It has been a whirlwind of work for the past couple of months and I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to keep working as not being challenged in the election allowed for me to continue as usual.

The first blast of snow came in with a vengeance however city crews did an amazing job of clearing the day after the Friday evening storm that literally blew in and out in a few hours leaving an amazing amount of the white stuff behind.

Highlights of the numerous events I attended are Chamber awards, book launches, meeting with Ministry of Transportation staff, Columbia Power, Mainroads pre-winter meeting, Remembrance Day and delivering speeches at functions representing the City.

With previous council winding down members worked diligently on issues so as not to leave too many unfinished decisions to new council.

The election showed the lowest percentage of voters ever remembered. Less than 1000 people cast votes from over three times that number eligible.

I hope this small number means the public is fairly happy with the direction council is going and not just apathetic. I am appreciative of being in the chair again and do want to say that I will continue to work and serve this community to the best of my ability as I am sure this new council will.

I am including a portion of my inaugural speech so that I can thank Pastor Shawn Barden for his invocation, some of which needs to be quoted, “Our God of grace and goodness, we thank you for this incredible city, for the beauty of our surroundings which encircle us in your splendor, for the warmth I our community making this a place we love to call home, and for the magnetism our city has drawing people here from all over the glove, all these reminds us just how special Fernie is. We thank you for this new council, for each member and their willingness to serve our community, to work together to help our city thrive. We ask that you would pour into them wisdom as they discern issues and chart courses, may they be guided by wisdom, grant them courage to stand by their convictions, courage to voice those convictions and the courage and humility to allow convictions to be changes. Grant them unity, while they may discuss and debate issues vigorously, may a culture of respect grow among this council that leads to a sincere humble and conciliatory and constructive working environment. We pray for integrity for this council, that there would not a whiff private interest or prejudices driving agendas, rather we ask you would ceaselessly broaden their field of vision ever educating them to the needs of the people in our community”.

Thank you Pastor Barden for these and other words, it was a great beginning to this new term. I also want to thank Maria Landa and Clare Bernier, two lovely young girls for singing the Canadian and British National anthems.

In my first address I mentioned that three years ago I was in the same chair amazed that I was actually sitting in it and at the same time feeling confident enough that I could do the job, do it well and achieve some positive change.

I am hoping that in finding myself here again, the majority of the people in this town feel that to a certain degree I achieved that goal.

However, I didn’t do it alone, past council members, staff and I worked well together to achieve certain objectives.

We accomplished a great deal for Fernie during the past three years and I want to thank and acknowledge past council members, all the directors and employees and especially our CAO Jim Hendricks for their contributions.

So here we are with a brand new council and I’m happy to have Councillor Phil Iddon, Councillor Dan McSkimming and Councillor Joe Warshawsky back as each one brings a certain style and knowledge to the position but most of all they brought passion to issues faced in the past three years and I know they will continue to do that in this term as well.

I know I can count on them to continue to work as hard as they have the past three years.

The newest members of the team, Councillor Jon Levesque, Councillor Ange Qualizza and Councillor Dennis Schafer I am sure share the same passion for this town as the rest of us otherwise they wouldn’t be here.

We want to provide good leadership, and plan and build for the future of Fernie.

I ended with two quotes, one by Father Lawrence Lovasik, who said,
“The practice of patience towards one another, the overlooking of one another’s defects, and the bearing of one another’s burdens is the most elementary condition of all human and social activity in the family, in the professions and in society”. Being part of this group means we will definitely be practicing patience and understanding towards one another when expressing opinions especially when we disagree. But as famous Aboriginal teacher Gordon Tootoosis, said “Leadership is about submission to service not elevation to power”.

We as members of this council are here to serve the citizens of Fernie and we will endeavour to do so to the best of our ability.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and the very Best in the coming New Year.