Fred Sirett Sr., the long-time farmer and pastor, is looking to continue his service to the community as he runs for municipal office.
“I always felt I was a pastor to the community, ministry, another synonym for it is service or servant,” he said.
He says he got involved in Lloydminster as a founding member of The Olive Tree. As he became more involved in the community, it piqued his interest in council.
“As I got involved in it more and more, in how government worked, I had more and more questions about why we were doing certain things or how this worked,” Sirett explained.
He says when he began going to council meetings he realized there was an issue.
“I started going to council meetings and getting involved. I’m going, well this guy’s not even asking my questions, I’d like to ask some questions,” he said.
Sirett says he’s a public servant by nature and says this is how he can serve the city.
There are some issues within the community that Sirett outlines in his platform.
“There’s things that motivate me, and specifically now, it would be the street crime and security of our city,” he said. “Because of my social interests through The Olive Tree and being a pastor, I think I have a different perspective.”
Sirett says it’s embarrassing where the city is today with community safety.
“It’s embarrassing for our city where we are today, for people to be insecure and feeling unsafe, having attacks on their home, in person, in our streets, it has to be addressed,” he said.
Sirett says he’s been monitoring the situation and sees a big police presence.
“I see them addressing concerns, again, I think it’s been bad but I see there’s been some momentum going on,” he said.
He says the issue of homelessness and street crime are not unrelated but rather the issue is far more complex.
“They’re not unrelated for sure, homelessness and street crime are really not the same synonymous issues. Street crime has more to do with addictions, mental illness and lawlessness,” explained Sirett.
He says moving the shelter won’t change what happens on the street. He says the issue is more about working together and believing in the men’s shelter’s direction.
“I also believe it’s all about working together,” he said. “We have a new director in the men’s shelter, Kagan (Kneen), he’s made some moves already that I think address a lot of the concerns about the men’s shelter and bringing it back into its lane.”
Security is just one of the issues Sirett believes is important to the city, talking specifically about the financial situation.
“I see us going deeper and deeper in debt, we’ve almost doubled our debt In the last two years,” he said. “I haven’t heard a lot of guys really attack the council of tax spending in the past.”
He says it’s an area that needs to be improved.
“We’ll be spending four million dollars in bank payments this year, probably higher,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult to address some of those concerns without raising taxes or making big cuts.”
He says the first job of the newly-elected council will be to set the budget. The new council will also be dealing with the land use bylaw, something Sirett is interested in.
“I see it as a step backwards and something harmful,” he said. “I’m against it, I’m against the change in the zoning.”
Sirett talks more specifically about the issue of moving some of this to be decided by the development authority or development officer.
“We’ve just lost trust in government looking after our personal freedoms, after the things we’ve gone through in the last four or five years,” said Sirett. “I know the people are very nervous about doing that and I don’t see any need for it.”
He says there needs to be due process for somebody who is going to develop an area of residence and affect other people’s lives.
Sirett says he always wants Lloydminster to be a great place.
“I want Lloyd to always be a great place to raise children and to have families,” he said. “That’s a dream of most people and they’re stressed, and we need to be part of the team that helps, not the adversary,” he said.
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