Mayor Shane Brienen says council is already starting to talk about ways of increasing the voter turnout following a very low participation at this month’s municipal election to choose six District of Houston councillors.
“It is a little disappointing,” Brienen said of a turnout of 326 people from an estimated eligible 2,272 voters.
That works out to a turnout of 14 per cent, roughly half of what it was the last time Houston went to the municipal election polls in 2018.
Brienen, who was returned by acclamation for a third term, did concede that the lack of a mayoral race may have dampened the turnout as the experience in municipal elections across the province is that voters generally pay more attention when there is a mayor contest.
“And it may also be a lack of controversy,” said Brienen of what has been a relatively low-key past four years with the exception of calls for better snow removal, a factor that resulted in new response times.
“Certainly when there’s a controversy, that gets people’s attention,” he said. “Without a controversy, when times are good or better, people may not pay attention.”
Regardless of the turn out, Brienen said he was looking forward to the next four years of working with a council that is a blend of experienced councillors and newcomers to municipal politics.
“It’s always great to have new people. They bring a new view to council as sometimes a council can just have one way of looking at things,” he said.
Of the six council members chosen by voters, two of them — Lisa Mueller and Rebecca Hougen — are also both relative newcomers, said Brienen, so they can also offer perspectives from different communities.
As for issues facing council and the District, Brienen said a crucial one is a successful conclusion to tax-sharing negotiations with the province.
Houston and other local governments along Hwy. 16 formed the North West Regional Resource Benefits Alliance in 2014 to lobby the province for a share of the resource taxation dollars that now flow south.
“I think that is the most important issue in the region,” Brienen said.
He’s a current co-chair of the alliance and says he’s more than willing to undertake that role again when the alliance chooses a new executive later this year.
Brienen and the new council will be officially sworn in during a ceremony Nov. 1 beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the community hall.
Here are the results following the vote count Oct. 15 of the six successful candidates:
* Jonathan Van Barneveld, 284 votes
* Tom Stringfellow, 256 votes
* Tom Euverman, 248 votes
* Lisa Mueller, 230 votes
* Troy Reitsma, 212 votes
* Rebecca Hougen, 181 votes
Unsuccessful at her first attempt was Daphne Tofsrud with 170 votes.