Local rancher Douglas Slatnik will challenge incumbent Christine Bilsky for the Division 4 (South Athabasca) council seat at the municipal election, Oct. 16.
Christine Bilsky is aiming for a third term on council.
“I feel like there’s unfinished business with the pool, the bridge, the brick school,” she said. “I’d like to see some of those through and I care about my community.”
Bilsky said she would drill down on her mandate after speaking with her constituents, but expected roads and lowering taxes to be top issues.
She also said she looks forward to working on the brick school if she is elected.
“It’s not good to leave a building empty, and it’s a beautiful building and many, many people in the community either went to school there or have parents that went to school there,” she said. “It’s just something we don’t want to lose.”
She said council will hold a public consultation to decide what to do with the school.
Bilsky hails from Smith but has lived in Athabasca County for about 25 years. Outside of council, she said she works with her husband on his trucking company. While on council, she sat on the Family and Community Support Services board, the Public Works committee and the Long and Narrow Lakes Stewardship Society.
“I’m a team player,” she said. “Sometimes people refer to me as the voice of reason, because sometimes things can get heated and whatnot and it’s nice for us all to work together in the end.”
Slatnik said this is the third election he has considered running in, but it is the first time he put his name on the ballot.
Slatnik said he pulled the trigger after following council and the local political atmosphere, and because he has enough time for council as he is retired.
“Even though there is a candidate in this division that I have nothing negative to say about, but I feel I can give maybe more past experience as well,” he said.
Slatnik is a long-time resident of Athabasca County, where he raised two daughters. Professionally, he started as a Fish and Wildlife officer and later became a senior manager in the department.
“It was a daily contact with public landowners, the issues they have, ways to appease them or fix their problems,” he said. “If in fact there was no way that I could likely appease those individuals I was quite capable of telling them that.”
He said he also worked with committees developing policy and programs for his department.
Slatnik’s ideas for the county include amalgamating things like large equipment with neighbouring counties, which he said saved Alberta Parks big.
“That’d be an opportunity to better make use of equipment and in the long run save money for both parties that are using it … certainly in the provincial government it’s shown a lot of potential,” he said.
