Born in Coaldale, Alberta, Lacombe City councillor Reuben Konnik will be running again in this year’s municipal election.
Konnik said he enjoys the job and would like to contribute again to the community, and he said there’s a few unfinished things that council needs to accomplish, and Konnik hopes to be a part of that.
“One of the biggest things we hear about a lot in this community is that we need to attract more commercial business, and we’ve done a bit of that in that we’ve worked with developers to provide or get the land ready for commercial development, and I know there’s some more developments in that area that we’re working towards and I’d like to see those through,” he said.
Konnik has been in Lacombe now for just over 10 years, and began his political career when he moved to Lacombe. Ten years ago, Konnik started out as a school board trustee and has been a councillor for the past seven years.
“I’ve always been interested in politics. I have a political science degree from the University of Alberta, so it’s something that’s always been an interest of mine.”
According to the City of Lacombe web site, Konnik worked with ATB Financial after graduation, providing branch support including the building and stocking of branches throughout the province.
When The Culinary Gift Shop became available a few years ago, Konnik and his wife, Darlene, jumped at the opportunity to run the store together.
One of the three things he has campaigned on in the past is that he’s an approachable, accessible and accountable individual.
He said he believes those things also carry forward into the next term.
“I think those are three very important things and things that people look for in their councillors.”
Reuben said he’s always tried to do what the people have asked him to do.
Meanwhile, what he enjoys most about being a councillor is being in the know and being a part of the decision-making process.
He’s looking forward to getting out to meet the people of the community this summer in his campaigning process.
“It’s always good to get out into the coffee shops and meet with people and talk to people, and hear what they’re interested in, and hear what they’d like to see and how they’d like to see the community grow and that type of thing,” he said.
His vision for Lacombe, he said, is looking at being more efficient on how council spends funds.
“I think there’s some inefficiencies there that we need to look at improving,” he said.
One example he gave was the BOLT Bus, a bus that runs between Red Deer and Lacombe. Konnik was one of two councillors who voted against it.
“I think we need to re-visit that. We’re spending an awful lot of money subsidizing that bus service and I think that’s something we need to re-evaluate going forward.
“That’s one area for example where I think we need to be a little more efficient in how we spend our money, and there’s others as well.”