Medicine Hat councillor candidate Schafer looking for transparency, strategic thinking and proper budgets

“Then we did a massive reorganization in 2015. They created a new area called procurement. I worked with our stores department and our purchasing department on behalf of electric. I was a liaison between our designers and inventory,” he added.

“Our inventory was a mess in terms of costs and levels. I came in, got that in order. That was my area that I looked after and made sure we had just-in-time ordering.”

The process included making sure material were on hand for emergency purposes.

“Also having the proper levels, not overstocked where it just costs a lot of money,” Schafer said.

“In 2021, Accelerated Financially Fit came into play. Municipalities can’t run a deficit and they deleted a bunch of positions. One of them was mine. It pushed my retirement up by two or three years,” he added.

“I’ve just been enjoying Medicine Hat, got one grandkid, another one coming. My family all lives here. All my friends live here.”

Transparency is one reason that lead Schafer to seek nomination for council.

“There also needs to be trust. If there’s trust, you’ll have transparency, because transparency to me means what you’re hearing or not hearing, you’re not believing,” Schafer said.

“I think there needs to be open dialogue, a little more public engagement in terms of getting the news out there that this is what we’re doing. This is what we’re working on, and answering the public questions.”

Another reason he said he is running, is getting a handle on the city spending.

“It needs to be looked at. It needs to be more proactive, not reactive. And it needs to be more, you can call it financially fit,” Schafer said.

“That was a program that was brought in because our spending was bad, plain and simple. To me, we should be running a lean organization,” he added.

“When I say lean, I don’t mean as cheaply as possible. I mean as financially responsible as possible, and still meeting our needs and our requirements to make this a vibrant community.”

Another topic drawing Schafer’s attention is appropriate staffing.

“We’ve had three massive reorganizations. The city has grown, not population wise, but in terms of an organization wise, I think we need to review that and look and ensure that the positions we have, they add value and they’re required,” Schafer said.

“That’s a huge cost right there. We need to get back to proper budgets, strategic thinking, and base our decisions off of, does it add value to our community? Can we afford it? These basic questions that everybody should be looking at when we’re making large decisions with someone else’s money,” he added.

“If we do that, and get back to that and teamwork. We need industry leaders. We need strategic thinkers that are open to all viewpoints, every idea.”

He adds that once you get enough strategic thinkers in a room and evaluate everything and assess the data, you make educated, informed, responsible decision.

If voted in Schafer said he wants to keep an open line of communication with the public.

“Drop me an email. Drop me a phone call. Stop me on the street. I love talking about issues. That’s the only way you get better,” Schafer said.

“Listen and let people give you their ideas. You get enough strategic thinkers in a room and they’re all working towards a common goal. I don’t think this last council really had a common goal,” he added.

“I could maybe go in there and offer something different. A little more open-minded, common sense, strategic, and responsible. You look at the city’s values. There’s accountability and integrity. They list them in every department. We need to live by those.”

Schafer is focused on moving the city forward as vibrant and well maintained to attract new business.

“Let’s get our house in order first through financial responsibility, strategic thinking, doing detailed budgets and getting all the information so we can plan for the future,” Schafer said.

“You got to be ready to adapt. We can get all that back together and make this an affordable place to live. You can’t be raising taxes and throwing money at issues because they come up and think they’re going away,” he added.

“It’s just costing you a lot of money, and there should not be surprises. This last year, the amount of budget amendments that came through, then basically the fear of double digit tax increases next year because of all these budget amendments. That’s a lack of planning.”

Schafer adds council needs to be get back to working on goals together as a team instead of infighting.

“It is a bad culture right now, but culture is what you tolerate. The reason I’m running is I don’t tolerate it anymore,” Schafer said.

“I’m going to bring up some fresh ideas to council hopefully.”

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 Schafer looking for transparency, strategic thinking and proper budgets

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