ESTERHAZY — Using the same format as the mayoral forum, Esterhazy councillor candidates also had a chance to introduce themselves and field questions from the public on Oct. 29 at the SN Boreen Centre.
A total of nine candidates are vying for six positions on Esterhazy town council, with a few returning faces, but also some that are new to the world of municipal politics as well. Incumbents include Maggie Rowland, Martin Pfeifer, and Vernon Pertacek. Also seeking a seat are Bryant Campbell, William Gale, Apoorav Joshi, Nichol L. Kripki, Dana Paidel, and Alan Petracek.
Each candidate had the opportunity to provide opening remarks before the round of predetermined questions.
Bryant Campbell
I’m honoured to be nominated to represent this awesome town that we all call home. I’d like to thank the Esterhazy Development Committee and town for having this event, and all the candidates for letting your name stand and participate in democracy. I, along with my wife Jolene, moved to Esterhazy in 2013, 11 years ago. We liked it so much here we decided that we’d make it our forever home and start a family. Here we raise our two children, Jacoby, who’s 11, and Bronwyn, who’s nine, and they’re very fortunate to be able to call Esterhazy home and grow up here.
I truly believe we have the best place to live, work and raise a family. I haven’t retired yet, so I can’t say retire, but most of the retirees I talk to enjoy it here as well. Every chance I get to talk with someone out of town—I’m not from here, so I still do go back home where I grew up sometimes—I tell everyone how good Esterhazy is. I volunteered as assistant coach on my son’s hockey team for two years, I ref hockey, minor hockey, and I really enjoy doing that, getting out in the community and volunteering my time. I’ve also served on Esterhazy Housing Authority for the last year and a half, and the last year I’ve served as the vice chair on that committee.
William Gale
I’ve grown up in this warm community and spent most of my life here, calling it my home. At this point, I’m a Mill Operator at K2, and my wife and I are raising a beautiful little girl. I felt that I should and could give back to this community that is my past, present and future in a role that I’m most capable of doing. My primary focus is to ensure the wellbeing of those that have built this community and making sure it’s an ever present in every decision that I will personally make, as well as making sure that the younger generation is offered every opportunity. I thank you for taking up the time out of your day and considering my candidacy, and I hope to be allowed the privilege of making Esterhazy the best possible place to live.
Apoorav Joshi
I’m not new in Canada, I moved to Canada almost 10 years ago, and I moved to this town three years. So thanks for giving me a chance to become a councillor candidate. This is completely a new experience for me. I’ve read about town council before, what they do, about the work, but it’s a completely new experience for me to connect the people in this space, in this organization. I served the Moose Jaw Sask Polytech College, I was a director for three years, and I got a lot of experience through that. So I can use my experience here. I was born and bought up in different country, so I can give some new ideas, I can give my point of view. Council is a bridge for people and the council members, so I can try to help, and try to connect more and more people and help with whatever their problem and what they do.
Nichol L. Kripki
Eight years ago, my husband and I, we decided to make Esterhazy our home. Employment brought us back here to Saskatchewan, I’ve lived and worked across Saskatchewan and in Alberta. I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and have been educated and received my degree in commerce at the U of S. I have experience in business management and financing. Eight years ago, we visited Esterhazy to see what it was all about, and we discovered a prosperous town in the middle of the prairies. We found it a welcoming place to be, and we wanted to call it home. We love the slower pace compared to the city, and there’s almost everything we need here. That’s what we love about it. We chose to live in Esterhazy and not the city or an acreage because we like to be here in Esterhazy, in town with our neighbours. When I think of a great community to live in, I think of a place where people want to know each other and support each other, a community that has great amenities. People want to stay and raise their families and call it home. I consider Esterhazy to be one of those great communities. One of the first things that struck me when I arrived here was everyone waves at each other, and when you go to the post office, friends and neighbours, they greet each other, and if there’s people in need in our community, we help them. I believe everyone wants our community to be the best it can be, and I know that I want that, too, for Esterhazy. I like building communities, being involved, and you probably know me from the Friday Community Market. I enjoy volunteering and organizing and bringing the community together. I’m employed as a licensed mortgage associate, plus you probably see me around town at the different amenities as well. I think Esterhazy has a lot to offer, and I just want to say thank you for considering me as a candidate.
Dana Paidel
It’s a great opportunity to meet the candidates who’ll be helping to move our town forward over the next few years. My name is Dana Paidel, and with the support of my lovely wife, Adriana, and my two beautiful children, I humbly ask for your vote on election day to serve as your town councillor. I grew up in Esterhazy, a place that means so much to me and is filled with memories. I remember taking swimming lessons at the old pool, playing baseball at the diamonds, bowling at the downtown alley. I spent countless days at the curling rink with family and close friends. I went to Cubs, Scouts, golf early in the mornings, and I enjoyed all the unique experiences our town offered. I hope our children can have those same opportunities growing up here. Over the years, I’ve seen many changes in our beautiful town, some that brought real improvement, and others that have raised questions. We built the S.N. Boreen Hall, built a new pool and a park, tennis courts, healthcare, and invested in the new water treatment plant. One of the most remarkable changes is the diversity within our community, with people from cultures all over the world. To all of you, I say welcome and to hope we can help make the Canadian dream reality for each of you. My business career began right here in Esterhazy starting at Metal Fab and moving onto roles at Parkland. I gained experience as a fitter, welder, painter, estimator, and eventually as a leader in construction.
Alan Petracek
I’ve lived in the Esterhazy area most of my life. I’ve been a resident of this town for 23 years. Most of my family has direct or indirect ties to this community. I have an interest in seniors’ concerns because my parents now live here in town. I have an interest in young families’ concerns because my son and his family live in the area. Myself, I am self employed from spring until fall, and I work for different contractors through the winter months. I’m new to politics. I bring to the possibility of being on council, my ability to be a good listener. I will bring the council questions, lots of questions. I’ll be active in the concerns and needs of all residents in Esterhazy. In terms of financial spending, I believe it’s needs before wants.
Vernon Pertacek
I was born and raised in Yarbo, and I moved away for two years, and there’s no place like home, so we moved back and raised a boy and a girl, and now I have grandsons here, grandchildren in Regina. And like I said, there’s no place like home and the community is what we build together.
Martin Pfeifer
Everybody asked me, where’s my speech? I really didn’t write one, and if I did, I probably couldn’t read my writing. So here I am hoping to get re-elected for the fourth term. Three just wasn’t enough. My wife said three terms ago that if you’re going to complain, you better do something about it. Otherwise, you better stop complaining. So here I am. Born and bred, right from this town, probably one of the few that were born in this hospital that can actually say that still, I know most of you personally, so those of you who don’t know me, I’ve lived here all my life, worked at Mosaic forever now, it seems. And hope to continue building on what we’ve started here. Like I said, it took three terms to get things done—water treatment plant, the hospital’s just about there, it’s in the works—trust me, it’s coming. There’s a few more things that I really would like to see, but that’s only if I get re-elected, so please vote for me.
Maggie Rowland
I moved here in 1983, it was supposed to be for five years. It has now been 41 years, and I have made Esterhazy my home. I was employed at the Esterhazy town office for almost 29 years, and after leaving there, I ran for council and have been at the table for eight years. I love this community and want to see Esterhazy look into the future and exceed beyond all expectations.
Question 1: What do you believe you can contribute to council to help improve Esterhazy?
Rowland: I believe I can contribute common sense and experience to the table, understanding how council is supposed to work, and its ins and outs of government. I believe I could be a great asset.
Pfeifer: Much like Maggie, bringing experience to the table, not necessarily great experience, but it’s been a lot of years. I’ve learned lots. My big thing, though, is I’m here for you guys. I’m your voice. I’m one of six votes, so hopefully democracy works the way we want it to, but you might have the greatest idea, and four other councillors think it’s the dumbest idea, and well, that’s just not going to happen, but I am your voice, and I will try and get things the way you want them to be.
V. Petracek: Just working with people and they have to work as a team to try to resolve issues, and if you can’t do it, talk to the community. There’s a lot of knowledge in our community that can help us. So we got the tools, let’s use them.
A. Petracek: As a newcomer to politics, I’ll bring a fresh outlook and enthusiasm to the table. My personality will bring a balance of listening and of speaking. I believe the views of all residents, businesses, community groups should be recognized. I’ll be active in council, sharing new ideas and questions why things are done the way they are being done. I feel my self employment background will a bring beneficial view of things. This includes conducting business efficiently and cost effectively. I feel the new council will need to include short- and long-term planning, maintenance and infrastructure. These decisions need to be prioritized by needs, not wants.
Paidel: With my involvement in the construction industry, I sit on many boards. The Construction Labour Relations as the Vice Chair, governance chair for Sask Apprenticeship and Trade Certification, Audit and Finance Chair for the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association. I also sit on as a board member of the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Co-operative Trust, ironworker trade chair within Saskatchewan Construction Labor Relations, and also a trustee with health, welfare, pension training funds for carpenters and ironworkers. With this experience, I believe I can bring accountability, fiscal responsibility, transparency, to town council—qualities that I feel have been lacking over the years. I think the next four years will be especially important and challenging for the town, with the new water treatment plant coming online and potential for a new healthcare centre, and we need leaders who understand project management budgeting. My background—commercial and industrial construction—gives me the expertise to help guide these projects moving forward.
Kripki: First, I think I would bring a fresh perspective. Our council has done a great job. Those that are running again as well, but just bringing new ideas. The other thing is, I really would like to bring a sense of community and trust through more communication and just making it a priority that there’s more transparency with the council. So I believe that’s what I can bring, as well as my experience in business as well.
Joshi: So the main thing, I will be a people lawyer. So if somebody comes with a particular idea, I’ll definitely take that idea to the council meeting. That’s my whole thing, because in that way people can bring their ideas to our meeting. So if I can get a chance, I will put my forward ideas also, and whenever people give me suggestions, I can bring it to the meetings, because I think the council is like a people lawyer.
Gale: I can provide a unique viewpoint, not only as a young father and husband, but as someone who grew up in this town, and as someone who suffers from a chronic condition that affects my movement. The healthcare services and accessibility of this town will always be close to home and an ever present focal point, and I will always ensure that the well being of the constituents will always take a central focal point. On a more personal note, anyone who knows me, I can be a very critical person. I can take any situation and look at it under a fine microscope.
Campbell: I have no problem engaging in conversation with people, for anyone that knows me, so I’d have conversations with people, get out in the community, bring their concerns back to the table. I want to see Esterhazy grow. I want to see more young families move here. I was fortunate enough to be able to raise my family here, and I think that we need more families here to keep our town going for as long as we have what we have going here. I’ve had to work for everything I’ve had in my life, and if you elect me, I will work as hard for you at the table as I do for my everyday life.
Question 2: In what direction do you want to see the town of Esterhazy grow?
Campbell: Like I said earlier, I’d like to see our population grow. More people means more opportunities for everyone, be it business, recreation, community events, programs, different ideas, different backgrounds. The more people we can bring here in a fiscally responsible manner, I think that’s better for our community and everyone in it. Recreation is a big one for me, very important. It keeps our youth involved in our community. It keeps our seniors involved in our community. I think our community has a pretty decent rec program and rec facilities, if there’s any way I can work to improve them, that would be one of my main focuses on council.
Gale: You wouldn’t build anything without a sturdy base. As such, the continuation of ensuring that those who built the town are taken care of with respect and any assistance that they require. At the same time, you want to ensure that our future, the younger generations, are given any opportunity that they can possibly have to grow.
Joshi: I’d like to have more events so that more people can connect to each other. Because of the Mosaic mine, we have the opportunity for more people to move to town. So the town will grow, our medical faclities will increase. That’s one of teh basic points that everybody needs. And definitely creating more events to connect more people together, and that way we can grow the town as much as possible.
Kripki: First of all, I’d like to see the town of Esterhazy, attract more businesses and increase its population to decrease the tax burden on everyone. I’d like to see us invite the largest growing segment of Canada’s population, our new Canadians, here to live and work and start businesses. We need to provide opportunities for them to feel welcome in our community. And third, I’d like to see more accessibility in our downtown core, allowing more businesses to be able to offer accessibility, such as wheelchairs and scooters. I’d like to see us attract more through tourism, making Esterhazy a destination stop off the main highways. For business, for tourism, we have some great things here, great amenities, hotels, restaurants, campgrounds, golf courses. So these are just a few of my ideas.
Paidel: I think we all want to see the town grow, but what we really need to do is make sure we have the opportunities for our youth to stay here. They run off to university, they can’t come back. So one of the things that we need to do is put that investment back into the children in our town so we can keep growing. We have the new Canadian aspect, and I agree—I think there is opportunity for that demographic as well. There’s quite a few things, like recreation. It’s hard to keep young families here. When their children want to play hockey, they’re off to Regina, Melville, Yorkton to play hockey. Curling—we have our curling rink, it’s a beautiful rink. We need to make sure we keep it that way, and that’s how we start attracting new people to this town, and being able to keep our youth in our town for employers to hire within our local community.
A. Petracek: I want for my family a community that is a great place to grow up in, to raise a family in and to retire in. I want to see new growth that brings optimism. Optimism and planning will bring new and solid economic growth and development. We need to watch and follow what a community to the southeast of here has been doing and is very successful at. To keep optimism, we need a council that will not increase our taxes and the cost of services. We will need a council that will be more efficient in spending and does cost analysis of services, entering bids, etc. We need a council that is open, transparent, and up to date to our major projects. I hope this community elects a council that brings experienced faces and new faces to the table that will work together and make Esterhazy a great place to live.
V. Petracek: The new council needs to look at developing new property so that business can move to town and hire people which would in turn live here and grow here. Right now we have absolutely zero commercial property for sale. We’ve had companies come that wanted to come into town, but we’ve got zero. That’s what the new council has to do is put high points on attracting businesses to Esterhazy, which in turn pay taxes and that lessons the burden of everybody altogether. So to work together as a team and come up with ideas on how to do this, that’s going to be the new council’s job.
Pfeifer: I don’t really want to see this place turn into a city, because that’s where I moved back from. For about five years, six years I was in Saskatoon. City life is not my liking, that’s why I moved back here. But you’ve heard it several times already. The key I do believe, is more businesses come here because businesses mean more people, more houses, more tax revenue to offset property taxes. So we got to start with attracting more businesses. We kind of did that strategic plan here a bit ago, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots more work to do. I don’t know where to go from there, but hopefully we can get that worked out.
Rowland: I want Esterhazy to keep its small town atmosphere, but have city amenities. I would like to see the town upgrade what we have and expand to allow for new businesses and become a place that everyone can be proud of, and want to make it their home like I did.
Open Questions from Residents
In the spirit of transparency, I would like to see the town meetings recorded. I’d like to know how each candidate feels about having that done, to inform our public of what is going on in the town and how decisions are made. If you are for getting it done, how soon would you be willing to get going on getting these meetings recorded for us?
Kripki: I do agree with you that the town council meeting should be recorded. I know from reading the information —again, I’m not experienced in it—but I know that there are things that need to be done to do that, however, yes, I do believe they should be recorded and more transparency definitely being that it’s hard to find information about what’s going on.
Paidel: I actually agree with transparency. I thought the town was moving that way to start with, when I went to a couple of meetings a while ago. It’s one of the things that I think the taxpayers in Esterhazy deserve is sitting here and getting to watch a live stream, not just recording, but live stream the council meetings. This is important to get to understand how the process works, so then the taxpayer can actually understand the process going through and how things get passed through the town council, and transparency is very important for everything.
Gale: I know that personally, I believe that there should be personal accountability for every single decision that is made. I had a hard time finding council minutes when I was looking up what councillors do. It shouldn’t be difficult. It should be right in front what is said and what happens, and we should have a recording of what happens and what was said.
Joshi: I completely agree with that, because I want to share my personal experience. Last meeting I attended, it’s open for the public. If it’s open for the public, why don’t we record it and show it to the public on Facebook. We don’t need to put it as a live, we can put it as a recording also. We already have equipment, so I don’t think it is a big issue. That’s one of the major points I will put it, because that’s a personal experience. I feel that when I attended the last meeting, so I completely I agree with that.
Inflation is something that’s affecting a lot of folks, but it also affects municipal budgets. What remarks would you have for ratepayers in Esterhazy to sustainably grow municipal revenue to allow Esterhazy to grow and provide those needed services, so that Esterhazy can attract businesses and residents?
Campbell: Like I said, we have a pretty big economic powerhouse here in Esterhazy, not just for the town, but for the province as well, we contribute quite a bit. So I do believe that it needs to be done strategically. We can’t bring in a lot of people without a lot of homes, and businesses do need commercial areas, and they need a council that’s behind them and supporting them as well. But I do believe the more people that come here, that does increase our tax revenue and I can’t make a promise to reduce taxes, but I certainly want to keep them as low as possible for everyone here, attract more people and the more our community grows, the better. Inflation won’t be here forever, hopefully. So it will take time, but it is doable.
This is for the three returning candidates. What has been your biggest accomplishment during your time with the council, and why do you deserve my vote?
Rowland: I think the biggest accomplishment that I can say our council did was getting the new water treatment plant and it will be up and running in spring of ‘25. Also getting the push for the hospital. We put a lot of work into that through SUMA and everywhere else, and now we’ve got money that they have set aside for us.
We’re just trying to pick the location right now, and that has to be approved by the government. And once that is done, we’ll be on our way to putting the shovel in the ground. As far as my opinion, that’s our biggest accomplishments.
Pfeifer: Much the same as Maggie, greatest accomplishment is the water treatment plant. I mean, everybody can see it. Some people thought that was an indoor riding stable for a while. I didn’t know what to say. The next step is the hospital and being on council for all these years, one thing I’ve learned is politics is so painfully slow. The only thing that seems to happen quick around this community is stop signs going up. That happens overnight! I don’t know why the difference, but we are really, really pushing for a hospital. Myself, I know when to be quiet, when to speak up, and I remember SUMA a few years ago. I spoke up in front of all the ministers, and I was never so nervous in all my life, but I said, “why did you forget about Esterhazy,” and I had three minutes, not one minute, so I guess I better leave it at that.
V. Petracek: Our biggest accomplishment, I think, is getting the water treatment plant up and running and working on the hospital. And I think we had a great team that we worked with. Even the town employees, we’ve got a lot of great people working for the town. And like I said, just keep on growing.
What can we do to increase our maintenance budget for infrastructure?
V. Petracek: I think our employees are doing an awesome job. The weather slows them down and there’s a lot on their plate to get done in a day. The roads keep getting worse, but we got to work on it slowly.
Gale: I think to increase the budget will be helped by the fact that we have Metercor out to replace the meters. That takes a town employee, we don’t have to hand out the cards anymore. That, in and of itself, the automation taking that out, allows the budget, it opens it up for more maintenance.
Paidel: Infrastructure and maintenance. We do need to take better care of our roads, sidewalks and recreational facilities. I’d advocate for a budget that includes a comprehensive renewal and maintenance program to keep areas in top condition. But in the meantime, we also got to watch for the budget; the fiscal responsibilities that we need to keep. There may have to be sacrifices along the way. It’s the way of life when we need to fix things, we may not be able to get to all potholes all at once. So we need to create that program, so it’s year after year after year that we’re fixing roads, fixing water lines, sewer lines, the downtown core, etc.
Kripki: I agree that our roads and our infrastructure needs to be attended to. I agree that our new water meters will help. I understand that it takes three employees three days every time they need to collect all of our water meter information, which is a lot of time that they don’t need to be doing something like that. They should be out fixing our potholes and doing those things. I don’t know what the town budget is, to be honest with you right now, but, looking at it, maybe there are some ways that we can actually solve some of these problems. Why are we not contracting out our roads to be repaired? Why are we using our town employees that could be doing other things? So these are some of the things that I have questions about as well, and I think they need to be addressed.
Rowland: I think some of the problem was people were wondering why our streets were getting so bad. We set up a program so that we were checking what was underneath the streets, so that we’re not spending money paving streets and then a year later, having to dig them back up because there is a sewer break or a water line break. I know that some of the roads are in pretty bad shape, but until we can get them all mapped out underneath and know what has to be fixed underneath, there’s no sense wasting taxpayer money paving a street that’s going to get torn up the very next year.
Campbell: I agree that infrastructure is very important, roads, water, sewer, recreation, all those things are municipal responsibilities. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it, but I know we get money from provincial and federal governments in the forms of grants. Lots of times they come with strings attached. We could get some without strings attached, I think that would help us. But it is prioritizing what needs to be done. Personally, water, sewer, things like that, are probably a little bit more important than filling in potholes on the street, which is very important as well. But if it’s between water and sewer and things that we absolutely need to sustain our lives every day, that’s what we have to be focusing on first and foremost, and putting money aside if we are able to save for further infrastructure down the road, if we do run into issues with that.
A. Petracek: As a newcomer, I don’t know what our budget is for repairing streets, but I know we need to get at it. We need to do a little bit every year, we need long-term plans, not just a short term plan. We don’t need band aids, but yes, we need work on our streets and sidewalks.
V. Petracek: The other part, where it comes in is for transparency. If we show the people what we have on a budget for the paving and actually see what it costs the residents of Esterhazy to do a block of paving, you’d be amazed on what the costs are nowadays, but our goal is to pave it and get a company to camera the sewers to see if they are good enough to do it. That all adds up like amazing. You can eat a bunch of cash real quick. But in the same token, if we’re more transparent, showing the people what the tenders were and they know what it cost town to do a block or two blocks or three blocks like we did this year.
Pfeifer: Just to add to what Vern just said. I can tell you, being transparent is one thing, but the underlying cost, we could go out and pave the street, but then a year later, you’re going to repave it, because it’s all cracked because the underneath part was never done correctly. This whole town was built on a swamp, right? So if anybody knows, I believe it was Fifth Avenue, that is probably the best street in this town presently and probably for the next 10 years. What they had to do is dig down like five, six feet, put clay back in and repack everything. I know this council a few years back, we promised we were going to pave every street that wasn’t paved. Well, those streets are much the same shape, so it’s very expensive to fix it, otherwise you’re just going to be paving over and over, so you might as well do it right the first time. That goes back to the infrastructure part as well. So it’s a big undertaking, and it’s a lot of money.
What is your input on employee retention at the town office?
Kripki: From my understanding, the town employees fall under the administrator, and the council employs the administrator.
How can we get more police in town?
Campbell: I’m very grateful that we have the RCMP in this town. In the 11 years that I’ve lived here, I think I’ve had to call them once because I got my license plate stolen from the mine. Pretty nominal crime, if you ask me, We’re very fortunate to live in a community that I wouldn’t say we have no crime. We do have crime, everywhere has crime, everywhere, has socioeconomic issues. We’ve got a pretty strong economy with lots of disposable income. I think our police do a great job here. We need our police. We need to keep doing the work we’re doing. We see them out on the streets lots, they do a good job and I’ll work to keep the crime as low as it is in the community, and recreation opportunities for youth definitely deter crime substantially.
Advance polls for voting in the Esterhazy municipal election are on Nov. 5 at the Town Office with Election Day on Nov. 13 at the SN Boreen Centre.
