Community pride is one of the reasons Kathy Neufeld has entered the race for Swift Current City Council.
A city resident since 2001, Neufeld says Swift Current makes a great first impression on people, which should allow the community to grow and flourish.
“Swift Current is somewhere that I’m always proud of. I have friends and family that live outside of the community that come to visit and they’re always impressed about how nice our walkways and our parks are, and how many we have. And I’m always proud of that,” she said.
“What people see is very important as to their feelings about a community as well. So I’m someone who is an advocate of taking care of our property as a neighbour so that we all present a good picture.”
“I’m not one to say judge a book by it’s cover, but everybody gets that first impression, and this city is a really nice city. Let’s maintain it.”
Neufeld has been employed with Stark & Marsh CPA since 2005, and she boasts experience in accounting as a Chartered Professional in Human Resources and she is a Certified Leadership Coach.
“I’ve worked a lot with team building, team leadership, so I’m a team oriented person,” she said. “I thought that might be some talent to bring to the table at city council that governs this fair City of ours.”
Neufeld believes she would be a good addition to council and has some new ideas to contribute to city deliberations.
“Obviously the world has shifted in such a short period of time here where we’re faced with the greatest public health crisis in more than one generation. So almost every entrepreneur, leader, executive and small business today is facing incredible stress and difficult choices,” she said. “As a representative of the City Council and a voice for the people, I would really like to be a part of that as we recover from what we’re going through. And how do we help the people of this community get through this and come out on the other side and move forward.”
She noted that council has an important duty to find the right balance between revenues and expenditures.
“I hear a lot about the tax issues, that there’s been a substantial increase in tax, substantial spending that has happened that people are talking about. And right now I think is a time to pause on growth and take care and sustain and maintain what we have. And it’s not that I’m opposed to growth, now isn’t the time for it. We need to take care of what we have at hand.”
“And I also believe that we are a community within a community – as in the province and the other communities that neighbour us. And to work cooperatively with them is also something that I feel is important to pull through this.”
She would like to see City Council seek out more voices so they can hear the diverse needs of different segments of the city’s population.
“It’s the fact that we have to look forward. We can’t just stand still. And one of the things I feel we need to address in that respect is who is coming up behind us and what are we doing to help the youth, our young adults, to be aware of the governance of our fair city. And how do we get them on board. That’s one of the things that I feel is important as well.”
She also feels the city needs to strengthen their partnerships with existing agencies that operate and benefit the community.
“You see from this COVID, we hear so much of the stress, the mental stress that people are feeling. And the addictions that people are talking about, and drug awareness. So that’s something as leaders we need to participate in and just the awareness.”
“We need financial health and we need mental health for this community to move forward in the future.”
