Pincher Creek mayoral candidate Jim Litkowski. (Photo supplied by Jim Litkowski)

By Justin Goulet

Jim Litkowski running for mayor in Pincher Creek

Oct 14, 2021 | 6:42 AM

PINCHER CREEK, AB – Jim Litkowski wants residents to go out and vote.

Litkowski is a candidate for mayor in Pincher Creek in this month’s municipal election. He told LNN that initially, he wasn’t planning on running, but after hearing words of encouragement from his fellow community members, he decided to give it a shot.

He’s no stranger to municipal politics, having filled a council vacancy ahead of the 2017 civic elections in Alberta. However, he did not run for election that year, but 2021 marks a change.

Change is what’s needed in Pincher Creek, according to the mayoral candidate. Litkowski said during his run for the mayor’s seat, his priorities include transparency, tackling town debt, and infrastructure.

He told LNN that, “there’s a lack of transparency and not everybody knows what’s going on, and that to me, means a lot.”

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“Somebody asked me, ‘how can we find out how much mayors and councillors and people like that are making – and that’s supposed to be on the [town] web page’.”

Litkowski also commented on the opening of two new early learning childcare centres last summer, and how they’ve impacted the town’s economy.

He said, “we have a lot of debt, right now because of our two-day cares. They’re brand new. They’re nice, exciting things [but] they’re not full either.”

“We have room for about 200-plus children, and I don’t know if we’re half-full. I know daycares are needed, but we have to have some employment for the people who need daycare, too.”

Litkowski noted that for jobs, there’s “a few here and there as they pop up, but a lot of people don’t want to travel too far to go to work.”

“Sometimes they don’t have the proper transportation or things like that. We had a bus service here that lasted about, I’m gonna say six or seven months and they had to shut it down because it cost more than what it was taking in, so that made a difference locally, too.”

He said that affordable housing is another focus of his, commenting that, “we need affordable housing and my understanding is right now that, in our town, we have less than one per cent vacancy rate for rental properties.”

“I know we have some expensive homes in this town, but not everybody can afford the expensive homes. A large portion of our population is senior citizens and we have a good-sized percentage of single parents that live in this town and not all can afford everything that’s going on.”

Litkowski added that strengthening cultural ties and inclusivity is a key in his bid for mayor as well. He’s also encouraging all residents to go out and vote and “do their civic best to make the changes that they want.”

General election day across Alberta, including in Pincher Creek, is October 18.

More municipal election coverage is available here.