Varga first former councillor to register for Medicine Hat’s fall civic election

“After after the Tigers season was done. I got a job and never left and I’ve been here ever since that time. I started working as a truck driver going out to Leader, Richmound and Burstall and worked on that job for a while,” Varga said.

“Then I actually had the opportunity to go play hockey in Germany for six years. So In 1984-85 I went over to Germany and played hockey till 1991-92. I had a good career over there and then came back and started working in a landscape operation here with Green Valley Tree Farms,” he added.

“I’ve been around here for for quite a while and on top of that then started a business with the landscape company in 2000, 2010 and then 2013 actually bought in with a partnership with two other people and run LMT landscaping now. So I’m a landscaper full-time for a lot of years now in Medicine Hat.”

Varga is a family man, married with two adult kids, and five grandkids. His hockey roots in the city also run deep.

“I was a hockey coach and coached one of the major teams and Bantam to a championship in Alberta and got to Western Canada’s and then actually joined in minor hockey as the GM back in 2013,” Varga said.

“Then after that the same year I tried getting on the council and I was fortunate to get on.”

The 64-year old said a priority is to make sure the city is financially responsible.

“We’re always trying to make sure that the taxes and utilities are kept at a minimum and they’re not overpriced where people can’t afford to do this stuff,” Varga said.

“We have to always watch the finances of what’s happening within the city and where our profits go and what kind of jobs we’re going to do,” he added.

“Fiscally responsible is key to whatever we have to do within our city. There’s only so much money to go around from taxes and we have to be careful as to not overspending or dipping into our reserves too much in order to make this city run the way it should.”

Varga adds a council needs to be aware of what kind of finances we’re going to use to do certain things and not get too much in debt over time.

Vargas said when he was on council he was a supporter of getting another rink or new complexes within the city for recreation.

“They’re not cheap to run. They’re expensive to build and we need the help from the province and the feds probably most of time when we get into those areas, but the one thing that Medicine Hat does do is keeps our facilities in tip-top shape,” Varga said.

“Some of them are getting old and getting phased out and and need to be phased out because it’s costing too much to run. The amount of money that we’re sticking into some of our facilities would outweigh the cost of building a new one,” he added.

“Hopefully down the road the new council can decide on something like that and make people happy. I know there’s always been talk in the town that we need something in the south end and that might come to fruition if we can work out something with the province and the feds that can help us build that.”

Varga said it hard to comment fully on the current council. as there is a lot that goes on behind close doors.

“I’ve been there where you’ve made a lot of decisions that are done in private and between the team itself, but the trust I think of councillors has gone out the window,” Varga said.

“I believe we have to gain that trust back right. It’s a team, the council’s a team, right from the mayor right down to the last council member. You got to work as a team and figure out things and come to a consensus on what you want to do in the future,” he added.

“For the present day, you can’t be in turmoil because it’s never going to work right and that’s I think the biggest factor that I see.”

Varga said during his eight years on council they worked together and tried hard, not saying that we all agreed on stuff, but we made sure that we made things happen for the people.

“We went through the roughest time in the Covid years when I was on council and we made things work for the city and for the people of the city,” Varga said.

“It was a tough time where we had to find some reserve funds to make sure that utilities stayed low and taxes stayed low, because people just couldn’t afford to do those things,” he added.

“We just have to watch our finances and make sure that we’re doing things the right way and make sure that we’re doing it for the people of Medicine Hat and for the businesses of Medicine Hat.”

Varga is hoping his experience on council is a big advantage over others running for the position.

“By being there for eight years it’s no different than being a worker or or a hockey player for that matter for being on a team for eight years. That experience runs down into the people that are coming new on your team,” Varga said.

“I’m hoping that experience will help out and knowing the way things are run through the city and the ins and outs and where to go and who to talk to,” he added.

“I mean council has only one employee which is a city manager. So they got to work hand in hand with the city manager while they’re going through their terms.”

Varga said working with a city manager means they can’t delve into the different departments and try and do things that way.

“That isn’t how it works when we are a governance board and we look after the things that come forward to us and we don’t get into the weeds by going into things that happen in the different departments,” Varga said.

“That’s our city manager’s job to do that, but we can bring things up to her. So that relationships got to be real fine and has to work hard and it’s got to be a back and forth between the city manager and the council,” he added.

“I think that’s lacking a little bit because that trust was lost. I’m hoping that the trust will come back we’ve got to gain the trust of the province too, and the feds, because we’ve got a little bit of a black mark on our city now with what’s going on the turmoil that’s taken place the last couple years.”

Varga said he is hoping that that trust can be fixed.

“It’s hard to come by and it takes a long time to gain it back. So I’m just hoping that we can do that,” Varga said.

“I hope my experience works out where I’ve had eight years in there and I know a little bit about the ropes. Not everything. I’m never gonna say that I know everything because you’re always learning and I’m hoping that it’ll be valuable when people go to the election table,” he added.

“I’ve got the passion to do it again. I’m happy to do that for the people.”

Varga said council has to be a stronger team to move the city forward.

“There’s a lot of things that have been lacking for the last few years. We’ve got a great city where it’s a great city to live in it’s a great city to do all our things in and for our kids to live in,” Varga said.

“People don’t realize that until they move away for a little while and they know how good they had it in Medicine Hat. Until you move away and see that in a different community you’ll never know the value of what our community has, I’m hoping that people will see that,” he added.

“It’ll be a tough election because there’s so many people that are running, but hopefully they listen to someone that had been there before and that’s what I’m hoping for.”

by Jesse Gill

Varga first former councillor to register for Medicine Hat’s fall civic election

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