In the 2020 election, city council hasn’t changed very much, with four people returning to council seats - Darcy Zaharia, Ken Chyz, Quinn Haider and Randy Goulden - and one former councillor taking the mayor’s chair with Mitch Hippsley. But there was room for a bit of change in the council race, with two open seats on council. Those seats have been filled by Chris Wyatt and Dustin Brears.
Wyatt is a familiar face on Yorkton City Council, having been both a former mayor and a council member. He said he missed being on council, but that he also felt it was important to get back to making decisions.
“I had the itch to run again after seeing some of the decisions being made and the way administration was handling stuff being presented to council, so I put my name back in.”
Wyatt’s immediate priority is to look into city expenditures, and holding the line on taxation for 2021.
“I think those savings can be found internally, and I’m fully confident that if we task administration to do so we can do that without affecting service in any way.”
Wyatt’s position in 2016 was very similar to that of Aaron Kienle in this election, with a slim margin keeping them from the position on the final ballot. He said that’s something you can expect when it’s two council members taking a run at the mayor’s chair, comparing it also to the races between Randy Goulden and James Wilson or Janet Hill and Phil De Vos.
For himself, he wasn’t worried, because his position was mid-pack for most of the evening, and generally when you’re in the middle of the pack it’ll trend that way through the evening.
While the new guy once again, he said he doesn’t believe it will be a hard transition, as he knows most of the council already and has worked with Goulden before.
“I think it’s going to work really well, this council.”
The new face on council is Dustin Brears. Having narrowly lost the council seat in 2016, Brears took a second run at a council chair this year. He said that this is part of a long-standing interest in local government.
“I’m really excited to get going and work hard for the city, and making sure we have a really good place for our kids to grow up and to raise a family.”
Brears said his immediate focus will be on research, learning the processes for sitting on council, learning how the city operates and learning the right questions to ask to make the right decisions.
“I’m the rookie! I’m lucky that I know everybody around the council table, just through experience and working on city committees and through personal life and work adventures, but I am the new guy. I have already talked to all of the other councillors and said that I will be leaning on them for help and support getting going and making sure that I understand the rules of the road. They all welcomed me with open arms and we’re all really looking forward to working together.”
Like 2016, he was in a close race, with several candidates vying for the last council position. He said it was especially stressful with the delay for the advance poll results, but that it was exciting when the final poll came in and he saw he won.
“It was really stressful on election night. I sat and watched the results with my family and there were three or four of us in a really tight race all night.”
Several candidates were in Brears’ position at the end of the evening, barely missing out on a council position. He thanks them for running in the election, and said it would be great to see them still work for the city by joining committees.
“I took a chance and ran again and I certainly hope in the next election they do as well, because there were a lot of worthy candidates who were running.”
He thanks the city for its support, especially as someone who grew up outside of town, being born and raised in Bredenbury.
“Being the outsider, I was very lucky to be elected in, and my name wasn’t necessarily recognized around the city. I feel that getting involved in the Chamber of Commerce and various channels in the city helped me get my name recognized.”
