Long-term planning needed to ensure growth, council candidate says

Municipal election candidate Earl Swalm believes his governance experience serving on boards of directors in Saskatchewan and Moose Jaw makes him a suitable candidate for serving on city council.

Swalm spent five years on the board of directors for the Saskatchewan Construction Association, seven years on the Hillcrest Golf Club board — including three years as president — and is the treasurer of the Moose Jaw Shrine Club. However, he has held most positions in the club during the past 20 years.

While he has acquired this experience over many years, he never considered running for city council before — at least, that is, until now, he explained recently.

Participating on a board means working to achieve consensus on issues, but sometimes those decisions don’t always go the way members want, Swalm said. However, that means the board is usually going in the correct direction for the organization.

“How will this help the city? I will not be upset if a vote does not go the way I want,” he added with a laugh.

Swalm owned and operated Moose Jaw Carpet One Floor & Home for 20 years before retiring recently. He now works with several Vancouver-based businessmen to import flooring materials from South Korea and sell them into the United States.

If elected, one of Swalm’s goals is to have council focus more on the long-term future of the community. While he acknowledged that council has done that well recently, he thought it should look at the next 10 to 30 years in its decision-making as a way to ensure the municipality stays on the right course.

“There’s really nothing that I’m going to do that’s going to be spectacularly different and (from) what the existing council has done,” he said, “so (I) just hope that we can continue that path.”

Swalm is not bothered by any of the major issues affecting the community. However, he would like to help council think more long-term, including growing the community and determining how to position the municipality for economic growth. He also believes that by building up the business community, this will attract more residents.

“Without economic profit-generating businesses, we don’t have a vibrant city,” he said. “So if business can do a good job and employ as many people as we possibly can, the rest will follow.”

Swalm added that he has attended about four city council meetings during the last 20 years. He has made presentations to council on behalf of committees, so he is familiar with how council meetings operate.

“I would hope that people vote for (my) experience and not just age experience,” he added. “But from my board experience, I think I would do a good job that way.”