Medicine Hat councillor candidate Ellis says he’s the Swiss Army knife of candidates

“I think that I understand the people of this community in a deep way.”

Ellis adds that he is passionate about Medicine Hat.

“I truly think this is the best city to be living in in the whole country, and to see the unhealthy discourse in our community has been tough and it’s hard to look at,” Ellis said.

“I started looking at things like the city budget and predictions and forecasts and it doesn’t look great and Medicine Hat shouldn’t be a city that’s having to question our profitability and it’s something I’d like to be part of the solution,” he added.

“Not just on the fiscal side, but also on the community, the cultural, just the whole situation I’d like to have my input.”

Some of the key points Ellis is focused on includes the management of the city owned energy business.

“I think if I was on council and I was looking at this like it was a business, one of the first things I would do is look at the critical infrastructure of our oil and gas,” Ellis said.

“Because maintenance spending is a key part of the infrastructure policy if you under invest systems degrade faster and cost balloon later. I think we’re seeing the consequences of mismanaging that aspect of our industry in the budget,” he added.

“Diversifying the whole portfolio, mitigate risk, take care of utility rates. This is the way we can actually control utility rate increases.”

Ellis said he’s been asked by a few different people in the community over the last few years to run for council.

“I tried to recreate the CCDA [City Centre Development Agency] in 2022, but with council I couldn’t find the way to do it properly. I didn’t find it would be successful,” Ellis said.

“During that time I really got into the political scene here and started meeting different people around town and that was part of it for sure.”

“It does just feel like the time. I’m 32 now and I like to think about the 30 to 50 range age group is the group that is usually in power. They have the families, they have the businesses, are the ones trying to make things happen and my generation in particular has been under represented. I think it’s time for us to step into the role and this is my first attempt at doing that.”

Ellis said he is a single guy, but is pretty deep with his family.

“My brother has a son. My family’s all close together. My mom and grandma are both widows. So I spend a lot of time with them. Family is a huge aspect and really one of the biggest reasons I’m running,” Ellis said.

“I’m looking at the young families in my life like my friends are having kids and my siblings, and they really should not be struggling this hard to get by,” he added.

“The affordability for them shouldn’t be only accessible because they’re getting federal money. It’s just not acceptable in Medicine Hat.”

Ellis said with the current council we can see what infighting and poor communication can do to not only the council but to the whole city.

“I think there’s a lot of division in the city right now, and I think it’s a lot to do with the example that’s been set by our leaders,” Ellis said.

“There needs to be a different way of communicating. There needs to be involvement inside of the city. They shouldn’t be living essentially in a high tower behind glass. That’s the way it feels,” he added.

“I’ve struggled really hard to actually communicate with council myself and they’re supposed to be part of us. They’re not supposed to be separated from us.”

Ellis also wants to encourage the housing community to build more homes.

“We are since 2011 below the national average for new builds and last year the vacancy rate in Medicine Hat was 2.3 per cent, which is just not good,” Ellis said.

“It’s why we’re seeing rents be so high and I think one of the things that we can do is maybe create a fund that helps rehabilitate old buildings, [and] make new builds. Another thing that we could be doing is potentially offloading some of the property assets that we’re not doing anything with,” he added.

“I think the goal is to increase the tax base, not increase the tax rates.”

Another topic Ellis said he is passionate about is getting a youth shelter back in the city.

“I believe council needs to put out a request for proposals for NGOs [non-governmental organization] to come and build a youth shelter. We have no youth shelter right now. And the one that we had was only four beds,” Ellis said.

“I think we need something more like 12. Even when the Root Shelter was open and I worked at Be Youth, it wasn’t uncommon for kids to come say they couldn’t get a bed there for the night,” he added.

“I think that the health of the community is dictated by the health of our youth and it’s something that we need to address.”

Ellis said running for council and educating himself on the municipal, provincial, and federal level of government is something he wanted to put a lot of effort into.

“Because I think that we’re seeing a lot of distress in this world and I really truly want to be one of the voices that can help us get out of this situation, or at least keep Medicine Had a place that’s a little pocket outside of the chaos that’s going on all around us all the time,” Ellis said.

“I think Medicine Hat out of any of the cities in Alberta particularly has the opportunity to shield ourselves from some of these inflation costs, social discourse, all those kind of issues,” he added.

“It’s a very special place here.”

Visit our dedicated municipal election page for more information on the 2025 municipal election and other local candidate profiles published to date.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat councillor candidate Ellis says he’s the Swiss Army knife of candidates

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