Ward 5 candidate safety-focused

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This article was published 10/09/2022 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like a lot of candidates running for Brandon City Council, Ward 5 challenger Greg Hildebrand is focusing his campaign around safety.

Hildebrand, a funeral director at Memories Chapel, is running in next month’s municipal election in Meadows-Waverly (which will be reshaped and renamed Ward 5) against incumbent Coun. Sunday Frangi.

In an interview earlier this week, Hildebrand said he’s lived in Brandon for the last 13 years with his wife Candice and their three kids. He lives right in the middle of Ward 5, near Meadows School.

“I’ve always been a civic-minded individual and I want to be able to participate in a meaningful manner,” Hildebrand said. “I wouldn’t sit around and say, ‘This needs to be fixed or that needs to be fixed.’ I want to be part of the solution, not sitting around wondering what the solution might be.”

Those safety elements he wants to tackle include crime and drug use in the ward.

Despite what Hildebrand called a perception that those issues are mostly isolated to downtown Brandon, he said his prospective constituents are affected by them as well.

“I’ve had my car gone through on the street, and my neighbours on my crescent have had their sheds broken into, so we’re not immune.”

He said he believes community events that foster a deeper knowledge of one’s neighbours can help foster an attitude of people looking out for each other.

On speeding, he said investigations should explore if more streets like Durum Drive should be lowered to 40 kilometres an hour to improve safety. Earlier this year, Brandon City Council implemented a pilot project to see if lowering that street’s speed could address complaints of excessive speeding and traffic.

Like residents of nearby wards such as Linden Lanes (about to be renamed Ward 7), Hildebrand said people of his ward have concerns about drainage.

During the massive rainstorms that hit Brandon and Westman in the summer of 2020, the drainage ditch near Willowdale Crescent was choked with water, which backed up storm drains in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Hildebrand said he’s already had a conversation about the issue with Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes), who said the pair would have to work on the file together if Hildebrand is elected.

Another topic he’s keen on is spending. Hildebrand said he wants to keep taxes low and review the almost doubling of water utility rates the city is bringing forward to help pay off past deficits, pay for past and new projects and maintain services.

“I wonder why we’re comparing us to other cities and saying our rates are still going to be comparable,” he said. “To me, that doesn’t make sense. If we’re able to keep rates low, why do we have to raise them just because other communities are higher?”

While Hildebrand said it’s important for the city to expand, he wonders if the city is moving in the right direction and if the cost associated with that expansion is being shared equitably between the city and developers.

“Who’s benefiting? If the whole city benefits from it, that’s great,” he said. “Then the whole city should pay … we want to make sure the city grows because, if it’s not growing, then my kids won’t come back from university and find jobs here. We need to find a way to keep those university grads here.”

Part of that effort, Hildebrand said, should include improving recreation opportunities and promoting options available for younger people in the city.

He called Brandon a “small-minded big city” that needs to do a better job at promoting itself. According to him, the city’s highway signs don’t signal that Brandon is a progressive-looking city.

Last year, fewer than 100 people voted in the Meadows-Waverly byelection that saw Frangi elected as Brandon’s first Black councillor. Hildebrand said the city needs to do a better job of promoting this year’s election and is glad there are contested campaigns to draw interest.

At the time of the interview, Hildebrand said he had not yet spoken with Frangi but is hoping to run a positive, respectful campaign.

Election day is Oct. 26.

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