Councillor Ryan Mennie at work in the Campbell River council chambers
Can you believe it? Three years have passed since the 2008 municipal election in Campbell River. It’s time once again to select a group of seven individuals who will represent your interests as a team in the council chambers at city hall and at large in the community, the province, and the country. It’s been an honour to do just that in my first council term. It’s also been one of the most incredible learning experiences of my life. I’m looking forward to putting three years of municipal governance experience and an even stronger understanding and connection to the community to effective use in another term. And it definitely hasn’t been just any three years of our city’s history to come to grasp with the true job of being on council. It’s been the official school of hard knocks. We’ve all lived the upheaval and transition our city has had to face the last several years in our daily lives. In my press release sent to the media today, I reflect on some of the challenges we’ve had to face as a community, and the kind of environment I entered into at city hall as a new councillor. But I also want to remind us all of some of our achievements during that time, and move forward with a sense of satisfaction and optimism that if we can survive those past few difficult years, we can survive anything.
COURIER ISLANDER story
PRESS RELEASE OCTOBER 7, 2011
Incumbent councillor Ryan Mennie has officially put his hat in the ring once again. As his first term on council comes to an end, he puts the last three years into perspective.
“It’s been an incredibly challenging time to come on as a new councillor. In three years, I’ve worked alongside three different city managers. As part of council, I helped to almost completely rebuild our economic development office Rivercorp, revitalizing their board with representatives from all areas of business in our community and helping them find a new CEO. The city was also severely short-staffed in several departments, including finance, making the first two budget sessions very challenging. And all of this took place while our community was losing millions of dollars worth of tax revenue with the closure of the Timberwest sawmill and the Catalyst pulp and paper mill.”
In spite of the hurdles in his first three years, Mennie remains positive about his time spent on council and optimistic about the future. “During those challenges of inner turmoil at the city and the loss of a substantial amount of tax revenue and local jobs, there were some major achievements. We extended our runway and made improvements to our airport. We replaced a massive amount of aging water and sewer infrastructure on the highway in Willow Point on time and on budget . Both of these projects, totaling about $22 million, were done without borrowing thanks to the majority of funding coming from the provincial and federal governments. In the end we have a new airport authority promoting the facility as an industrial investment opportunity that can attract larger aircraft, and the seawalk was made even more beautiful and enjoyable as part of the highway project. Now imagine what we can achieve as our city gets on it’s feet again!” Amongst all the work done in the city the last three years, there’s one project Mennie is most proud of. “Being the voice of young families in the community, I fought hard in my very first budget session to make sure the rest of council was aware of the need for replacing the playground at Willow Point Park. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the kids enjoying that new playground as I push my daughter on the swings made those long, late night budget sessions all worth it.”
With election day looming, Mennie has some thoughts on how to move forward as a community. “We have a soon to be adopted sustainable official community plan that many people provided input into. That maps out the direction Campbell River needs to go over the next 25 years or so. In the short term, the city needs to continue to work on public engagement and communication. Improved communication was a big key piece of why I ran three years ago, and although we’ve made some big steps in the right direction, we need to continue working on that. The engagement side really paid off with some smaller projects in partnership with folks in the community like the Laughing Willow community garden, the building of the lacrosse box and the continuation of the Greenways Loop. I’m really excited about working with other community members who come forward in the next three years to help them achieve their goals.”
You can read more of what Mennie has been up to in the community during his time on council at www.ryanmennie.com.
Join the discussion on the Re-elect Ryan Mennie for Campbell River City Council facebook page.
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the Municipal Musings of Ryan Mennie 