Brian Dueck is running for city council. (Photo Courtesy Derek Brade)

By Chris Brown

Brian Dueck to run for city council seat

Jul 20, 2021 | 11:02 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A longtime political watcher, Brian Dueck decided this was the year to take his political interests from the background to the foreground.

He will run for a seat on city council this fall.

Transparency at City Hall is a major issue Dueck wants to address.

“I think there’s a lot of things happening and maybe they’re even good things that the city is doing but I don’t feel they’re doing a very good job selling those things to the citizens,” he says. “And I think it’s irresponsible to move forward with some of these big projects that they’re proposing and big changes that they’re proposing without having convinced the people of Medicine Hat that it’s in our best interest.”

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He says engaging the public means more than “just holding an open house that doesn’t draw a lot of people. We need to actively get out there and engage people.”

He says there are unanswered questions around the proposed Waterfront District downtown and has a particular problem with recent revelations of a potential conflict of interest involving Invest Medicine Hat.

Three questions keep coming up when he’s discussing the Waterfront District with citizens, he says – the safety of stairs down to river, the closure of River Road and its traffic impact, and parking availability.

“On average we won’t walk more than one block to get to a business. So if we’re closing the parking lots where there’s already limited parking that’s going to hurt the businesses that are already there. It’s going to look really pretty, some of the things they’re doing have great, great concept but until these three questions are answered, I think they’re too big of questions to ignore before we proceed.”

On Invest Medicine Hat, Dueck says the way it’s been handled has been suspect.

“In my mind, it put the city in one of two positions,” he explains. “Either they didn’t engage the people who are currently in Invest Medicine Hat to understand what they’re actually doing to make sure the proposal they’re putting forward actually meets the needs of the citizen of Medicine Hat or they did engage them and those people are now in conflict of interest.”

Until February he was a facility manager for the British occupied buildings at CFB Suffield, and says he dealt often with multimillion-dollar budgets, financial statements and contracts.

“I was looking into the City of Medicine Hat finances and when I started seeing what was happening with levels of debt it really concerned my and obviously with my background at the base looking at budgets I had some insight into that,” Dueck says.

He says the city paid more than $11 million in interest on our debt last year, money, he says that could be spent otherwise in Medicine Hat.

He also would like to see better promotion by the city of the mental health supports available, recognizing the difficult year and a half it’s been for many Hatters.

Dueck is currently a full-time student taking online courses through NAIT. He and his wife moved to Medicine Hat 16 years ago just before they got married and have four children.

Dueck says people can visit Brian Dueck for Council on Facebook and briandueck.wordpress.com for more information.

The municipal election is on Oct. 18.