I come to Council as a Proud Wife, Mum, Sister, Entrepreneur, Mentor, Business Coach and Women Entrepreneur Advocate BUT I will lead as a fellow Grande Prairian, serve all residents of the City as a member of the Community and advocate towards building a Connected, Transparent, Entrepreneurial and Inclusive City – Ejibola
My Vision and what I hope to accomplish (my platform) can be summed up by these four pillars below ::
A connected city is a smart city, a city that utilizes technology to provide service, to protect, and to solve city issues. As a member of council, I will encourage the use of IoT sensors, video cameras, social media, and other inputs act as a nervous system, providing the city operator and citizens with constant feedback so they can make informed decisions.
We need more activities that can foster more socialization, integration, and communication of the people of Grande Prairie. We need more festivals where our youths can engage, explore, and be educated about life, culture, and issues beyond their classrooms. We need to have more connected conversations with the several groups that exist within the community because there are so many people with questions, so many people living in fear, stress, sadness, hyper excitement etc. City Council needs to take time to connect more. When I get to Council, I will make it a priority to encourage Council to connect and learn more about the various lives we serve, businesses, and organizations that exist within the community.
Crime rate and mental health deters a city from being strongly connected, as a member of Council, I will encourage research to be carried out in determining the age groups impacted and involved in these two areas and a workable solution to be implemented. We need to take a look into the Mobile outreach program, look at the data and how far they have gone and use those data to formulate more initiatives that can help address and lower the curve of crime rate and mental health within the city. As a member of Council, I will advocate engaging the Research and Innovation department at the Grande Prairie Regional College in City-wide research when it comes to crime rate, suicidal prevention, and mental health.
Transparency is openness, and openness is beneficial to any city in many ways; from whether taxes are being spent properly, to how positions in the city are being replaced, and what city decisions are being made.
I will work with Council to establish an asset management plan that is transparent, that shows all our assets in the city, their life cycle, the sustainable plans for the assets, and the succession plan for replacement in the next 10, 20, 30-50years.
No new infrastructure comes without a price tag; there are several needs in our community but limited resources to meet all these needs, it is Council’s responsibilities to set priorities and be transparent about those priorities. I will work with Council to establish a solid 10years capital plan that will be a true reflection and a good balance of the needs within the community and our available resources.
Accountability is key in winning the trust of the people; a community roundtable that feedback on progress, project impacts, spending, city ratings etc. should be a core activity at City Council. Listening to residents and receiving feedback is quite critical in the next 4years. Knocking doors only during elections every 4years shouldn’t be the norms, we should extend that even in the middle of the terms by continuing to hear residents’ concerns and to have a continuous dialogue, as a member of Council I hope to make that a practice. As a member of Council, I hope to encourage the creation of a City procurement Viewbook where anyone within the city can have access to the procurement policies and everyone can have a good knowledge of who bided for a contract, timeframe of SOW, life span of the asset/project work load, project spending, yearly project maintenance cost etc.
An entrepreneurial city is a city that is proactive in promoting the competitiveness of its economic space in the face of intensified inter and intra municipal competition. As a member of Council, I will push for innovative strategies intended to maintain and enhance the city’s competitiveness vis-a-vis other municipals and economic space.
The last 19months have been very challenging for small and medium businesses, and the next 4years will be very critical in building, growing and empowering businesses in an attempt to drive economic recovery, growth and development. Real economic development starts by recognizing where our entrepreneurs are and where they should be, and strategically formulating initiative and projects that can get them there. It is very critical that we put appropriate building blocks for economic recovery. I have been fortunate enough to sit on the Community Advisory Committee for 3years and I currently sit on the Economic Development and Strategic Planning Committee, those exposure have given me confident that the City of Grande Prairie can implements effectively and efficiently initiatives that can bring about growth for start-ups, small and medium enterprises. Bringing in resources, encouraging investments and investor programs, encouraging innovation especially as we navigate our way out of the impacts of the pandemic is very crucial. I will work with council to ensure that we have innovative, proven and workable ways to support businesses in our community. There is a need to have a retail hub for our Start-ups, and I am ready to champion that initiative once elected to Council.
As a member of Council, I will encourage a city that value all people and their needs and contributions equally.
To be inclusive is to create a safe, welcoming, and unified community, that all residents of Grande Prairie are proud to work, live, and raise a family. I will work with members of Council in ensuring that no one feels excluded, whether you are a senior, youth, or family unit at either the school, work or within the community.
I will work with Council to bring cohesive and inclusive voice to the table, act as a voice for all persons living in Grande Prairie, and speak on behalf of all residents. Council is made of 9 individuals including Mayor, it takes people who are team players and who put asides their differences and make decisions that are best for the community to work for the greater good; as such, I can assure you that I will be a great team player on Council work for and on behalf of the people of Grande Prairie.
A lot of residents do not feel inclusive because they are not safe, and that is a huge issue. As a member of Council, I will advocate for more police oversight, mental health support for the several community groups within Grande Prairie, more educational safety initiatives for youth, and better crosswalk signals within the neighborhood
ejibola.com 