When municipal funding support was reduced for the Crime Prevention Centre, Buck Buchanan decided he had better run for a seat on Red Deer city council.
“We had spent a lot of years trying to get the Crime Prevention Centre to where it is today and they changed the funding model so it lost 60 per cent of its funding,” he said.
Buchanan noted the centre was budgeted for $160,000 — less than the cost of one RCMP member.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Neighbourhood Watch, Citizens on Patrol and CrimeStoppers are all housed at the centre. These are stand-alone programs, not delivered by police, added Buchanan, who feels it would be a huge loss if they disappeared.
Buchanan served four terms on city council until Ken Johnston beat him to the mayoral seat in 2021.
Today, he believes the opioid crisis and the mental health and addictions problems it’s caused are the greatest challenges the city faces.
It’s resulting in more crime, homelessness and more food bank use. As a board member of the Red Deer Food Bank Society, Buchanan knows the organization has “doubled its output” in recent years to meet rising demand.
Through his 29-year career as an RCMP officer (now retired) and participation on various panels, Buchanan feels he has insight into the addictions problem that would be valuable on council. On a personal level, he’s been part of a 12-step program to beat alcohol addiction for the last 43 years.
He wants the municipality to lobby hard for wrap-around services to become part of the province’s permanent homeless shelter project in Red Deer. “There needs to be a single door of entry” to the shelter, detox, mental health counselling, housing supports and other programs, said Buchanan.
On the local economic front, he wants the City of Red Deer to use its expertise to help launch a business incubator for entrepreneurial start-ups. “They should help, create and develop…”
The married father of three and grandfather of eight, doesn’t believe in the politicization of municipal politics. Although Buchanan can see a few reasons for the province to explore making municipal government candidates declare their party affiliations, he doesn’t agree with the concept.
Council represents a widely diverse community, so many different ideas need to be brought to the table, instead of creating an echo chamber for the same ideology, said Buchanan. “If we were all thinking the same thing, it would not be a good idea.”