After serving eight years as councillor in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie, Ivan Normandeau says he is ready to make a change.
The veteran councillor has announced that he is running for the position of Reeve in the October civic elections.
Normandeau says he is particularly proud of the increased recreational opportunities during his time on council.
“I focus a lot on recreation,” he says. “I think we have a nice Hylife Centre, it’s beautiful with the rink and the baseball diamonds and paved parking lot. But also, we always want to keep up with drainage and roads. So, it’s not just about the town of La Broquerie, it’s about the whole R.M. We try to maintain the roads as best we can, we paved Carriere Road which a lot of people appreciate that.”
Normandeau has served as Deputy Reeve since January 2020, and he is currently President of the Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities, and the treasurer of Community Futures Triple R.
He says he is comfortable filling leadership roles and hopes to serve as Reeve for the R.M. of La Broquerie.
He strongly believes in making responsible financial decisions to make life better for the whole municipality.
"You always want to be fiscally responsible, right? It’s the taxpayer's money,” he says. “You don’t want to spend money that you don’t have, and you don’t want to spend frivolously. So, always want to be fiscally responsible and keep the taxes as low as you can.”
Normandeau believes thoughtful development will be important for the future of the municipality.
"I think development is good, but we also have to be conscious of where we’re developing and what we’re developing,” he says. “And make sure that we have the proper infrastructure in place to do that.”
Normandeau says he is looking forward to the election campaign and is hopeful that he will be able to serve the municipality as Reeve.