Incumbent Coun. Dawn Luhning isn’t ready to quit municipal politics.
Luhning dropped off her nomination papers seeking re-election to city council in the upcoming municipal election on Oct. 24.
“I think there’s still lots to do and I love being a part of city council and basically just love the city,” said Luhning. “I think there’s lots more greatness to come as long as we do things the right way.”
Luhning was first elected to council in 2003 and has been re-elected every term since. She said council should get its priorities in order.
“Moose Jaw has the potential to be great. I think that we just need to dig our heels in a little bit deeper and maybe reign some of the overspending in a little bit and focus on things that really are (part of) the municipality’s priority,” said Luhning.
She said one of those priorities is infrastructure, including sidewalks, roads, sewer and water systems, parks and urban planning. She added that the councils of the past has been sidetracked and helped only specific groups instead of helping the community as a whole.
For instance, she said the past six years have been spent developing new downtown facilities, but she feels other things have been neglected.
“Not one thing makes a community. There are a number of different vehicles that make a community,” said Luhning. “What we need to focus on is economic development and bringing jobs here and bringing ways for people to stay.”
Luhning said since she began on council, the population of Moose Jaw has hovered around 32,000. She said there isn’t a lot of job choice so many people are going elsewhere to find jobs.
“We really need to take a long hard look at what drives the community to grow and prosper,” said Luhning. “When we have graduates from SIAST, probably the majority of them looking elsewhere to find a job, it's something even into (my) ninth year (on council) we still don’t have a handle on, how do we tackle that?”
She said the city should reform its thought process. For example at city hall, some employees punch time cards. She said the government should work quietly in the background role and make better fiscal decisions.
Coming from a background in financing, Luhning said those skills plus her past council experience would help the city and budgeting decisions.
“I’d like to make this the best city, the most attractive, forward-thinking advanced city that isn’t afraid of change, isn’t afraid to do things differently and that this is a place where young families want to live and work,” said Luhning.
For more information on Luhning’s campaign, visit her website at www.dawnluhning.ca or contact her through Twitter or Facebook.
Pretty tough Tom when you get voted down 4-3 every time you attempt to make any suggestion or bring forth an idea with some semblance of fiscal responsibility or logic. Do you pay any attention to Council proceedings at all? If Luhning or Swanson made a motion saying the sun comes up in the east the rest of this bunch (and the last) would vote to have it come up in the west.