Council hopeful Jason Phillips filed his forms last week, launching his bid for a seat on town council.
Council hopeful Jason Phillips filed his forms last week, launching his bid for a seat on town council.
“How The West Can Be ” is the theme of Phillips' campaign, centered on the tenets of advocating for responsible growth, pushing the province to speed up the delivery of roads improvement, and advocating for 24-hour urgent care services.
“I've always been interested in politics, ” said the 28-year-old stay-at-home father and Mount Royal University business administration student, who said he was encouraged by his father-in-law to turn his passion into pursuit.
The 2007 Bow Valley High School grad would take a comprehensive approach to rallying the province for roads - not only the intersection at highways 1A/22, but twinning of Highway 1A through town and exploring traffic congestion issues where George Fox Trail meets Highway 22.
“On an average Saturday, it can take me 30 minutes to get from Fireside to Safeway, ” said Phillips, who is concerned that the subsequent phases of Fireside would add to this corridor of traffic congestion.
At the top of his list is pushing advocacy for 24-hour urgent care services.
“As a parent, I'm a big proponent of being able to go to urgent care at 1 a.m. … you need that access as a parent, ” said Phillips, who himself has experienced taking his six-year-old daughter, Adelynn, into Calgary for late night emergency health care.
Beyond advocating for round-the-clock care, he would like to see the town work with Alberta Health Services to attain the manpower required to operate ultrasound machines and to begin providing that service to a community with growing young families - and countless pregnant women driving into Calgary for care that could be delivered in town.
Phillips, who first moved to Cochrane in 2003, leaving for school and study abroad for a few years post-graduation and returning full-time in 2012, said he would look to a transit feasibility study first before giving the green light to a full-scale public transit project.
“Cochrane needs something … if transit is not feasible there are other ways to get seniors and youth around town, ” he said, adding that pared-down transit options could be explored, as well as taxi cab vouchers.
Upon his return to residing in Cochrane five years ago, Phillips said he was “shocked ” to see the rapid growth that was well underway.
“We need to slow (growth) down because it's getting ahead of our infrastructure, ” he said, adding that business/industrial, health sector and policing add to roads as playing catch up to keep pace.
Phillips said he is supportive of initiating more town task forces and committees. He would take a special interest in sitting on a policing task force, to better bridge communication and inform strategic planning among police, bylaw officers and the public. He would also be involved with anything to do with growth and regional growth, including growth on the town's borders.
Transparency is high on Phillips' list - where he would like to see both council and administration boost public engagement.
Citing the recent dog park “disaster ” in the west end of town as an example of poor public engagement, Phillips said he will look to connect with the Off Leash Advocacy Group and would work with the town to create more multi-use spaces where dogs could go off leash.
Coun. Morgan Nagel's recent motion for more council meetings was met with favourability by the council hopeful, who would welcome a third monthly meeting and would suggest seeing it during daytime hours and on a different day of the week.
To learn more about Phillip's campaign, visit jasonphillips.ca or Facebook/votejasonphillips.
