A former county councillor is hoping to return to the table, representing a new division.
Eric Van Eaton moved out last year, ultimately forcing him to step down from serving as a councillor. However, in the upcoming municipal election, he has thrown his hat into the ring to represent Division Six.
“I never had a desire to particularly quit it. It was more that this is what we had to go through in order to switch ridings or divisions,” Van Eaton says.
He says what he enjoys about council is the challenge of tackling issues, hearing people’s concerns and seeing if there is a way to alleviate them.
“So while there’s some days that are very challenging in the work, there’s also some that are very rewarding when you see what all the effort went into actually coming together and being successful.”
Van Eaton says if elected, he will use his knowledge of the system and how to maneuver within it to represent the division.
“One of the toughest things on brand new councillors is dealing with the budget within the next month after being elected, and so having a broader understanding of that, I hopefully can participate at a better level than being completely new to it.”
According to Van Eaton, like any other level of government, the council is focused on serving the community and getting the maximum usage out of taxpayers’ dollars. In recent years, one of the biggest concerns that has been brought forward has been water and irrigation.
“At the municipal level, there is very little that we deal with water. The county has to have their water license like any other operator does,” Van Eaton says. “For the larger issue, shortages and all that, to the best of my understanding, that is not municipal whatsoever. If there’s collaboration available with the irrigation districts that we could support them, definitely look to some of those conversations if they can help.”
Van Eaton is one of two candidates running to represent in Division Six; he is running against William Raatz.
