| Position | Candidate Name | Responded |
|---|---|---|
| Mayor | Dave Douglass | ✅ |
| Dylan Harty | ❌ | |
| Usman Mahmood | ❌ | |
| Tina Petrow | ❌ | |
| Eeshnah Qureshi | ❌ | |
| Vern Raincock | ❌ | |
| Heather Spearman | ✅ |
Question 1
What work experience do you have that’s relevant to the role and how do you feel the skills and perspective you have gained will help you in your role?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Successful small business owner for 20 plus years
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: I have been working in Business to Business consulting since 2010. I have worked with everyone from SMB to Public Sector and Tender processes, to global Fortune 500 organizations. Having worked in multimillion dollar discussions means I understand what’s at stake, I understand that we need to think beyond our own city limits, and that we need to deliver results and have accountability, while staying on budget and acting with urgency.
Question 2
What do you think are the biggest issues affecting Airdrie are, and how would you approach these issues?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Cost of living - Will not raise property taxes for the first time in at least 8 years by the current council. Will try to lower property tax and service charges for our seniors. School overflow - need to balance our residential growth with the building of new and expansion of existing schools. Focus more on commercial development. Rec-center/rec services - Need to find a stop gap for our citizens until the new SW rec-center is built
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: Growth is the largest source of our challenges, but also our greatest opportunities. I have been saying since I launched my campaign that we need to address the woefully imbalanced residential tax base by aggressively growing and supporting commercial and industrial growth. I have a broad strategy for this, and due to my professional experience in business consultation, I have multiple avenue of understanding to help us build relationships and toolsets to get us there. This includes leveraging the Greater Calgary pilot project, shovel-ready development of land, identifying and reducing bloat in business approval processes at the city level, and maximizing our resources like access to highway 2 and international airport.
Question 3
What do you think is the role of a municipal government? Do you think the City does too many things, not enough, or just the right amount?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Probably not enough. I wish we had more control or say in our healthcare and schooling
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: This is nuanced. There’s a document called the Municipal Governance Act. Every candidate should have read this in full to understand what’s in our control and what’s not. It also defines our role as a governing body. However other levels of government have been downloading costs to municipalities to have to manage (like housing, as an example). The other piece that matters here is that every 4 years council determines it’s strategic focus areas. When these are defined you can then measure against them. I say all this because everyone needs to understand that cities are being forced to do more than is defined in the act. We’re genuinely doing more with less. So are we doing more than we need to? In many areas: YES. But because these are priorities it means that less urgent items can get pushed, making it look like we aren’t doing enough. Anyone who gets elected October 20th will learn this one way or another.
Question 4
Do you think property taxes are too high, too low, or just about right?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Too high. Our city council was supposed to help with the cost of living, not add to it.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: It’s about Value for taxes. For everything the city has built and accomplished in these 4 years I’d say the value for dollars is pretty good. BUT: affordability isn’t getting any easier in this country or province, so while I don’t think the taxes are out of control, I do think any increase is hard on households right now.
Question 5
Over the next four years, should the City spend less in absolute terms, increase spending but by less than the rate of inflation and population growth, increase by the rate of inflation and population growth, or increase faster than the rate of inflation and population growth?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Spend less as long our city services are being met
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: The industry standard is that spend should be inflation rate + growth rate. So for example, if you have a city that has shrunk by .5% but inflation is 2%, the tax increase for that year would be typical at 1.5% In Airdrie’s case, inflation is I believe 1.7% and our growth is about 5% so I expect the next council would land around a 6.7% increase. That all said, just because something is industry best practice doesn’t mean it make sense for that year. Folks just have to decide what matters most to them.
Question 6
The City often claims that they’ve found savings in various budgets, but instead of actually cutting spending, they just put the savings into a reserve account and then spend that money on other things. If there’s money left over at the end of a financial year, do you think that money should be saved up by the City to spend in future years? Or should it be returned automatically to taxpayers the following year through some kind of rebate?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: I think it should be brought to the residents to decide what to do with the short fall.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: The city has $1 billion dollars in capital projects ahead of them in the next 10 years. If they don’t put those extra funds towards future projects, and instead they return it through rebates, that means they will equally have sharp increases in the years that those projects get built. That’s irresponsible. The goal should be predictable and steady so nobody gets blind-sided.
Question 7
Everyone says they support affordable housing, but what does that term mean for you? Do you think the City should be subsidizing housing for lower-income residents? Or focused on keeping the cost of all housing from getting out of control? Or perhaps some combination of the two? If so, how?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: I believe a combination of the 2. By allowing steady growth it will keep the housing market from rising to much, allowing new home buyers to purchase homes.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: Affordable housing at the city actually means “below market housing”. No, the city should not be paying for this, but the province hasn’t been doing enough, and so municipalities are forced to pick up the slack. When people go unhoused it doesn’t mean they go away, it means cities have bigger issues to deal with. We need to mitigate these problems before they happen. At the same time, everyone in airdrie deserves a decent standard of living while being able to afford housing. A city can’t control the housing market but it can control how it supports diversity in housing choice. Supply & demand matter. All that to say: a combination of the two until such time as the province and Feds are able to take on more of the weight.
Question 8
How do you view the role of public sector unions in City operations, and what steps would you take to ensure union negotiations do not compromise fiscal responsibility?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: I believe they are very important, and I would actually listen to their concerns and be a part of any negotiations. They are not just unionized workers. They are members of the community and I work for them.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: There are only a few unions involved at city of Airdrie. Firefighters, police, and transit. If staff feel reasonably heard and supported, they don’t feel the need to go to a union model.
Question 9
Businesses are facing rising costs and supply chain challenges due to escalating U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods. What, if anything, should Council do to help local businesses manage these impacts?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: Buy local and find other markets.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: This is way beyond the control of a municipal government. Even Canada as a whole is trying to address this through interprovincial alliances and opportunities and will still never make up for the loss of US sales. At best, the city can work to build a business ecosystem where businesses can see more spend within the city and region, keeping our dollars here. We can remove barriers to our processes when possible, and be collaborative, but we can’t do cash hand outs to address tariff impacts, for example.
Question 10
What steps should Council take to reduce regulatory burdens and support small businesses? Please explain your reasoning.
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: I have felt with this first hand. Cut red tape, make city hall more small business friendly, listen and work with our existing small business, while helping new start ups and bringing investors into the city.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: Reduce small business license fees, address process audits to ensure more streamlined approvals and reviews (that are within our control), designate key staff to a small business efficiency plan to move through things faster!
Question 11
Do you think the City should be making long-term climate commitments like “net zero by 2050”? How much of a priority should climate change be for City Hall compared to other issues like affordability, public safety, or infrastructure?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: No, I believe we can do this with out government over reach. We all know we need to take care of our environment. We don't need any government telling us how to recycle, use energy efficient vehicles and buildings.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: Critical infrastructure and safety and basic operations always come first. Climate best practices make sense in broader strategies.
Question 12
Municipal elections have historically been contested by independents, but many of our supporters have told us that they’d like to know the political alignment of the candidates as it helps them get a better feel for a candidate's beliefs. So, are you are affiliated with any provincial or federal political parties and, if so, which ones and why?
Mayor
1 To Be Elected
Dave Douglass: I am not affiliated. I am a centralist, but have voted conservative mostly in the past years.
Dylan Harty: No response.
Usman Mahmood: No response.
Tina Petrow: No response.
Eeshnah Qureshi: No response.
Vern Raincock: No response.
Heather Spearman: No. I’ve owned memberships and watch all parties with great interest. It’s important to me to understand what directives our governments have so I know how to position Airdrie’s needs in a mutually beneficial way. I’m Team Airdrie.