Perrault seeking re-election as Swift Current’s mayor
Denis Perrault is seeking a second term as Swift
Current’s Mayor after announcing on Monday his intention to run in the upcoming municipal election.
Perrault, who was elected as mayor in 2016 after serving two terms on City council, admitted it was an easy decision to run again. He noted that COVID put a delay on the re-election intentions of many people, with decisions usually announced in the spring.
“I’ve loved serving on council. I’ve loved being the mayor for the City. It wasn’t that hard of a decision to decide to go again,” he said after announcing his re-election bid at Market Square on Monday.
He wants to continue to aggressively tell the Swift Current story and encourage businesses to chose Swift Current.
“It’s a hard thing to get an established business to chose to come here, and so you’ve got better odds with trying to find new businesses. Companies like ETG, companies like G3, we worked very hard to be able to get them here in Swift. And then I think it’s our job to work with our existing businesses to help them to grow. Whether they’re looking for new space here in the City, or they’re looking to do additions, they’re looking to do expansions. And it’s for that reason why we’ve got some of the fastest permitting processes in the province. We want to make it easy for business.”
“I want to continue to go out and bring more value added agriculture businesses to Swift. ETG’S been talking lots about some different things they could be doing. And I’ve heard that from many other of our companies here in the South. We are seeing a real demand worldwide for plant based protein.”
“The world needs everything that we have above our ground and everything below our ground. And I believe we as a Council and as a City we need to go out and market that.”
Perrault, who was first elected to City Council in 2009 and re-elected as a councillor in 2012 before running successfully as mayor in 2016, said further developing regional partnerships is also important. He points to work on a regional landfill and exploring other shared services provide benefits worth pursuing.
“I want to continue to work on our relationships with all of our southwest partners. I believe today we’re in better shape than we were in the past.”
“Quite frankly it means going out there and selling Swift and being and advocate for this community.”
He noted that Swift
Current, like numerous other communities, has to place a significant focus on infrastructure. However, they need both internal and external support to move forward on long range plan projects including a new Fire Hall, the Integrated Facility, and other community improvements.
“We’re in a community that’s 100 years old. What that means is underground there’s a lot of things that still need to get done. That costs money. Some of those large scale projects, those of course are going to cost money. I think we as a City need to continue to be advocates for Swift, what that means is going to the federal and provincial governments and sharing with them why we should be able to partner with them and why they should want to be partnering with us.”
He also highlighted those long range projects will work, provided the city continues to grow.
“We need more people here in Swift Current to be able to accomplish and do all the things that I want to see Swift Current be able to do.”