Buck Buchanan is a Red Deer mayoral candidate.
It’s about building great relationships! We accomplish this through the pillars of honesty, respect and trust. As a four-term incumbent city councillor, I have the knowledge and experience Red Deer needs for our community to work together. As your mayor, I’m committed to roll up my sleeves to do what needs to be done. With an open door to hear your thoughts, concerns and solutions we can work together, to create the Red Deer we all want: safe, vibrant, and moving forward!
Having had experience as a local small business owner, being committed to the community through volunteerism and an almost 29-year career in the RCMP, it has prepared me for the role of mayor.
The desire to move to Red Deer started in 1977, when asked where to go in my career with the RCMP. It wasn’t until 1998, four provinces and several postings later, that I had the opportunity for our family to call Red Deer home – we love it here.
A strong foundation is integral and based on relationships, this will foster a solid and firm bridge between council, staff and the community. Through a culture of accountability and transparency, even when we may not agree, we need to remember that we accomplish more when we work together, instead of against each other. As an effective leader, it is my belief that you can’t expect others to do what you are not prepared to do yourself.
The relationship with our partners and stakeholders in the region needs to be equal and fair, not only to be seen as good neighbours, so we are indeed good neighbours.
As a municipality we are in the business of providing services, it is our responsibility to provide what we can for the best value for our customers’ money. This can be challenging, as asks are often higher than the money available. Through consultation and collaboration, we have to decide how to manage the balancing act to ensure our customer – the taxpayer – feels they are getting value and the nice-to-haves and the need-to-haves are kept straight.
I have learned first off that we need to identify the problem, then we need to figure out a solution, once we know those two things we can put the work into place. If we are successful in these phases, we then require a plan to continue and maintain what we have.
Presently we know there is a crime and safety issue in our community. It is important to recognize that this is not a unique issue to Red Deer, this problem is happening throughout Canada and throughout jurisdictions across Alberta. We need a solution, and believe it is time we look at different models to address the problem. Our city has looked at different ways of providing policing services in the past and it has always come down to an either/or model, either we stay with the RCMP or we go to a municipal service. Both options provide a good service and the difference is minimal. Exploring a hybrid model will ensure we get the best of both worlds. As a municipality we could take over the response policing and contract the RCMP for more major crime issues and create a joint operating agreement.
Our downtown is an issue and presently our small businesses are struggling, and we need to solve this problem.
As a community we have economic, environmental, and social issues. I have my own ideas how to solve these problems, and believe we can achieve it together!
Vote Buck Buchanan for mayor.