Dale Leier running for Lethbridge City Council this October

Leier explained that his overall strategy is to “leverage Lethbridge’s geographic position as the hub of southern Alberta and grow the entire economy for everybody.”

“That way, we can enjoy a higher quality of living but don’t have to sacrifice some of the things that you get from a growing community. It sounds idyllic but it’s intended to be the best of both worlds.”

He said he has a 10-point plan for economic development, which is “a combination of creating centres of excellence as well as seed capital funds to help fund research and prototype development as well as to help set up investment funds, so that we can fund some growth and opportunities that lay before us.”

GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY

A concern of Leier’s is government transparency, with him telling LNN that “the way decision-making is done at the council level is an extremely concerning situation.”

He remarked, “I hate to say it, there’s really good people in the city, but it seems that we’ve lost our way and that certainly came out loud and clear in the KPMG Report, that basically we’ve been a rudderless ship for decades.”

“We’ve crossed that 100,000 [population] threshold [and] now we have to start thinking of the city differently. Some people said, ‘what do you want to be? A large Raymond or a small Calgary?’ well neither actually, I want to be a perfect Lethbridge.”

Leier believes people want to enjoy the amenities of a large city without the pressures of a metropolitan area, “but the reality is, when you grow, there’s challenges and we need to change our mindset, our thinking, the way we approach governance and that’s really come out lately with the city council.”

“We need to have council as a whole where all the councillors and mayor sit down and become educated on the particular issues and ask questions, get staff to come back to them with the answers so that by the time it goes to council, it becomes a simply legislative matter. They’re not still learning what the issues are, asking questions, drafting legislation and then voting on it.”

He said nobody’s perfect but believes change could be good for the city.

Leier told LNN, “I don’t believe being on council should be a lifelong career.”

“I think we need new blood coming and going and I think, you know, having some turnover is just healthy for the city.”

He said that his background as a former government employee, with involvement in the transportation industry, would be an asset to Lethbridge City Council. Leier added that two particular skillsets he’s honed over the years, problem solving and opportunity identification, would be helpful as well.

“It just amounts to collecting your information, identifying what the desired outcome is and then assembling a plan to get you from where you’re at to where you’re going, and that problem-solving skill can apply to any situation. I haven’t found one yet where it doesn’t work. In aviation, they call it a flight plan.

Leier concluded that he also wants to continue working on various projects for growth with the local Indigenous population.

He said, “they’re a valuable part of our community and an essential part of the economic development of southern Alberta.”

“Last but not least, I want to make sure we’re paying attention to the social issues in our community, people seem to think they’re just going to magically disappear on their own, but these are realities – homelessness, the addiction, the crime and poverty, they’re significant but they cause us more harm by ignoring them than if we just tackled them and dealt with them.”

Dale Leier running for Lethbridge City Council this October

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