Boyd Thomas is running for Lethbridge City Council. (Photo supplied by Boyd Thomas)

By Justin Goulet

Boyd Thomas running for Lethbridge City Council this October

Sep 24, 2021 | 8:44 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Boyd Thomas has announced his candidacy for Lethbridge City Council.

He said his work with the Aboriginal Housing Society has given him an opportunity to work with city officials for the planning and development of housing projects – a key plank of his platform.

Thomas told LNN that, “the process is sometimes daunting, the bureaucracy that is involved [in housing development] is sometimes very prohibitive, and currently right now I’m working on a plan that will help to streamline that; that will include the federal, provincial and municipal government so that we can get houses built.”

He said his work and discussions with the Indigenous community and local businesses has given him the sense that, “there’s a real dissatisfaction [on] what is happening at the city council level.”

Thomas said he could “either sit back and complain” or get involved, which is what inspired him to run for a council seat. A concern for public safety was also a factor in his decision. Thomas cited Lethbridge’s number-one ranking in the 2020 Crime Severity Index as something that needs to be addressed.

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He remarked that, “when I talk to people that have lived here [for many years] …there’s the sense that there has been a fundamental change. People don’t understand what is happening in the city, that we don’t feel as safe – personally, I’ve had my car broken into three times.” Thomas added he has also been approached and threatened in a parking lot.

“I’ve never had that kind of alarming feeling, so what’s happening with the perception of public safety within the city?”

READ MORE: Lethbridge still has Canada’s highest Crime Severity Index, but crime down in 2020

Thomas spoke about economic responsibility, questioning if local taxpayer dollars were being spent properly.

He said, “one of the things that I do, working for a non-profit organization as I have for the last 13 years, is I make a distinction between what is needed and what is useful and what is needed IS useful, but sometimes when something is useful, it’s not necessarily needed.”

“When you don’t receive any grant money for operations, as with the organization that I work with, you have to work like a business; you have to budget, according to the revenue you got coming in and the expenses going out, and you have to deal with it in a way that’s responsible, so that’s why I have to make the distinction [on] what’s needed and what’s useful.”

Thomas told LNN that he realizes that “becoming a councillor does not mean you get to dictate what’s going to happen.”

He said he’d like to see council focus “on creating opportunity so that we can have things like fiscal responsibility, economic development, [and] make Lethbridge attractive to come to so that people can get jobs, there can be a vibrancy in the economy, we can take a look at the housing sector, for example, and that we can have a continuum that would bring people from social housing up through the rental housing into actual home ownership, where they can then become taxpayers.”

Thomas said because Lethbridge is going to grow, “there is an opportunity and you cannot have a strong economy in any place without having a strong real estate base.” More on his platform is available here.

General voting day in the 2021 municipal election is October 18.