Four candidates compete in race for Ward 3

With incumbent Barry Cullen not running for re-election, four contenders are vying for the Ward 3 seat on Brandon city council.

Kevin Chambers, Quentin Derhak, Enver Naidoo and Craig Shanks are hoping to get elected to council for the first time to represent the city’s most westerly ward, formerly known as the Victoria Ward.

Shanks, the only candidate who lives in the ward, said he thinks voters appreciate that he resides there.

“By being in the ward, and living in the ward, I got an idea as to where things are and what we need to do to make things better,” Shanks, 66, said on Thursday.

“If you’re not there and living it and driving it every day and walking in the area, you don’t know the issues that are there,” he said.

Shanks, who works as an executive adjuster, said flooding and rain damage have been a cause for concern that he’d like to address if elected.

As a “lifelong” insurance adjuster, Shanks says he has often worked with people after extreme weather events.

“(Weather) catastrophes used to be further spread apart and now it seems to be whenever it clouds up, we’re looking at heavy rainfalls in short periods of time,” he said.

Shanks said he wants to work “proactively” and put more money into reserves, noting the city spent $210,000 to repair drainage after the Wheat City Golf Course flooded earlier this year.

“I’m not sure whether a lot of the people and residents are appreciative of having ($210,000) spent on it, especially when not everybody plays golf,” Shanks said.

“Every summer that we have the water come over the dikes, and we’re looking at (thousands) of dollars every time. We can’t keep doing that and it’s not sustainable,” he said.

Shanks said more work needs to be done attracting commercial development in order to increase city revenues — much of which comes from property taxes — so there is more money to put into the financial reserves.

He also said recreation and space for outdoor activities have been on the minds of the residents he has spoken with.

For Chambers, a retired teacher, physical activity and increasing recreation options for Brandonites are key points in his campaign.

“I have been pitching the idea of a no-cost recreational sports league for teenagers in town, utilizing the Shared Facilities Agreement between the City of Brandon and the school division. And I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback for that idea,” Chambers, 62, said on Thursday.

“The city could have a citywide, no-cost recreational sports league for teenagers that would help kids to stay in the communities and set down roots,” Chambers said.

While Chambers said he would like to see more development in the city, he doesn’t want to see it spread west from the boundary of Ward 3.

“I believe that within the boundaries that we have, we’ve got a rough diamond — and with the right work, it could be polished up,” he said.

Chambers said he’d consider waiving development fees if it encouraged infill developments, especially downtown.

“If we want downtown to be vibrant and livable, we have to make it so that developers go, ‘I can make a buck there.’ … So, if that means waiving development fees, I’m for it,” Chambers said.

He said if he’s elected, one of his first priorities would be to reduce speeds within the ward.

“We could immediately talk to city engineers about installing speed bumps along Rosser Avenue,” like the one on 26th Street across from J.R. Reid School, he said.

Chambers said better drainage, specifically in cul-de-sacs within the ward, is also something he’d like to advocate for if elected.

Derhak, 50, who ran in the 2022 election against Cullen and in the 2023 school board byelection, said he wants the chance to improve the ward.

“Do I think that I can make the ward better? I think that, yeah,” Derhak said. “I might have a chance here to make those little changes that people want and make it just a little better.”

Derhak, who works in real estate and previously worked as a barber, said he wants to create a way for residents to be more engaged with ongoing city projects, “just like we have our snow clearing map.”

“People would like to know if there’s some sort of a queue, where they know, OK, what’s getting done, and what we should be getting done,” Derhak said on Thursday.

“I think letting people know what is being done. So, let’s say there’s 20 projects being done, and your street is number seven in that list — it’d be nice,” he said.

Derhak, who lived in the ward before its boundary changed in 2022, said he’d like more spaces for outdoor recreation and to attract businesses to create more job opportunities.

“The last thing I think anybody wants is for our kids to graduate high school and then leave immediately because there’s nothing here for them,” Derhak said.

“I would like to see some more attention brought back into recreation down in the area,” he said. “There are some aging parks that need to be looked at,” such as the Fox Place Playground.

Derhak said residents have also raised concerns about snow clearing.

“(When) kids are walking up on a big mound of snow to get to school because the city-owned pathways aren’t being cleared of snow, that’s those little things that makes folks wonder are we doing our job and are we listening,” he said.

To increase the tax base, he said, the city needs to “aggressively market” itself to industry leaders.

“We need good-paying jobs that will increase the tax base because industry pays heavy,” Derhak said.

“We want growth, but you want healthy growth and you want sustainable growth,” he said, adding that his experience in real estate has shown him “what happens when the growth moves faster than what we can handle.”

Naidoo said the city should introduce a scorecard to track and monitor processes.

“The scorecard allows us to have certain metrics or key performance indicators that (are) influenced by various stakeholders, including the residents, that allows us to determine what do we prioritize (and) are we on track to achieve those results,” Naidoo, 47, said.

He said the scorecard could track recreation, flooding, road maintenance, crosswalks, safety and security.

“This allows us to then show that we have evidence to report back on, but allows the residents the ability to provide input on what they see as a priority,” Naidoo said.

He added that his priority is to look at the “strategic level” when it comes to planning and “work with the administration.”

He said if he’s elected, he wants to connect with residents to determine their priorities and preferences.

Naidoo was the executive director of Westman Immigrant Services (WIS) before his “role ended without cause and the board, without cause, decided (they’d look) to end my employment,” he said.

He said that while he doesn’t live in the ward, his experience at WIS “brings credibility.”

“I may have not had the fortune to be born and raised in Ward 3, I chose to call Brandon home … and since the day I arrived, you know, I didn’t wait for an election. I’ve rolled up my sleeves and I’ve gotten involved with the city,” Naidoo said.

He said his fiscal goal as a councillor would be to diversify the city’s revenue.

“As a city right now, we haven’t included diversifying our revenue base. This is something that I feel I have the experience doing in my previous role as CEO,” he said. “We can’t keep passing costs on to residents.”

All four candidates said they will be participating in the Ward 3 debate at Brandon University on Oct. 14 from 7-9 p.m.

Advanced voting is Oct. 14, 17 and 22. Election day is Oct. 28.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com