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Watch: Former city councillor enters race

Addiction treatment centre advocate
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Vesna Higham

Former city councillor Vesna Higham wants to return to the council table with a focus on fiscal conservative spending, community safety, and an addiction treatment centre.

Higham said the opioid crisis and property crime are linked.

“We need an addiction centre – period. The province currently has a projected plan for a safe injection site in Red Deer. While that addresses short-term safety issues, it merely hacks at the leaves of this crisis without really tackling the root of the issue which is the addiction,” Higham said.

Getting a treatment centre and fighting crime requires provincial, federal and municipal co-operation, said the retired lawyer.

“Each of the players has a role to play in helping the community tackle the issue. We need people on council who can make that happen.”

She said the rise in crime is alarming to Red Deerians, and they are looking for leadership and direction.

“There’s no one magic bullet to tackling crime. What we need is a multi-pronged approach to this broad issue that intersects all levels of government.”

She said the city’s annual policing plan, and efforts to track the type of crime and when and where it happens, have been steps in the right direction.

“The whole point of this is not just that we work harder, or throw more money or more officers at the problem, but that we work smarter in addition to working harder.”

Higham served one term on council, from 2001 to 2004. Now that her youngest of five children is in Grade 8, she wants resume her role on council.

“I’m the first-generation daughter of two immigrant parents from a former communist country so I think this fundamentally informs my sense of responsibility to give back to the great country that we live in.”

Married to Doug, Higham has lived in Red Deer for 23 years and is an adjudicator with Central Alberta Regional Assessment Review Board and chair of Red Deer Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.



szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com

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