Well, I am humbled by the tremendous support of Division 6 and will strive to be a good County Councillor for our communities and our region.
Thank you!
To Mr. Fleetwood, thank you for your service these past four years. You have my respect. I wish your family and you well, and appreciate your significant commitment to the success of Vulcan County. I hope to work with you in other endeavours for the sake of Alberta’s future.
As for the next four years, I look forward to working with a very dynamic group as we tackle the challenges ahead of us. Congratulations to Jodie Gateman and Shane Cockwill on winning your division races.
My website will remain as a tool for me to use in communicating with ratepayers. I appreciate the conversations that I have enjoyed with you. There will be many more, this I am sure. I look forward to helping navigate our way forward and will rely on you for your input.
I am running to be your Division 6 County councillor. My motivation for running is my determination to see economic development and community growth keep Vulcan County a vibrant place to live, to raise a family, and to realize economic opportunity.
This determination is born over the last 10 years. It is a journey that began as a volunteer in the Milo and District Agricultural Society and a life-long member of the Milo community. For nine years I have served in local government, working first for the Village of Milo, then the Villages of Arrowwood and Milo, and now the Village of Arrowwood. I also live on and help operate our family farm 11 kilometres southwest of Milo, where my great-grandfather homesteaded in 1906.
I love my community and this region we call home. Volunteering in the community has been a privilege, and I appreciate the friendships that come with it. I also have had the good fortune of serving three years on the Vulcan County Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, being a great education on the appeal process.
I respect my opponent in this election. Ryan Fleetwood is a good and honourable guy. He has served us well, and I can tell you that he is a considerate and respected voice at the table. He loves Alberta. He loves this county where we both share deep roots. I wish him well on his campaign.
I am running on my experience in local government. I believe I have something to offer over the next four years that will help move the ball forward for future generations. I believe in the importance of inter-municipal collaboration and “limited local” government.
With the province mandating inter-municipal collaboration in 2017, along with the completion of Intermunicipal Development Plans and Collaborative Frameworks with adjacent municipalities, it is my belief that we need to forge meaningful collaborative partnerships between our municipalities.
I believe our priorities should be:
1.) Establishing Vulcan County as an attractive place to invest so we can continue to grow our tax base.
2.) Strategic land-use planning that minimizes conflict between competing land uses and adjacent land owners while maximizing mutually beneficial investment opportunities.
3.) See fair and reasonable cost sharing for joint services that includes municipal partners in the long term capital planning process.
4.) Lobby with municipal partners for responsive action from the RCMP on rural crime and public education in crime prevention strategies.
5.) Build political consensus for an emergency response to the COVID 19 pandemic that respects the central role of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
Big government and regionalization are not the answer. Intermunicipal collaboration and limited local government is a critical piece going forward, keeping our communities viable and thriving.
For right now, I hope to get people thinking about the strategic direction of our county and where we need to go as a region.
To have a conversation, feel free to call me at 403-990-0720. For more information, check out my website, christophernorthcott.com.
I decided to run for Division 6 County Councillor against an incumbent who has served us well.
Had the pleasure of speaking with Ryan Fleetwood on Saturday, shortly after he got home from hospital, and I am thankful that he is at home and recovering. Newly married, with a beautiful family, he loves Alberta, his rural roots, and I have witnessed first hand the positive contribution he has made to council discussions and the committees on which he sits. Being prior to Monday’s federal election result , we agreed that elections can be a healthy antidote to cynicism; I am hopeful that this will be the case here. Looking forward to some very interesting conversations over the next four weeks.
My motivation for running is my belief in the importance of limited local government and inter-municipal collaboration, not only as a means to promote community growth and economic development in rural Alberta, but as the best way to keep municipal corporations responsive to the needs of ratepayers while respecting the significant differences between urban and rural municipalities. I am running on my experience in local government and, if nothing else, I hope to get people thinking about the strategic direction of our County and what meaningful collaboration will mean for rural ratepayers.
Fortunately, however the vote goes on October 18th, I believe Division 6 will get good quality representation.
My opponent and I share the good fortune of having deep roots in the success of Vulcan County.
Born in 1881 and arriving in Canada in 1903, my Great Grandfather, Charles James (C. J.) Northcott, homesteaded here in 1906.
He married Clara Fremstad in 1908, celebrating on her family’s homestead east of Carmangay before riding a horse and wagon north, across the Little Bow, and beginning their life together in the MD of Marquis. The construction of an irrigation reservoir was on the horizon, what would prove to be a significant driver of economic development and community growth in Southern Alberta.
The picture below is a map of Alberta from 1930.
C. J. Northcott ran the Lake McGregor Post Office which appears on the map.
In 2003, I was hired by Professor Stan Drabek to work on a report for the Federation of Calgary Communities. We looked at “community councils” in Portland, OR, Aukland, NZ, and Tokyo, JP, explaining how these might work in Calgary, devolving some local matters to community councils that wished to form within a larger municipal entity.
It went nowhere.
The City of Calgary considered it a threat to the centralized authority and control they exercised over what once were flourishing and unique communities.
I remain thankful for the independence of Vulcan County, the Town of Vulcan, and the five villages. Bureaucratic behemoths do not serve the public good. The dollars are much harder to follow and local connection is lost.
One of the great struggles we face is building political consensus that respects:
– the importance of “limited local government,” and
– the collaborative frameworks that make smaller government viable.
If you haven’t seen the report put out in July by Lt. Col. David Redman and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, please check it out.
Lt. Col. Redman is a decorated soldier who was the Alberta’s first Director of Emergency Management. He set up our program of emergency management and has written a lengthy indictment of how our response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled.
It is my view that the Redman report clearly outlines what went wrong and how we, be it the provincial government itself or municipalities pressuring the provincial government, can rectify such a poor response to this crisis.
If you were infuriated by the recent “emergency alert” that was put out to Albertans (the jarring ring tone over your phone!), you will appreciate that doing so was an exercise in fear mongering. It was an abuse of a system intended to alert us to an IMMEDIATE threat to life and property, be it wildfires, tornadoes or even kidnappings.
A lot has transpired since March of 2020. I think we all are perfectly aware that the province is in a state of emergency. Fear mongering is what Redman calls an “unconscionable tool to use” in emergency management.
Local government in Alberta is subject to the Emergency Management Act, having direct access to the Alberta Emergency Alert system. We work directly with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
Given my time in municipal government, I am well-versed in the regular training that is required of municipalities and can participate effectively in council discussions about emergencies.
Pandemics are contemplated in the provincial emergency management plan. This should have triggered a State of Emergency under the Emergency Management Act, not a Public Health Emergency under the Public Health Act.
Local government is ideally positioned to seek accountability for how the pandemic has been managed. Everything the province expects of us, they themselves did not do!
, we agreed that elections can be a healthy antidote to cynicism; I am hopeful that this will be the case here. Looking forward to some very interesting conversations over the next four weeks. 
