Hans Huizing is a Red Deer city council candidate.
Renewal for Downtown
Create a walking mall to encourage the renewal of downtown. The first section would be the Little Gaetz area from where is splits off of 50th Ave to Ross St., to join the small section that is currently on Ross. This area would be allocated for small businesses. I would also advocate for more residential spaces in this area along with the redevelopment as we need to increase our population density in this area.
Transportation Audit
Establish a 311 call centre to handle problems – this call centre would allow for citizens to let city services know about problems with road ways, from potholes to accidents. It would also be a call centre for access to other city services.
Investigate traffic flow within the city – there have been many other cities that have tried to reduce idle time in traffic. We need to look at the timing of the lights and patterns to the traffic to see where we can create efficiencies. If Los Angeles is able to do this, we should follow suit.
Establish a lottery system for plowing service after mains are done – year one is through the alphabet, year two is reverse the alphabet and year three should be a lottery. Otherwise the end of the alphabet never gets their road plowed until just before spring thaw.
Investigate more effective transit routes within the city, including transit fees and routes. It is time to look at smaller buses on more routes and use the larger buses for high volume times of the day.
Charter for the City of Red Deer
I believe that we should be a part of the process that AUMA is undertaking to create a charter for all municipalities. I have signed the pledge for Local Elections. I believe the tenets of the pledge and will keep local politics independent and reflective of the citizens I want to represent.
Red Deer Culture growth
Start a discussion with different cultural groups within Red Deer to fund a major capital project, like a concert hall, to replace the Memorial Centre. There is no space for 1000 people within the city and it is time that we had a vision to create such a space. The city has outgrown most of its venues and this would be an excellent way to attract more tourism to Red Deer if we would be able to host major events like concerts and performances. While we have many events planned in the year, we also need to start looking at new ways to get together. I propose to talk to groups that would be interested in starting a concert series called Red Deer Rocks and an event that would be called Red Deer Renaissance Fair. I believe that the city should be a major sponsor and instigator of such events.
I am also pleased that there is a 50 metre pool in the works for the city. It was problematic that when Red Deer hosted the Winter Games that we could not host all of the events within the city but had to rely on other venues. I hope that will not occur again.
Health and Welfare Services
This is an area that needs to be right away by a wide coalition of groups within the city. Poverty, addiction, homelessness, policing, mental health and physical health are all closely linked together. We need to press the provincial and federal government to expand and prioritize the development of our regional hospital centre. In fact, it may be wiser to allocate funding for a hospital that is for the residents of Red Deer and make our current hospital more readily available to the residents that surround Red Deer.
Often our first responders are asked to deal with situations that are not their areas of expertise, especially when it comes to mental health assessment. I would like to propose a mental health ambulance for the city, staffed by a firemedic, a social worker, a nurse and a member of one of the city agencies that work with our indigent population, like the Hope Mission or the Mustard Seed. They would be on call to help in situations where first responders are needing assistance and allow for direct aid to the individual in crisis.