The Village of Carbon is holding a By-election on Thursday, September 21 to elect three Councillors. Carbon Council has five Councillors of which two are incumbents.
A Council Candidate Forum was held at the Community Centre on September 14 at 7:00 PM. Of the five candidates running, Sheri Cooper was unable to attend. Christine Walsh whose name will appear on the ballot has withdrawn her name.
The four candidates that were present were: Stacey McKenna, Rosalie (Rose) Jimmo, Travis Cormier, and Marie Kooiman. The moderator was Shannon Fox. Shannon reviewed the ground rules of procedure. She introduced each candidate as follows:
Stacey McKenna moved to Carbon about a year ago. She lived in the area with her family as a child. She is the mom of one child and two step-children and grandma to three grandkids.
Rose Jimmo moved to Carbon in 2019. She is the mother of two and three grandchildren. She loves to sing.
Travis Cormier has been a resident for 18 years. He is the mechanic to go to. He is the “guy with the ducks”.
Marie Kooiman has lived in Carbon for 14 years. She has been the bus driver for 13 years for the south route. She is an aid at the Britestone Colony.
Each candidate was allotted 5 minutes to outline their platform.
An assessment on the part of this reporter would be to say that there was a common thread where each candidate was emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability. To rebuild trust and to work together to move forward. An emphasis on holding more public meetings and holding Council in a roomier venue that allows more than five in the gallery. It is agreed that financial statements must be accessible. No decision should be made apart from ALL councillors being in on it. Closed sessions must be reduced and more information passed on in minutes of the meetings.
From the floor, there were at least 20 questions directed to specific candidates or to all. Then there were a number of questions submitted anonymously on three-by-five cards.
The questions ranged from What will you do about..., bringing more people to the village? Affordability of living in the Village? What is the job description of the CAO? What about working with former Council members? How will you restore trust?
The answer often from many of the candidates was that they were unable to give specifics because they would have to have the chance to “look at the books”. The promise was that they would be asking a lot of questions.
There was an opportunity after the formal Q & A time to meet face-to-face with the candidates. The meeting was conducted very orderly and covered a lot of concerns. The emphasis was on cooperation and moving forward. It may be appropriate to point out that when there are five candidates and only three positions to fill, it is too bad that two will not be elected.
