Shaun Harris has a background in forestry and business management. (Submitted photo)

By Nigel Maxwell

City council candidate

P.A. business owner sets sights on Ward 5 council seat, promises to ask the tough questions

Oct 21, 2024 | 3:36 PM

A candidate for Prince Albert’s Ward 5 council seat, is promising to bring a more educated and experienced voice to the table on forestry.

Shaun Harris, who owns a logging and trucking company, told paNOW there’s been several elections cycles with mayoral and city council candidates who think that mills drop from the sky.

“They’ve all had grandiose plans of how to get them without absolutely knowing the first thing about forestry or logging and that’s frustrating,” he said.

Sask. Party Leader Scott Moe was in Prince Albert last month to announce the construction of a new OSB mill and it was during that same press conference, it was confirmed the pulp mill would not be starting up.

Harris, who has been among those working behind the scenes, said people like him have known for years the pulp mill had no future and so moving forward he wants to be part of the group involved in the OSB mill talks and making sure it does come to fruition.

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“I have every reason to believe it will but there might be hiccups along the way and I want to be involved in that”, he said, adding he is the only candidate who possesses the knowledge with respect to how allocations and legislation and regulations work.

Another key issue for Harris is crime, and he estimated that as a business owner and a resident, he’s lost close to $40,000 worth in damaged or stolen goods. And Harris gets frustrated by people who say nothing can be done about it.

“So I want to be involved in some of those conversations where we take crime and concerns from local residents more seriously because I doh’t think we are doing that at the moment,” he said.

In addition to being a business owner, Harris also sits on a number of local boards including the East Hill curling club. He said if elected, he will make sure there are steps in place to ensure the continued operations and support of the city’s aging rinks and community clubs.

“New rinks are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but we can’t allow the demise of our older facilities which are the hub and glue of many of these neighhourhoods,” he said.

Harris also acknowledged the city’s current discussions around a homeless shelter and while he stated there is no doubt the city needs one, he feels the conversations needs to be more balanced.

“Not only do we have to look after the people who use these shelters but we also have to acknowledge the needs and concerns of the people that are going to be in the neighborhoods that house these facilities,” he said.

Further noting some recent personal frustrations with the people and agencies who got upset with people who argued not in my backyard, Harris encouraged those same people to look within and at the public face of why people may be thinking the way they do.

“There has to be some accountability and not a lot of people are willing to question that or demand that and I am,” he said.

The other candidate running in Ward 5 is Stephen Ring.

The municipal election day is Nov. 13.

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nigel.maxwell!@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell