Coffee With Heather Eby
Robert Thomas
After a lot of reflection and soul searching over a nearly two years former Councillor Heather Eby is ready to give back to her community.
Eby is seeking election in the October 17th By-election to replace former Councillor Don Mitchell, who resigned to care for his wife. Eby served two terms from 2009-2016. She came in seventh in votes in the 2016 Civic Election.
Eby has been out door-knocking and said she has found the experience "exhilarating” and that she has spoken to many people.
Being known may not be the problem for her, the problem is, she says, that “lots of people don’t know there’s a by-election.”
Eby is originally from Radville, a community in southeastern Saskatchewan.
Eby came to Moose Jaw in March 1990 to work at 800 CHAB in ad sales. She had initially worked at the Weyburn radio station before coming to Moose Jaw.
After a five year stint at CHAB she started her own small business as a Registered Massage Therapist.
Heather is married to Gerald “Ebb” Eby, a local business owner, they have two daughters and five grandchildren.
Eby initially got interested in running for City Council in 2009 when she was finishing up a ministry program at the Moose Jaw Alliance Church.
“I was really involved in a significant program at my church and always interested in City Council and in the Spring of 2009 I started paying a lot of interest,” she said.
This led Eby to run and win but she admits it was never about politics, something she freely admits that she is bad at.
“It was never about the politics but always about people,” Eby stated, adding “its way more about people and doing more for the people of Moose Jaw. I’m not that good at the politics part.”
She freely admits she responded poorly to her narrow defeat in the 2016 Civic Election.
“When I was defeated in 2016 I was really devastated. I really loved Council a lot. At the beginning it was hard not to be on Council. But over the course of a year I enjoyed the time off. I really look forward to getting back there.”
“I learned a lot because of that defeat. It was different in a good way for my family,” Eby said about her time away from Council.
The two main concerns she would like to address if elected are community safety and infrastructure.
“There is an increase in really violent crime and there are neighbourhoods traditionally not seeing that kind of crime in the past that are now experiencing it,” Eby said.
She gave an example of her own usually quiet South Hill neighborhood, where a neighbour's home was broken into one night while the people were at home, as a major concern.
“It’s frightening to me. You can have a perfect city with great streets and roads and a lot of crime and nobody would want to come there. We have got to get that cleaned up,” she said.
She admits that her stance that public safety needs to be addressed is based upon her "paying attention. I haven’t talked to the police about it" she said.
Despite the apparent rise in violent crime, she doesn’t fault the police but sees it a lack of resources.
“The police department does a great job given the resources they have but they have always been behind the numbers of provincially funded police officers.”
Eby said she would work to lobby the Province for an increase in the number or provincially funded officers which, when compared to other communities on a per capita basis in the province is not equal.
Another main area of concern for her is infrastructure.
“Infrastructure for sure is huge. Infrastructure spending increased in the last few years, if we had more we can spend more.”
She said she is satisfied with the rate of progress the City is spending at at the present time.
“If we did a lot more with all of the detours and frustration people would be frustrated even more. We need to keep things going and continue with the rest of the things in the budget.”
Eby though does issue a caution “there is always something that can derail the project and hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
She points to storm clouds on the horizon when it comes to infrastructure, especially when it comes to the outdoor pool.
“As long as it keeps limping along its OK but once it does fail it’s a big decision for whoever is in Council.”
“It’s (decision on a new outdoor pool or not) coming maybe not in the next five years but in 10, maybe. The one at Buffalo Pound is done and it’s the same age. Some look at it as a want instead of a need but when it comes along it will be a big decision.”
The water reservoir is another concern for her, as it was something needing to be looked at.
Although infrastructure “is at the top of the list” she said there needs to be balance throughout the entire City budget.
“Any cuts would have to be huge and huge cuts would be in wages. I’m absolutely not in favour of cutting staff and the community is not in favour of cutting programs,” she said, adding “I don’t think there are millions in efficiencies maybe tens of thousands but not millions.”
To pay for infrastructure renewal there is the soon to be expiring Hospital Levy which will be converted into an Infrastructure Levy.
“The hospital levy becomes an infrastructure levy. We cannot handle a huge increase in taxes,” she said.
If elected she admitted “I’m not sure where I fit. I know I will find a place…they need to have consensus to get work done.”
“They haven’t got as much work done in the last two years as they should have. I hope to bring some cohesiveness to the table.”
Asked about the 15 month continual debate on curbside garbage collection, she spoke about the Winter of 2010, when bi-weekly collection was instituted as a pilot project. At the time there was a major push back from residents against the move even though it saved approximately $30,000.
“Eight years ago I remember Brian Swanson saying don’t touch people’s garbage,” she said, going on to add “once they make a decision and kept with it.”
Regarding problems the City has in communicating with residents Eby said “they have good communications but still have a ways to go.”
“Craig (Hemmingway) is really trying to do a good job. Because he knows the community that’s helpful.”
Regarding the Downtown Facility and Field House (DFFH) Eby said it was comparing apples to oranges in how the boards were structured and the reasons behind the dismissals of two separate boards.
“Both situations are unfortunate and I am not super ramped up to get back on that board. There are a couple of members of Council who haven't been on that Board and maybe there needs to be a different perspective,” Eby said.
Eby said a recent Rhino's Ramblings opinion column which inferred she knew about the individual at the centre of a sexual harassment case is incorrect. The individual in question was employed by the DFFH while she was on the Board.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it. I was not privy to personnel files, I wasn’t in management,” Eby said, adding her tenure on the DFFH Board was when they had a governance board model. The board she was on was a different structure, she said than when the latest Board of three councillors were sanctioned.
Bylaw 5347 adopted August 6, 2010 applied while Eby sat on the Board, the Board consisting of the three councillors was governed under Bylaw 5527 and was adopted on January 9, 2017.
“I want it to be clear I did not know. Had I known something would have been done,” Eby stated.
“City Council is really running it...it is totally different “ Eby stated about the present controversy.
“Going forward I don’t know what’s it’s going to look like,” she said, adding the Parks and Recreation Department taking over would “not be good for the City.”
"People have lost confidence in Council, I hope to restore some of the confidence in Council,” Eby stated.
Asked if she was running to ask for a second chance Eby said it wasn’t the case at all.
“I’m not asking for a second chance. It’s not a case of I just want to get re-elected,” she said, adding “the last 22 months of self reflection and thinking things through put me in an even better place to do a good job.”
Check out our previous Coffee dates with the other candidates for council.
