Esterhazy Candidate Forum sees mayoral candidates weigh in
November 4, 2024, 12:43 pm
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
In an effort to give the public a chance to ask questions and learn more about their municipal election candidates, the Esterhazy Economic Development Committee hosted a candidate’s forum at the SN Boreen Centre on Oct. 29.
Residents got a chance to hear from the two mayoral candidates and nine people—including three incumbents—looking to fill six councillor seats in the election on November 13.
“The EEDC is a business advisory committee for council,” explained Tyler Metz of the EEDC. “Their focus is on the attraction and retention of business within the town of Esterhazy. The EEDC consists of two representatives from council and seven representatives from the town of Esterhazy that are appointed by council.”
The EEDC has held previous forums in 2016 and for a by-election in 2018.
“This candidate’s forum was created based on a need to get to know the candidates and their perspectives on the issues in relation to the town of Esterhazy,” said Metz, who moderated the forum. “The EEDC is excited to bring you this forum for the 2024 civic election. This election has a very diverse group of candidates—men and women, long-time residents and newcomers, young career professionals and retirees. This forum will give you, the voter, a chance to hear what these candidates have to say and shows that you have a voice by voting.”
The forum was structured to feature the mayoral candidates first, followed by the council candidates. A two-minute introduction was allotted to each for opening remarks, followed by predetermined questions, and finally a 20-minute question and answer session from the public.
Mayoral candidate and former councillor Randy Bot spoke of his vision for Esterhazy in his opening remarks.
“It’s an honour to stand here with the privilege of addressing a community that I deeply respect and care for,” he began. “This town, our town, holds a special place in each of our hearts, and it’s the shared passion that brings us together.
“Today, I am running for mayor because I believe we have an opportunity to build a stronger, more connected community,” Bot continued. “My vision is one where everyone feels safe, supported and empowered, a town where opportunities flourish, where our youth see a future right here, and every family can thrive by listening to your concerns. I know we face real challenges, whether it’s improving infrastructure, ensuring sustainable growth, or supporting our local businesses. I am committed to tackling these issues head on. I will work tirelessly to bring transparent, forward thinking leadership that values your voice. I believe that strong communities are not built by one person, but by all of us working together.
“My commitment to you is that I will listen, I will lead with integrity, and I will bring people together to find solutions that make sense for our town. I ask you for your support, your trust and your partnership in building a town we can all be proud of. Then we can create a future that reflects who we are and what we can accomplish.”
Incumbent mayoral candidate Grant Forster also referenced his background in Esterhazy, having lived in the community for the past 58 years (43 of those working for Mosaic), and how along with his wife, Linda, they raised four children “in this wonderful town.”
“I have a total of 15 years experience on town council, the past six years as your mayor, and for nine years in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, I was a councillor serving under Mayors Scotty Boreen and John Nightingale,” he said. “Being involved in my community and giving back to it has always been important to me. That is why here tonight I am asking for the privilege to be your mayor once again.
“I believe the single most important issue facing our community today is the new hospital care home facility,” continued Forster. “In the past 18 months, since the initial announcement of planning, money has been allocated to build our new facility, I’ve been working alongside our community members and government agencies to make this dream become a reality. I’ve been part of the planning process for identifying what additional services we want in the facility. I’ve been part of the team that is working toward the selection of a location for the facility. As chairman of the newly formed Esterhazy and District Healthcare Committee, I’ve been working with the reeves of our area RMs, private business and other community members to develop a strategy for securing the funding, formulating a plan for ensuring our community interests are addressed through the remainder of this process.
“We need strong voices and people with a passion for this project to make this project happen,” Forster said. “I have been and will continue to be one of those people. As mayor, I’ve witnessed the St. Anthony’s Foundation efforts in healthcare, professional recruitment and retention our community. This committee has done tremendous work in finding these individuals and enticing them to come to our town, but as a community, there’s much more that we could do to complement these efforts. I will commit to form a committee of council and community members to help find ways to make these health care professionals want to move here and make Esterhazy their home and help in the process that St. Anthony’s has been doing.”
“I see an opportunity to upgrade existing or add new health services locally,” he continued. “Other communities our size have full time professionals offering things like athletic and physical therapy, chiropractic, natural medicine and medical imaging services. Esterhazy should be able to offer and support these services, whether it be in the new facility or in a separate private facility outside of the hospital. I will commit to creating a team whose focus will be on determining the need and then working toward securing these services for the benefit of our community.”
Next, Forster shifted focus to what he’s noticed as an upward crime trend in Esterhazy.
“We have seen an increase in crime in and around our community in the past year,” he acknowledged. “Our local RCMP detachment is currently assigned nine members, but they’re actually only operating with seven. Some shifts, there’s two officers on duty to cover the whole detachment area—and that detachment area, corner to corner, can take two hours to drive across. This is unacceptable not just for the safety of our community, but for the safety of those officers as well. Our taxes pay for nine members. We should be getting staffed by nine members. I will work with the mayors and reeves in our detachment area to have the RCMP provide the officers that we need and that we are paying for.”
Question 1: The mayor of a community requires many skills and abilities. What strengths do you have that will help you be a good leader for our community?
Grant Forster: A mayor needs to be visible and accessible to everyone in both good times and bad. He must be the leader of the community and its biggest fan and its biggest spokesperson. Throughout my life, I have been a leader and everything I’ve been involved with since I was in junior high. I’ve sought out ways to be part of the decision-making process and provide leadership and guidance to others. In my working career, I held senior management positions where I managed teams of 10 or more employees. I’ve managed multi-million-dollar budgets and projects. I’ve made tough decisions, and have accepted responsibility for making them. I’m comfortable being at P.J. Gillen School serving pancakes to elementary school kids, or here at the Boreen Centre speaking at a high school grad. I can speak to any group of people and answer their questions. I’m not intimidated speaking with politicians. I can speak to TV and newspaper reporters and give them what they want without giving away things I can’t. I’ve never met a microphone I haven’t liked! I have thick skin and it’s difficult to get under.
Randy Bot: My experience on council has helped me develop key strengths essential for a mayor—transparency, active listening, and a commitment to practical solutions. I prioritize open communication and strive to keep residents informed and engaged, ensuring decisions reflect the true needs of our community. To ensure your voice is heard, I will hold dedicated office hours so you can come into the town office and share your concerns with me directly.
Question 2: Esterhazy has grown remarkably in the last 10 years with many new homes, jobs and businesses. What is your plan to continue this growth?
Randy Bot: While Esterhazy has certainly seen new homes, jobs, and businesses in the past decade, I believe we have only scratched the surface of our true potential. There’s still so much more we can achieve, and my focus is on creating a future where growth isn’t just about numbers, but about meaningful progress that benefits every resident. I see opportunities to diversify our local economy beyond current industries, attracting new businesses and creating new jobs and ensure long-term stability. We also need to focus on improving our infrastructure so that we are prepared to support the growth, not just manage it.
Grant Forster: We must give people a reason to choose Esterhazy as their home and to ultimately remain here for the long run. If we can provide them with the services they desire, and incentives to become part of the community, we will be successful in seeing this continued growth. My priority is for health care, which is a key service we can provide. The availability of child care is a huge priority for young families, and the town must continue to provide support for two daycare facilities by providing things like tax abatements and no-charge facility rentals. We need to continue providing tax incentives for the building of new homes and commercial buildings. We need to continue to build a culture where we can be safe in our own homes and on our streets. We need to continue giving people low to no cost options for many events that we have in town. I believe if we build it, they will come.”
Open Questions from Residents
How could the Economic Development Committee help you folks grow or work with your economic development plan?
Grant Forster: I’ve been a member of that committee since I took over the mayor’s chair, and it does some great work in looking for different ways to help our community and looking to attract businesses. EDC was instrumental in pushing the tax incentive program that we have for new buildings, and outside the box thinking like that coming from a committee with interest in the business community can help provide that guidance to council and as well to the mayor and let us and you as EDC be successful in finding and improving those businesses here.
Randy Bot: I have been on the EDC committee since I first started council and I was on for two years. I think they were just kind of getting everything organized at that time and making really good progress in our business sector in Esterhazy, allowing mentorships and everything for the businesses. I would like to get back into those meetings and figure out ways that we can bring new revenue into Esterhazy so we can ultimately decrease the taxation and stop putting so much on our taxpayer shoulders, and allow EDC to work with us to bring those companies in and have ideas and allow us to bring that new revenue to Esterhazy.
We talk about growth, but there’s all those empty lots on Sylvite Drive. Is there no incentive from the town?
Randy Bot: I agree with you totally, I do. And when I looked at it when I first got on the council eight years ago, if we gave all those lots away, the taxes would have covered the development already. So we really have to get a plan together. We have to bring those lots down. I know we’ve had some issues with allowing the lots to go when it’s under fair market value, but we’re going to have to find new ways to get around that so we can start filling up that subdivision. One of the things I would like to do is reach out to builders and try to get some spec homes in Esterhazy, and then hopefully we can get people buying those houses and moving into Esterhazy.
Grant Forster: I really can’t say anything more than what Randy has. We’ve had these discussions around the council table as to how we can fill Sylvite, and he’s hit the nail on the head. Those are exact things we’ve talked about. So, it’s been in our focus, it just hasn’t happened yet but hopefully it will.
How come Esterhazy doesn’t have a law against using engine brakes in town?
Randy Bot: I’ve never had this question in my life, I never even thought about it. So that’s one thing that we could definitely look at, like I said, that’s never, ever been brought to the table. We’ve never, ever discussed it, but it’s good to know going forward. Definitely something we’ll talk about.
Grant Forster: As Randy said, it’s not something we have discussed, and it is something that can be turned back to administration to investigate for us, and then council could make the decision from there.
It would be a huge incentive to have someone monitoring the engine brakes, I thought there was a noise bylaw.
Randy Bot: There’s definitely a noise bylaw. We have our administration here, actually at the back of the room tonight, so I’m sure that (CAO) Tammy (MacDonald) is going to write it down, and it’ll be brought to one of the meetings, and we’ll get signs up and take care of it.
Is there anything that can be done about the condition of the sidewalks?
Randy Bot: That was one of the things that I stressed when I wrote my little write up on Facebook. I would like to bring a new sidewalk initiative in Esterhazy so we can start repairing some of these sidewalks. I agree, they’re becoming very unsafe, and that’s something that we’re going to be looking at in the new budget, and hopefully we can get a new sidewalk initiative in and take care of that issue.
Grant Forster: In addition to that, there is some money in the budget this year, and hopefully we’ll get it done yet this fall, to replace some of the sidewalks in town, around the post office, some of the bad areas downtown. We have been looking at it, and it’s something we will continue to look at.
If you could bring another industry into town to help spur economic development, what industry would it be and why?
Grant Forster: There’s probably a number of things that people would like us to bring in, but in so many words, we need to be realistic about it. Ultimately, I think a service industry for Mosaic would probably make the most sense and would probably be the most successful. That’s not saying we couldn’t make it with anything else, but in my mind, that would tend to be the thing that we should focus on, is looking for the service industry to help complement what Mosaic needs. There’s been a number of new businesses come into town over the years. I think of something like Commercial Sandblasting, they used to do a lot of contract work for Mosaic, found it was great, and they decided to move in here. That’s the kind of thing I think we need to look at.
Randy Bot: When it comes to this, I believe that we need to get away from relying so much on bringing industry in for Mosaic. This is one of those things that goes back to the EDC committee. I feel like we could partner in these committees, that we could go out there and figure out what the town needs, and what we could bring into Esterhazy and together as a committee, figure out going forward what would benefit from what industry coming into town. I like the thought of bringing industry in for Mosaic, but I just feel like, if we can branch off and find something new for town, then we don’t have to rely so much on that.
Getting back to sidewalks in town, does anybody from town look at the hedges and sidewalks?
Grant Forster: The short answer to that is, I don’t think anybody does actually look at that. We would rely on people to tell us. I mean, our town guys are very, very busy in what they do, they’re not assigned to go and look at these cases. We do have our bylaw officer, which is supposed to be doing things like that and reporting those back to the office. As well, if people see something and it is a concern, it’s always best to contact the office and then they can take care of it that way, by assigning someone to look at it. But to answer your question, no, I don’t believe there’s an active person that goes out and looks at things like that.
I think we need to slow down the speed limit on Main Street.
Randy Bot: This has been something that we’ve been talking about for a few years now, and the speed limit in Esterhazy is actually going to be switching to 40 km/hr, hopefully this spring.
We get doctors sent here, but it doesn’t seem like they want to stay after a set period of time. What can we do to make people move here and stay?
Grant Forster: The people of the S. Anthony’s Foundation are doing a fantastic job, as I said earlier, about finding people and bringing them in and having them come to Esterhazy. Where I think we can complement their efforts is to look around the community and try and make our doctors and nurses and other health care professionals feel more at home. Do we look for things like getting them involved in the Lion’s Club, or look at things like getting them involved in the Super Sledders, or the golf club or whatever. Having the community people make an effort with these people, making them feel at home, making them want to stay here and raise their families will be valuable in making sure they stay. I look at years back, doctors like Tony Ford were here forever, Dr. Williams as well, and the reason why—they were involved in the community, so that’s what I think we need to do.
Randy Bot: I agree with that one. We have to get our doctors involved in the community. But this isn’t a problem that only Esterhazy has, you see that it’s hard to retain doctors all over the province right now, so there has to be a plan on how we are going to keep them in our community. As of yet, I don’t know how you would go about doing that, but that would be discussions again that have to be made whether it’s getting them involved in the community or what it’s going to take. But I’ve seen a lot of them being involved in the community and they still end up leaving. So it is a really good question. And if anybody had any ideas, then come forth, because it’s been a struggle for us for years, not only in Esterhazy, but in the entire province.
What priorities would you have in order to grow local services, and particularly investing in the staff that provide those local services for your community?
Randy Bot: That’s a very good question. First of all, we don’t have any land available right now, so we’re going to have to start investing in some land for industry. Because if somebody came to town tomorrow and wanted to put a business in Esterhazy, we have very limited space for them anywhere. So that’s one thing that we’re going to have to plan going forward, to get some land and infrastructure in place so if people want to bring an industry or business into Esterhazy, we can accommodate them.
Grant Forster: One of the things that we’ve been doing on the committee that’s looking at potential locations for the new hospital is looking at the area as a long-term solution for more than just the hospital. So part of the process is to review the areas that we are looking at and consider them for additional commercial setups and expansion. It’s costly, we know that, but if we do it right, and if we do it under the guise of the hospital, we might be able to sneak in some government money to help us develop some land of our own in town. So that’s one of the things we’re looking at. It’s not a secret I believe to anybody that we are short of land. We’ve identified the issue. We just need to proceed and get that area developed and try to get it done as quick as possible.
With winter coming, is there any thought of putting up snow fences so that we don’t have to worry as much about having to plow snow more than once a year?
Grant Forster: Again, short answer is probably not, this probably hasn’t been discussed, but we have town staff here this evening that I believe can take a look at that and determine whether they think it’s worth doing or not. Have we done it at the council table? No, we have not. There are town staff here that I’m hoping will take back that question and review it and decide if that’s something we should do.
If you do not get elected, what would be your plans to support the community?
Randy Bot: If I do not get elected, I still want to be part of the committees that I’ve been on, as well as I have a lot of interest in the EDC committee, so I’d be reaching out to them. So I think I would still stay involved, put my name out there trying to get on some of these committees to make a difference that way.
Grant Forster: As I said earlier, I’ve been here 58 years, and in those 58 years I’ve lost count of the number of things that I’ve been involved in in the community. I’m getting older, obviously, and don’t have the energy to do some of this anymore, but definitely will want to stay involved. I truly love this town. I love being here, and I will do whatever I can to help it be successful, and to support the councils of the day and be involved with committees wherever I can do that. So I definitely plan to stay involved if I’m not reelected.
Is there any plan to be clearing the sidewalks in the winter?
Randy Bot: This has been brought to our attention for a few years now, and we never actually came together with a plan. But like I said, administration’s here, that’s one thing that is important, because we have a lot of people walking and slipping on the roads, right? They’re a lot more slippery. So that’s one of the things that we’ll make sure that they take down and we’ll look at for this year. We have a new director of operations in Esterhazy, so we will give this kind of stuff to him, and hopefully we can see some changes this winter.
