Entering the 2024 civic election, we knew there would be changes for Estevan city council. We just didn't know how much.
We knew there would be a new mayor, since Roy Ludwig wasn't seeking re-election after 12 years at the helm of city council. We knew there would also be at least four new city councillors, since two incumbent councillors, Tony Sernick and Rebecca Foord, were running for mayor, and two other members of the previous term, weren't seeking re-election.
Sernick is the new mayor of Estevan, moving into the top job after four years as a councillor, and Shelly Veroba and Kirsten Walliser will be back as councillors. Also back as a councillor is Brian Johnson, who was a councillor from 2000-2016. Their experience will be vital for the newcomers, Dave Elliott, Tom Mauss and Matthew Dubowski, who will face a steep learning curve, especially with city budget deliberations happening in the near future.
Anyone who runs for council should have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of the job, the issues facing the community, the work they will have to put in and the realities associated with being an elected official in the 2020s. But there's only so much preparation work you can do before you get thrown into the fire.
It's learning experience for Sernick in his move from a councillor to the mayor's chair. He had to learn a lot in rapid fashion when he was elected as a councillor four years ago; now he has to go through more education.
There will likely be a lot of conversations between Sernick and Ludwig in the coming weeks and months.
Budget is a great way for the new council members to learn about the city's operations and the way things are done. They'll get to comb over the expenses for each department and then try to find which projects should be prioritized and which expenses might need to be curtailed.
We know some of the issues that will have to be addressed in the initial months, not the least of which is the downtown revitalization project, which has dragged on into November and won't be finished this year. The new council will get to decide how they will proceed with remaining aspects of the project and how they want to remedy some of the issues that will linger during the winter months.
There was a lot of talk about transparency during the election. While the most recent council did a lot more to engage the community and they discussed a lot more in open council, there is still more that can be done, and budget deliberations might be a good time to start.
There were questions of how to bring in more businesses and additional development. We've seen some new businesses set up shop during this past term; some have survived and even thrived. Others have not. A cut to business property taxes is easier said than done; a more realistic option might be additional incentives for new businesses, and possibly a resumption of the program the city offered from 2005 to the early 2010s.
And, of course, there's the ever-lingering question about the future of the community. It's brighter than, say, five years ago, thanks to discussions about how to keep coal mining in the mix and the potential for small modular reactors in the Estevan area, but these aren't guarantees. Council will need to keep applying pressure with these and other projects.
While voters expressed their opposition to a third arena in Estevan during the non-binding plebiscite Wednesday night, that doesn't mean the idea is dead. But council would be wise to tread carefully regarding any discussions. There's also the question of whether to partner with Bienfait on renovations to their arena.
Municipal politics isn't easy. It's a significant time commitment with low pay and constant scrutiny. In 2024, with the prevalence of social media and the lack of accountability on those platforms, it makes the job even more stressful and demanding. It deters a lot of good people from running.
The candidates who ran, regardless of whether they were elected or not, deserve credit and applause for their decision to let their names stand. The campaign, while only a few weeks long, is challenging. For those who were successful, it's about to get even tougher.
