Downtown business owner hopes to bring greater transparency to city hall if elected

“It is interesting now that it is election time, I’m seeing so many of the incumbents saying ‘I have stood up or I’ve held people accountable or I’ve asked the hard questions, and truly I can’t say that they haven’t. They just haven’t visibly. So if they are doing that in their in-camera meetings, good for them but that is not where it counts. Where it counts is out front, in front of everyone, and the citizens can see ‘oh that councillor had this question and here’s why,” she said.

Sharps said, if elected she is going to take a hard stance on transparency to ensure the public is well informed.

“As a council member, I’m going to insist that anything that is not an in-camera subject isn’t in-camera. So the chair of the meeting is the mayor, and regardless of who that position is going forward. I will make my opinion known that the minute a topic is not an in-camera, sensitive, or confidential topic, it needs to come out of in-camera” she said.

Sharps believes the lack of transparency displayed by city hall over the past few years is what spurred so many new candidates to run this election. Currently, there are 31 candidates running in the council race and 26 are non-incumbents.

On economic development, Sharps said the city needs to create an environment that attracts a skilled labour pool. Difficulty attracting and retaining skilled and non-skilled workers have been highlighted as a challenge by business owners in a Business Retention & Expansion and Workforce Development report (BREWD). Sharps said creating a region that supports workers will in turn bring big business to the city. But with a declining birth rate, Sharps said immigration is needed to ensure the city’s labour pool remains competitive.

“People need to get past this block in their mind that immigration means we are picking up the tab because that is not true. It is just not true. The immigrants that come in, I deal with a majority of skilled workers. They are working. I have been doing this for 17 years. I have yet to bring in somebody that is now sitting on any kind of social assistance or welfare,” Sharps said.

Sharps also said a skilled economic development team, that is qualified, is also key to driving industry to the region, something she said is missing from city hall.

“I believe there is one individual in that organization that has a background but for the most part, we aren’t seeing that. What we are seeing is a lot of smoke and mirrors. What we are seeing is a lot of what could happen, what if happens. How about what is happening?” she said.

Another key part of her platform is promoting diversity within the city. Sharps said the lack of diversity in Medicine Hat is stunting its potential for further growth.

“If you look at the fastest-growing companies, one of the key things that created their growth was the diversity that they brought to the table. Again it wasn’t about let’s hire 1.5 East Indians or whatever. That was never what diversity was supposed to do. But as soon as you start hiring different educations, and different experiences, you have that at the table,” She said.

That lack of diversity she said is also evident with the current council.

“When you have eight people sitting around a table that are all this certain age and they are all from here, well you are getting the same answer. So two weeks ago at city council when you saw everybody congratulating, and they all had the same message with the exception of one, that tells me they all come from the exact same experience,” she said.

With election day nearing Sharps is encouraging the public to look at all the candidate’s platforms, but not make a judgment solely based on their stance towards COVID-19.

“This is more than COVID-19. We have an entire city to look after. There is industry, there is the economy, there is downtown, there is a whole area that we need to look at. So if you are only looking at COVID-19 you may cut off our nose to spite our face,” she said, noting she is fully vaccinated and supports the use of masks.

The municipal election takes place on Oct. 18.

by Tiffany Goodwein

Downtown business owner hopes to bring greater transparency to city hall if elected

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