
“The Housing Accelerator Fund was a really interesting one and it took us a long time in order to settle on what we were going to do for the program for it. Once it was settled on and we got the word out, it really exploded in the media—both nationally and provincially. We got a lot of really good play on radio stations and on television networks all over the country. It was good to be able to have our name talked about, the town talked about, and I was proud to be one of the faces of the community for that. I was very proud to have the opportunity to sell our community to our country.”
Why does he think he would be a good mayor?
“I think I’m a good listener, I think I’m a good leader and I think that I can get the best out of people by leading them in a way that makes them want to be part of the team. I coached baseball and hockey and other sports all of my life and I learned that leaders lead by example but leaders also bring up the people around them in order to be better at what they do. I think that aspect in my life is important and I could certainly use those in the mayor’s chair.”
What does he see as the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities for Moosomin moving forward?
“I don’t know what the biggest challenge is but I do know the group of people in this community and there’s no challenge that we cannot face and get around. I do know that. There are always going to be challenges but this community has so many people that will get behind the solution-based fixing of problems. If there is a challenge that comes along, I have no doubt that we will find a way to get around it. There’s no challenge too big for this community.
“On opportunities, I think the new airport is going to bring some opportunities with new business in town and I think that the expansion of some of our existing businesses in the area, as far as manufacturing goes. It will maybe bring in some smaller suppliers and some smaller spinoffs of those companies. I think that those types of businesses are certainly on our radar, in order to work with. Between IJACK’s expansion and not too far away at Langbank with Vaderstad, manufacturing in the area has definitely been taking off, so I think that’s an opportunity for us to capitalize on.”
