Get to know your ward: Ward 3

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This article was published 08/10/2022 (1186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Until election day, the Brandon Sun will run profiles on each of the city’s 10 electoral wards and ask candidates in those wards to provide an answer to a problem facing the residents they wish to represent.

Brandon’s Ward 3, formerly Victoria Ward, represents the western-most part of the Wheat City.

From west to east, it runs from Brandon’s border with the RM of Cornwallis to 34th Street. North to south, it extends from the Assiniboine River to just north of Willowdale Crescent.

The southern border is new. When the city revised the boundaries of its electoral wards earlier this year, an area that used to belong to Ward 5, formerly Meadows-Waverly, was split between wards 3 and 4.

There is now a point on 34th Street near Willowdale Crescent where wards 3, 4 and 7 meet.

Since 2014, Coun. Barry Cullen, owner of Keywest Photo, has represented the area on Brandon City Council and he’s aiming to be elected to a third consecutive term this fall. He was acclaimed the first time and was sent back to council after receiving 474 votes to James Montgomery’s 225 in 2018.

Challenging him for the role this time around is realtor and barber Quentin Derhak, who is making his first run at politics.

This was the Sun’s question for candidates: the city has been preparing a plan that will guide Brandon’s growth until 2050. As part of that 30-year plan, what is your vision to address social issues in your ward and across the city?

Here are their answers, in alphabetical order by last name.

In an interview, Cullen brought up the closing of Brandon Mental Health Centre and how it signalled a change of direction in how social issues were treated.

“They decided they were going to use this program that used social absorption within the community with wellness centres,” Cullen said. “They said this would be better for the client, this would be better for everybody. Maybe back then, the actual system we were using could have been archaic, it wasn’t respectful, it wasn’t human rights-based. It was a quasi-jail.”

Cullen said the city needs to reassess that decision. As a society, we have to figure out where we want people with needs to go, and Cullen said it can’t just be away from where they currently are.

“The true, real, respectful answer to that is where they can get help and where they can get the services they require,” he said. “Right now, that’s the problem — someone who’s having an episode of some sort would be picked up by Brandon police, put in the back of the car, and then where do you take them? They obviously need help.”

He said it’s time for municipalities, who are dealing with these social issues at ground zero, to work with provincial and federal governments to find a new solution. That solution can’t just be for mental health, but for addiction and homelessness as well.

Derhak said he sees a Brandon that is “vibrant, inclusive, active and full of growth.”

“Ward boundaries are essentially invisible lines used primarily for electoral purposes,” he wrote in an email. “When it comes to social issues, these boundaries mean very little. With addiction on the rise, emergency rehabilitation is needed to assist people. If someone were to decide ‘today is the day I quit,’ they should not be turned away, but receive treatment immediately.”

A component of that, Derhak wrote, is making sure local police are well equipped and efficiently organized to deal with problems quickly after a call for assistance is made.

“With life becoming increasingly more expensive, aggressively marketing our city to entice industry to Brandon is essential to not only economic growth, but the overall well-being of our community,” Derhak added.

“Better-paying jobs that can offer promotions, benefits, and security could drastically decrease poverty, food inequity, and the anxiety that can come from being forced to choose between buying food or paying bills.

“A city is a collaborative effort. If all areas work together proactively, we can help everyone build toward a better future.”

Election day is Oct. 26.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark