City Councillor Wayne Rempel will be running again in this year’s municipal election.
Rempel was first elected to council in 2007, and has chosen to run again for a few reasons.
“Obviously I really enjoy being on council and being part of the whole process of mapping out the future of Lacombe. The other part is a lot of people have said that they would love to see me run again, and will be supporting me, so between those two things it just felt like it was something I should do,” he said.
Rempel moved to Lacombe in 1999 and is running the Subway in Lacombe along with owning Magnet Signs out of Red Deer.
When he started running for council, he said he wanted to make a whole bunch of changes to different things, soon realizing that that’s not how it works, and that it wasn’t the best thing to do.
“I learned that fairly quickly in my first term that you really need to build on what you have and not just try and change everything, so that part of course is why I want to keep going - because I’ve been building on those things for the last few years and I want to keep that up.”
Rempel said he believes those supporting him are doing so because they know that he makes decisions that are based on what’s best for the community of Lacombe and know that they can come and talk to him.
“We might not always agree about something, but they know where I stand on whatever it is we’re talking about. I don’t sit on the fence.
“I don’t necessarily tell them what I think they want to hear. I tell them what I believe is going to be the best thing for our community and hopefully they can see that in the end.”
He said the one thing about the campaigning process coming up, is that you get to go out and meet lots of people.
“I’m really interested in seeing what people have to say as I meet them at different things and what their views are as far as what direction they would like to see the City go.”
Rempel said looking forward for Lacombe, there’s always the every day things you need to deal with.
“There’s a few things I would like to see us maybe try and improve on. I’d actually like to see an open mic at council meetings where residents can come and make a quick presentation or bring up an issue, or tell us we’re doing a great job.”
He’d also like to have administration look at the possibility of streaming their council meetings so that those people who can’t make it can still be able to see what’s going on at the meetings.
Rempel lives in Lacombe with his wife and two kids. That’s something that’s always been on the back of his mind as well.
“I’m not making these decisions just for random people of my community, these decisions I’m making are impacting not only myself, I’m a taxpayer there; but also my children and my grandchildren,” he said.
Another part of his platform, he said, is trying to get a bit more commercial and industrial development in Lacombe to try and keep the residential taxes lower while still keeping the service levels where they are.
According to the City of Lacombe web site, Rempel represents the City on various municipal boards and committees including the Disaster Services Committee, the Subdivision & Development Appeal Board, the Lacombe Days Committee, the Tourism Committee and more.