With a little bit of pomp and circumstance, Swift Current introduced their new city council at a swearing in tonight.
Entering to bagpipe music, Mayor Al Bridal, incumbent councillors Ryan Plewis, Ryan Switzer, Leanne Tuntland-Wiebe, Tom Christiansen, returning councillor Bruce Deg and newcomer Courtney Stewart all swore their oaths of office.
"It's always significant to be sworn in," Bridal said. "I'm excited about it. I'm ready to get to work. There are some things we have to do in our community and I'm excited. It's a little bling on, everybody dressed up and looking pretty good, and we do the oath of office. I like tradition and a tradition like this is a show of respect for the position of councillor or mayor. I believe it's very important."
After each candidate swore their oath, Bridal gave a speech to launch their new four-year term.
"I would like to thank everyone who put their names forward to serve their community," he said. "My gratitude includes all ten of the 2024 municipal election candidates. It takes a great deal of courage to put your name out there and ask for support. I applaud your resolve and willingness to let your name stand.
"We've been granted trust for the citizens of Swift Current that we will be ready to work, ready to listen and ready to make decisions that affect the quality of life for our community. It is an honor responsibility that we all need to take very seriously. As mayor and council... we will be accountable to people who are feeling affordability pressures, evaluating their own expenses, possibly their own debts, and possibly even their future here in Swift Current. History may or may not remember us fondly, depending on the decisions we make around this table."
Bridal sees an advantage in having four incumbents on council.
"It helps a lot because we had a really good team last time," he said. "It's a team. We work together, we sit down, and we discuss things. Anybody that plays sports when you can play with some of the greatest athletes in the world, but if you don't know how they play you can't have a good game. This is sort of the same way. We could have way better candidates here than even myself, but these four councillors know who I am and know how I work. I know how they work. It's going to be a lot easier for us to work together."
There are two new faces on council. Deg, who served on council from 2016 to 2020, and Stewart.
"Throw them right to the fire" joked Bridal. "We have boards and committees they are all going to have to sit on. I'll decide which ones that these people go on. I discuss with all my councillors things that are happening. With the new ones, if they have any issues or troubles with anything, I'm open for them to call me. I'll call them. We have good administration that can help them or myself or seasoned councillors. It's a team. We're going to work together as a team."
A potential new leisure facility or aquatic centre was the hot topic of the most recent election. Bridal wouldn't tip his hat yet on how they would move forward in attention to get it built.
"The levy idea has been bounced around for several years," he noted. "It's something that other cities have done and that is definitely something that we are going to discuss as council. When we get it discussed as council and we come up with a solution, I will tell you what that solution is or what that vote is, but you're not hearing from it my lips until the time that council and I discuss it."
Council will spend the next two days going through orientation. Their first full meeting is next Monday. Bridal says they will be getting right to work making decisions that day.