Mel Foat is asking for the community vote once again as he wants to bring unity to the community.
“I’m all about community, I have a lot of life experiences, I want to see this city with industrial and commercial lands and lower taxes,” Foat said.
If elected, Foat wants to work towards resolving ongoing issues with recreation and find a solution to recreation problems.
“I want to resolve the CRCA Rocky View issue once and for all. As far as the new civic centre, I feel it’s the wrong time to build with inflated costs and not total public consultation on the project, we need to look at that,” Foat said.
Adding, “I’m not against the civic centre, I just don’t think this is the time to build it, $40 million for what is projected in phase one is too high of a cost.”
Although an application for a permit to rezone the Lakeside Golf Course was never brought to city council, when it does come forward, Foat will not be in favour of rezoning the land.
“I look at this golf course as a viable business and a great green space in our city and it should be left as that,” Foat said.
Foat wants to continue seniors housing projects, adding medical care to the city, increasing accessibility for residents, adding more transit times, and promote diversity and inclusion.
“I believe that everybody should be treated equally. I want to make sure we are including everybody, we are all the same, and we need to work together to make our city better and make ourselves better,” Foat said.
Foat is passionate about increasing the commercial tax base, with slowing down on residential development.
“Houses cost money on infrastructure, and until we can get some commercial, we’ll have to look at raising taxes if we don’t get commercial,” Foat said.
In addition to commercial development, Foat is advocating for overcrowding in schools to be addressed by city council, developers, and the provincial government.
“Overcrowding in schools is a real shame that we can’t get our provincial government to step up and take a serious look at the overcrowding in Chestermere. I will be pushing hard for council, but also encouraging the MLA to make things happen along with our developers to get sites ready so we can get a school in the queue to be built,” Foat said.
In the next four years, Foat’s ultimate goals include keeping property taxes and utility rates down, ensuring the city is financially responsible, and for bullying at the school level, in society, and on social media to stop.
“If you’re selecting a candidate look at someone who has a good business past track record. I’m an outside-the-box thinker, and I’m open to anyone with any question that they have,” Foat said.
