By Spencer Sterritt

Openness and transparency, the focus of Ward 7 council run

Apr 11, 2016 | 12:37 PM

After unsuccessfully running for mayor, a Prince Albert realtor is looking to hear the city’s concerns, “good, bad or otherwise,” as a Ward 7 councillor.

Dean Link, a realtor with 22 years of experience who’s lived in P.A. for close to 30 years, said his goal is to make city council more transparent and accountable.

“There’s no transparency. Where’s the openness? There isn’t, it doesn’t exist with this present city hall. Who was taken to task for the ‘Big Dig?’ The mess on Eighth St. E, what’s going on there?”

A civic politics enthusiast, Link has been watching the current council with a critical eye. “The city needs to go forward, and I just don’t think we have the right people in place to move it forward.”

He said he would have voted against the recent council decision to provide a nearly $82,000 bail out to the Borealis Music Festival. Mayor Greg Dionne said the city plans on getting that money back over the next several years, but Link doesn’t think that will happen.

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“I will bet you will never see that money again. That’s money that’s gone.”

In addition to accountability, Link’s council campaign focuses on crime and investment.

He said he’s seen people fed up with “the daily assaults, break-ins, vandalism, complete disregard of law, it seems.”

“They don’t want to talk about crime. When 2,500 people answer a poll saying there’s an issue downtown, for council to say it’s perception; that’s ridiculous.”

Link also wants to see the riverbank area developed, as well as the annexed land along Marquis Rd. and the downtown core. “We’ve gotta get out and sell the city a lot more than we’ve been doing.” He added “we’ve got to fix our basics first,” in terms of city infrastructure like roads and sewers.

Eliminating political apathy in Prince Albert is a major goal of Link’s.

“A lot of young people don’t vote and we’ve got to work with them. I enjoy working with young people in real estate because they’ve got some really great ideas. I think our young people could be a real strength, but we’ve got to get them engaged.”

He said his 2012 mayoral campaign was a “learning experience,” and he hopes to take the lessons he learned during the previous run into his current council campaign.

“I learned that sometimes you have to probe a bit. Sometimes people don’t want to actually say what they feel. I hope people feel they can say anything to me. If you don’t like what I have to say, fine, tell me that.”

Link will be running in Ward 7 against Donny Parenteau. The Prince Albert municipal election takes place October 26.

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit