WESTLOCK – When Clem Fagnan attends his last Town of Westlock council meeting this fall it’ll mark the end of a 20-plus-year career as a municipal politician that’s been spread out over five decades.
And while his long service as a councillor is deserving of accolades — Fagnan’s name has been submitted by the current council for consideration for the 2021 Alberta Urban Municipalities Association’s Distinguished Service Award which will be handed out this October — it’s only part of his lifelong commitment to making Westlock a better place.
For the record, Fagnan, who’s now 80, has served as a town councillor from 1983-1986, 1989-1990, 1998-2004 and 2010-2021 and narrowly missed out on a seat in 1995 when he finished 13 votes behind the sixth-place vote getter. Fagnan also let his name stand twice for mayor, losing in 1986 and 2004.
Outside of council chambers, Fagnan has always been a community booster and got his first taste of volunteerism as a member of the Westlock fire department more than 50 years ago.
But anyone who knows him also knows his love of sports. Fagnan has volunteered at all levels of ball and hockey, from the little guys right up to the Red Lions and the former senior hockey team, the Westlock Eagles. He’s also toiled for local service clubs like the Knights of Columbus, including a few stints as Grand Knight, and the Westlock Rotary Club.
In between he and his wife Gloria, who’ve been married since 1968, raised three children, while Fagnan made a living doing everything from working for the town, to running a backhoe company and selling real estate.
All in all it’s a pretty impressive resume for a kid from Vimy who moved to Westlock back in 1969 and got his first job in town working for Albert Miller “putting up machinery.”
“I’m a community-minded person, so whatever needs to be done, if I can help out, I do. That's how I’ve always approached things, whether on council, or just being a volunteer,” said Fagnan. “I’ve always been about making Westlock a better place.”
And while he has fond memories of many of the past councils, he said this current group stands as the best he’s been a part of.
“Looking back I’m happy with the things that I’ve done and of course I didn’t do them all by myself as we worked as a team. But I will say that this past council is the best one I’ve been on,” he said. “We have good leadership, we have good members who think things out and do their research. It isn’t about them, they think about the town first.
“Right now the Town of Westlock is sitting pretty good. We have a $4.2 million project going on for stormwater and we’ve got 108th Street which is another multi-million-dollar project. How many other towns are doing that in this COVID time? It’s all grants and money that we set aside.”
The first term
A picture of Fagnan that appeared in the Oct. 12, 1983 edition of the Westlock News when he first ran for council.After moving to town Fagan was quickly recruited to play senior hockey for the Eagles, which was a tough decision as the rivalry then between Westlock and Vimy was fierce — to put it in perspective, Fagnan donning a Westlock jersey was akin to Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid jumping ship to play for the Calgary Flames.
Once settled in he joined the town fire department, which ultimately led him to run for council in 1983.
“When I started working for the town I managed to get on the fire department and at the time it consisted of 12 members. After a while it got to the point that it wasn’t about just putting water on hot stuff anymore — it became more dangerous. We had no breathing apparatus, limited safety equipment, next to nothing. So, I decided that I would run for council and be an advocate for the fire department,” he recalled.
“I got on and we ended up getting more training and more equipment. And my council career just went from there.”
Making a difference
After a failed mayoral bid in 1986, Fagnan figured he was done with politics for good.
His retirement didn’t last long as he ran again in 1989.
“The town was looking at upgrading the sewer system and they were talking about putting in a mechanical treatment plant for sewer. And I thought to myself that there’s no way we can afford it, I think it was going to cost $8 million and the operational costs were $3 to $4 million a year. So I said to myself I’m going to run again and make sure that doesn’t happen,” he recalled.
“I got back in and was able to convince the county and some other people to sell us land for the sewer lagoon and we went with the lagoon system which is a way more preferable system for us.
“It’s good and cheap and we’re still operating it today. If people think the taxes are high now, they would have gone through the roof if we would have went ahead with that.”
Fagnan’s second term was cut short in 1990 due him taking a job up north that took him away from home for months at a time.
A project for the ages
After two more terms, 1998-2004, and his second unsuccessful mayoral bid in 2004, Fagnan yet again figured he was finished with politics, but emerging issues compelled him to let his name stand again in 2010.
“It was primarily the water commission that was bothering me. We were providing water to Vimy and Clyde and we were going forward with Phase 2 to Busby and Pickardville and we didn’t have a supply from the river yet. I figured they were going about it backwards. So, I got back on to council and ended up getting on the water commission,” he explained.
“The first water commission meeting I went to, which included the town, county and the village, I thought everyone was going to kill each other. They had really gotten off on the wrong foot. There ended up being an organizational meeting for the board and they had to elect a new chairman, so that’s how I got in. I think they voted for me because they thought I knew a lot about water. I knew a lot about water installation … I mean I had worked for the water department in the town in the 1970s,” he said with a chuckle.
Kidding aside, the water commission and the work it was able to accomplish stands as one of Fagnan’s personal highlights. Over a decade the commission was able to run waterlines from Westlock to Clyde and Vimy in Phase 1, another to Pickardville and Busby in Phase 2, while Phase 3, which covers Fawcett, Jarvie, Dapp and Pibroch, was finally completed at the end of 2019. The final cost of the three projects topped $30 million.
“We brought water to Fawcett for 270 people and it cost $9.1 million — the province paid 90 per cent of the cost. So, does that make sense? But how do you tell the people of Fawcett you can’t have good, clean drinking water and they should be fine drinking rusty water?” he asked.
Hard decisions
Other successes have included his work on seniors housing and the formation of Homeland Housing as well as the creation of the Aspendale subdivision at a time when they wasn’t much for empty residential lots in town.
But the East Industrial Park, which now is home to businesses like Westlock Ford, Tim Hortons and Martin Deerline, is also near and dear to him.
He said he first started talking about expropriating that land back in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that things heated up. Ultimately, after numerous court hearings and some hard feelings between the municipality and landowner Marvin Marks, the case was settled in 2006 when the town ended up paying $942,642, plus the associated court costs, for the 88-acre parcel. It was one of many tough decisions Fagnan and fellow councillors have faced over the years, but one that has benefited the community.
“We didn’t do it the right way and there was a big fight and lots of noise. But it was the right decision to make. We just need to look at the final result. Without that land I don’t think the development we have there now would have happened,” he said.
Any regrets?
Clem Fagnan being sworn-in as deputy mayor by mayor Ralph Leriger back in 2019. Fagnan says this current council, which he's been part of for the last eight years, is the best he's been a part of.If he could wave a magic wand and change one thing it would be the lack of regional cooperation between all three municipalities.
That said, Fagnan is hopeful for the future as things have steadily improved over the past four years.
“I’ve been working on that since I started … I’ve tried to erase that line between the town and the county. I know people in Fawcett, Jarvie, Tawatinaw, Busby, Vimy — I know people from all over the county. We’re all friends, we play ball against each other, but when it comes to politics there’s that line between the town and the county and it’s never made sense to me,” he said.
“But over this last term we have succeeded in starting a dialogue and I’d like to see that continue. It doesn’t have to be amalgamation, although I wouldn’t necessarily be against that.”
Looking forward
For a guy who’s been involved in the community for so long, you’d think a break would be welcomed.
Certainly he’ll stay busy helping to care for his wife and pitching in to help out his children and grandchildren. That said standing on the sidelines has never been his style, unless of course it’s watching the Red Lions at Keller Field, or taking in a game that features one his grandchildren.
“I know my wife is happy that I’m not running for council because it means more time with her. And two of my kids live in the country so they’ve got sewer tanks and water wells, so when something goes wrong guess who they call?” he joked.
