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By Jett Schwaier

ELXN25

Accountability a focus for current Medicine Hat councilor Sharps seeking re-election

Oct 1, 2025 | 1:53 PM

Shila Sharps is seeking re-election for her second term in city council and her primary focus is to bring accountable decision making to council.

“We’re all in this together. It’s not about us just barking orders, but it’s about working with administration,” Sharps said.

“I also think that we desperately need to see where we are with processing times for developers.”

“And that needs to be visible to the public so they know that it’s improving,” she added.

Being a business owner in downtown Medicine Hat, Sharps says she brings financial and business knowledge to council.

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“There seemed to have been a real focus away from financial accountability,” Sharps suggested.

Sharps said the reason she is running for council again is due to people saying nothing got done in the previous term. And she believes that’s inaccurate.

“We actually got a lot more done than people realize we did. The lights are turned on all the years and past years of just allowing bad policy or processes continue and faster,” Sharps said.

“Majority of them are open now and we can fix them and move forward.”

“There’s been a lot of change and I’d like to help get the organization to the step where we’re comfortable with that change management,” she added.

Bringing transparency to council was a major focus for Sharps in her first term four years ago and she will continue to do so in the coming election.

“History is important, and I think that’s one of the reasons I push transparency so much,” Sharps said.

“So I think it’s really important to have existing council on the new council because you can share in the history.”

Sharps said she does not want to direct the council about how things were done in the past.

“But I do want to share the history with them so they can use that to the best of their ability going forward,” Sharps said.

While born in Medicine Hat, Sharps attended boarding school and went to college in the Red Deer and Lacombe area.

Sharps moved to Europe for a few years before returning to Medicine Hat in 2001.

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