Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host, Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off the same way we start every episode off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly doesn't mean the world to me on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:19 Oh, she caught me, loves near listened to the next any morning show
Speaker 0 00:00:29 And we're back Tanner. That was a huge Yon man
Speaker 3 00:00:32 All day.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 I love it. Okay. Um, I'm really excited about this guest that we have today. Cause I really haven't spent any time with this gentleman. I'm about to learn a lot about him and I know he's running for council, so I can't wait to hear all about that. As you guys know at home, I don't introduce my guests because they can do a better job at that than I so on that note, sir, can you please tell everybody who you are and what you're all about?
Speaker 3 00:00:52 Good morning, everyone. Um, my name is Alex McKenzie and I'm running for council for one of six seats on ward one. Uh, first off, I just want to say, I really like how you do your shout out first in the morning. I think that's fantastic. Most everyone they go on there and don't thanks for joining. It seems so robotic, but you, you do a full shout out. You say thanks for joining. Like that's amazing to me. Uh, yeah. I, I hope you keep that up. That's a nice, nice little ad that you do right at the start to really thank your listeners for coming on.
Speaker 4 00:01:22 I'm not so thankful, but whatever.
Speaker 3 00:01:25 Well, at least you're honest. We, you might be saying that you're tired. Right? You've been yawning the whole morning since I've been here. Everybody loves
Speaker 4 00:01:32 Me because of my honesty. So
Speaker 3 00:01:34 It's best policy. Right?
Speaker 0 00:01:35 So Alex, tell me a little bit about yourself. I know nothing about you, my man. How long have you been in Fort McMurray? What's your background? Like
Speaker 3 00:01:41 Who are you? Sure. So I'm originally from Edmonton, uh, born and raised there. Um, uh, and through my work in 2007, I actually was offered to come up. What kind of work is that? Uh, so I'm in flow control. Uh, at the time it was pressure relief. Uh, anyone that works at the plants refineries and the instrumentation world will be pretty familiar with that. Otherwise it's probably, I get a lot of deer in the headlights for those people that are just not familiar with what I do. Right. And that's fine. That's okay. That's all good. It does well for me. Yeah. Uh, 2007, I got an offer to come up and take over the company's operations here. So to be honest, it was, it, it wasn't going to happen. I had the company flew me up, come up for a weekend or so, and I probably saw the worst this town had to offer, especially in 2007, 2007.
Speaker 3 00:02:28 Yeah. We were staying at some friend's places. Uh, there was trouble on the street when we drove around and there was, we were driving me and my wife down on a hill drive drug deal, right in front of us stopping traffic and everything. Like it was, it was not the best that this town could offer. So after we flew back, I said, no, that's not going to happen. Of course I was pre uh, as prejudiced against the place. Cause in Edmonton, that's what we all knew was Fort McMurray was just BoomTown, just crazy town. Right. So I wasn't impressed. And it was my wife that says, you know, you know what, the opportunity is good. That's right. It out. Let's not let a bad weekend ruin it for what it could be. So frankly you could probably thank her for the reason why I'm sitting in this spot because she's the one that convinced me to, uh, to, uh, come on by.
Speaker 3 00:03:11 So, uh, so yeah, I've been here since 2007, so 13 coming on 14 years. Uh, and I'm really glad I did move up. It's a great town. It really is. Uh, I've done the best that I can do my career. I've been given opportunities that never be given elsewhere, right. Uh, to progress. And, uh, it's given me an opportunity to be more involved in the community where I normally wouldn't. Um, so for the most part I've lived here, uh, I lived on waterways. Okay. Um, so you've been through some, so just like, just like you in a it's through the fire. I walked through that road. Walk those shoes too. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we had the flood last year, uh, and even before the fire, there was some flooding. It didn't affect waterways as bad. It more Hitler towns say by home hardware and such, but still it's still, it's still we've we've gone through is as a community, a lot of, um, a lot of adverse offense. Yeah. And it just, it just keeps getting worse. We just get hit over and over and over again. But we're tough crew. We are very tough period. That's what I love. One of the things I love around the town.
Speaker 0 00:04:14 So I am asking every candidate that comes in the same question. When you run for council, got the spotlight on you, a lot of scrutiny, you're going to make some people happy with your decision. Some people sad. People are going to look into your background. Why, well, what about this job is appealing to you? Why do you want to do it? Why are you taking on or trying to take on this huge position? It's, it's a big, it's a big deal.
Speaker 3 00:04:40 It is a big deal. Um, municipal government has always been something that I was really interested even from a little kid. So I was a little tyke. My whole thought was I was one of those SIM sitting hurts. If you could imagine the city planning and a city operation, I've always been interested in mine. Right. Uh, but, and I even, I went to university to do get into engineering for that role until I realized what engineering is all about. And some people might laugh at me or judge me, whatever, because I did the first year was Mike dropped not interested. So that's how I got into flow control. Cause it was really, I, I had no plan B. Right. Uh, but that that's park never really left me. What really activated me to be honest was after the fire, as you know, uh, there was a lot of back and forth and a lot of confusion, nobody really seemed to know what was going on.
Speaker 3 00:05:29 And so, uh, being affected by the fire and, and kind of the, the shoe dragging that the municipality was doing, I started, it started to get me activated said, well, I, maybe I should do something about this. It's something I know I'm interested in. It's something that I know I can make a difference in. Yeah. And so maybe something to do it. So I actually was very, a very loud advocate for the rebuilding waterways, for instance. Um, I spoke, uh, in front of council a of times saying like, let's go hoop, get off the pot. If you may, as, you know, like we have to sit for almost six months while they decided what they want to do. And in some of our areas that's right. So, and it was very frustrating. And, and so that's what got me started and into really getting interested.
Speaker 3 00:06:14 Yeah. There was a municipal election coming up and it, it popped on my radar at that time was like, well, you know, let's, I want to do that. But being an unknown, what are my chances? Right? So like, like most people that really want something, you gotta work to what you get. So at that point I had applied for a few of the, uh, appeal boards that the municipality has. First one was the subdivision development appeal board, which is right up my alley because enjoying and having a knack for that boring and dry land use planning stuff. Yeah. I figured that'd be a great start. Yeah. Uh, the municipality thought that was a great idea for me to join on board. So I joined. Okay. Very cool. And, uh, I very much enjoyed that and that that setting an atmosphere is there's a lot of analogs to what you'll find on city council.
Speaker 3 00:07:00 Uh, it's all, it was around the horseshoe before we all have to leave and was at home and it was the same kind of environment. And it was something that I said, you know, this is something I really like. Um, I, after the first year, uh, I'd already got moved up and became the chair of that board. Right. In the meantime I joined on with the assessment review board and then most, most notable or most lately was the community standards, appeal, community or committee. And I I'm using a, you used that as a great way to build that experience and know what kind of, what is the requirements are, what it takes to, to be in that role. That's a good approach, man. So really mature approach. Well, thank you. Yeah. I've learned a ton through being with these boards. I've met some amazing people that, uh, uh, that support the boards and, um, it's been overall a great experience.
Speaker 3 00:07:52 Yeah. Um, unfortunately if I, uh, do get elected, I do have to resign those roles, which, uh, I'm going to have a lot of sentimental value. I might even cry a little bit, maybe not outwardly, but it'll happen. There might be a tier two. Yeah. There you go. Um, so, and then I, with this election coming up, being on these boards is also introduced me to a lot more of the people in the community. That's right. And so at that point it was approached and folks had known that it had been an aspiration that, you know, I want to be in a municipal politics and that would be the level I'd sit at as municipal politics. I don't know if I'd be interested going into further up. Yeah. Um, but they knew right. While that was an interest. So I'd been approached by a number of folks saying you should do it.
Speaker 3 00:08:37 And in fact, it was a running joke when I got onto those boards amongst my friends. It's like, this is you start here next stop city hall. Yeah. So, uh, to me it just felt like a natural progression. And then still your second point, uh, your second question in regards to the scrutiny and being in the public eye. Absolutely. It's I by nature, fairly private person. So getting out on Facebook, it's, I've never been a social media person to begin with. So getting out Facebook and getting out in the public profile is, is a little bit new to me, but I'm embracing it. I'm getting lots of good feedback. And there's always a few people that just go out of the way to make a nuisance themselves a hundred percent. Uh, that's the, that's the name of the game? I, yeah, the trolls. Um, but I I've heard from, there's lots of politicians out there that says, uh, you know, you can, you're going to guaranteed to be upsetting at least 25% of the people at any given time.
Speaker 3 00:09:29 That's right. That might be different people, but you're always going to have that chunk of people that are not going to like what you do. That's right. And I understand that. I respect that. And, um, they're more than happy to have those opinions and I respect those opinions. Nobody has to like, not everyone has to like me. That's right. And comfortable with that. Yeah. I'm comfortable with that. And if I can do something to change their opinion yeah. Then I'd be happy to do that as well. You're going with your eyes wide open. Absolutely. There we go. All right. My man, we're at the part of the show. Uh, Tanner has his segment. It's called the Mac city minute. I don't know what he's going to ask you. So I wish you the best of luck Tanner and with the Mac city minute
Speaker 4 00:10:04 Question. Number one. What was your biggest misconception you had at Fort McMurray?
Speaker 3 00:10:10 My misconception would be so growing up in Edmonton, it was always that you go up there to work. It was a dirty place. Couldn't do nothing I'm just full of roughnecks and folks that are just destructive. So again, my first impression kind of emphasize that, but it took very, it was very quickly after moving here that, uh, that was not the case so that I would say that, is it right? In a nutshell, questioning
Speaker 4 00:10:40 Number two, what is one way the community influenced your choice to run for council?
Speaker 3 00:10:47 I would say that, uh, it's just the support. Uh, I, the folks that have that support me and, and know what I'm about, they know that it's a job that I can do. So, uh, I've heard that there's some folks who say, well, I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it because other people do it. No I'm doing, cause I want to do this. I want to make sure that I can do the best for my community. And I have folks that, and I have friends and supporters that are there to back me as well. Just to keep me, keep me focused.
Speaker 4 00:11:19 Question number three. What is your favorite part of living important? Mary's oldest neighborhood.
Speaker 3 00:11:26 It was the history, unfortunately we've lost that through the fire. Uh, there was, there was still old cabins from the old settlement times, uh, that were down there. And it was just the unique nature of the way that it had developed. And it was more of a, a natural development. It was, I'm sure it was planned to some extent, but it was very much just a hodgepodge. You would expect to see that as a little out of the way, small town near ghost town, the middle of nowhere. But yet here is this lovely little community in waterways. Uh, that was right, right. Close to everything, but it had its own unique character. Now that being said, it's, it's regrown. And, uh, I've got to know so many more people in the community because we've gone through so much and there's so much new that's being built amongst the neighborhood that, um, it's still fantastic. It's it's still a great place to live. I like it as well because, because it's small, it doesn't have the hustle and bustle of being in the city, but still being in the city, I'm close to trails. I'm, I'm a, Stone's throw away from trails behind my house. Um, I'm close to going hiking. I'm close to a lot of my friends and stuff like that. So, uh, it's, it's a great community and I'm glad that I did move down there.
Speaker 4 00:12:43 Question number four. What is one way you think Fort McMurray is better than Edmonton?
Speaker 3 00:12:51 These, the ability and the opportunity that people have here, there is so many great opportunities for people to come up and build their careers, build their skill sets and an environment that is, is very supportive. There's a lot of it's, it's high stress. That's what we do in the industry and stuff like that. But you can come here and, and really do well and really progress yourself a lot faster than Edmonton plus here it again, it's close knit communities. So I get to know people on a lot more personal level. Like for instance, on my street, we know everybody on the street. It is, it is absolutely the best in Edmonton. Growing up in Edmonton, I lived on one street for 13 years growing up and barely knew my neighbors. So there's that sense of community, amongst many things. Those are some of the greatest things that I like about here that are better than Edmonton.
Speaker 4 00:13:46 Your final question. What has been your favorite part of campaigning for your spot on city council?
Speaker 3 00:13:53 My favorite part, that's actually a great question. My favorite part is the ability to get out and network. I'm getting to meet you guys. Uh, I've met so many people in the community, uh, business members, industry partners, um, and folks that have a lot that a lot of folks that really want to see our community grow and build and, and get past the current slump that we're in. And there's a lot of energy right now. There's a lot of desire for change. And, uh, I feel that I can definitely be part of that change and I want to support those people.
Speaker 4 00:14:23 And those have been your five questions.
Speaker 3 00:14:25 Wonderful. That was pretty easy. Actually. I've seen some of your questions and you've left some people a little bit stunned. It's usually the goal. I initially, I just have to say initially I was going to come in with five canned answers that were completely irrelevant. So like the first one, I was just going to say, well, Tanner, my favorite food is pizza. Oh, wait a minute. That would have been, uh, what was the question?
Speaker 4 00:14:46 We're never mad about food answers though. We love food.
Speaker 3 00:14:50 Oh, I'm, I'm a huge fan of food you go to place to eat out. Then right now it's been 57 north. Oh, that's been, that's kind of the favorite one in town in town. My family. There we go. Get there. Yes. Yes. Just menu and just kind of do circle Donny. Elliot does. And let the server order your food. Oh, that's interesting there at least I, there at least you do well. You're guaranteed to have a good bite, but I don't want to discount it. All the places. I've good food. That's been the go-to late.
Speaker 0 00:15:23 I've been doing that for over a decade now. Rolling the dice. I very, very, very rarely order my own food. Hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:31 It's an interesting approach. I've never heard anyone do that. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:33 It's a, I used to be a recruiter back in the day. So I used to travel all across Canada for weeks and months on end. So you get into a repetitive nature when you go to a restaurant, you're like, oh yeah, you order what you like, but when you're on the road for like a month, that gets repetitive. So, uh, I don't know, one day I came up with the idea of like, well, I'm not the subject matter expert at this restaurant. This person who's ordering the food or serving the food is so I just say, I don't have any allergies. I eat anything. So if you were in my position, what would you eat right now? I don't want to know. And like just, don't be a jerk and give me the most expensive thing on the menu, unless that is what you want to eat and then I'll pay for it. But yeah, I've never been a,
Speaker 3 00:16:15 That's really cool. I've done a lot of traveling with my career as well. And every ever thought to do that. Yeah. I think you're right. I just kind of get into that, that kind of, that autopilot where I like to eat this, or I like that. And it just kind of goes, and you don't actually get to explore what each restaurant, the, the niche, the fun dishes that they have that they like to
Speaker 0 00:16:35 Your signature. That's right. And so you got to try tons of unique and weird stuff out. And I had this one guy who told me, he was like, dude, good move. Like he was, and I was like, oh, thanks. He's like, no, man. Now they're not going to mess with your food in the back. And I was just like, oh. And I was like, I never thought about that. He's like, no, like now I feel invested. I'm going to go out of my way to make sure like that it's a banger when it comes out for you. I'm like, okay. Even better reason to get that.
Speaker 3 00:17:04 I'm going to do that next time. I'm out and about I'm going to do that a hundred percent.
Speaker 0 00:17:08 I've been doing it. Like, like I said, for over a decade now, never been let down. Even when, like I had one waitress, she was this young girl and she brought me chicken fingers with, uh, French fries. And I say, oh yeah, sounds about right. Like, you know, like I like chicken fingers, but it's something like as an adult and no offense, if you are an adult and you order it, um, very rarely would I be like, yeah, I'm going to have to order off the kid's menu. And she ordered off the kid's menu. So
Speaker 3 00:17:33 How much did you enjoy those chicken?
Speaker 0 00:17:35 Oh, they were delicious. So yeah, the, the most unique order I ever got and I, we won't go into the long story, but, uh, and lovely lady in Cape Breton, um, north Sydney got me a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Wasn't on the menu just was like, he looked like he needed a peanut butter and jam sandwich and she nailed it.
Speaker 3 00:17:58 That was exactly what you need. I walked in. You're like, I don't know what I need here. And they come in, there you go. And you look you're like, that was exactly. And you eat it with such conviction. Cause it just, it satisfies that craving perfect month on the road,
Speaker 0 00:18:15 How she knew all like, boom,
Speaker 3 00:18:17 Something's no different than being on the road and then getting home and just having a bowl of macaroni and cheese made on the stove. There's nothing, it's nothing special about it. It's just, it's not a restaurant. I love restaurants, but a certain point it's like, enough's enough. Yeah. So
Speaker 0 00:18:34 In regards to, we're going to jump back to you running for council just because that's why you're
Speaker 3 00:18:38 Here. Yeah. We kind of sidetrack sidetrack,
Speaker 0 00:18:40 But that's what the show's about, man. I love the sidetrack of it. If you are to be successful and become a counselor, like what are you really going for? Like what are some like things that you want to address or want to see change in the community?
Speaker 3 00:18:53 So I'll start off. I I've got my platform in place. Um, and it's easy to remember just remember them for our home and that's home opportunity, municipal governments and environment. Okay. And on the harmony side of it, we really need to work together as a community, as our council and administration with our residents, our industry or businesses. Uh, there's been a lot of whenever I'm out and about. And I ask and, and generally I'll, I'll start by asking name one word that you would describe her council. And then I go talk about what I'm talking about and it comes back and then I say, okay, what was that one word? And it's always either adversarial or synonym of such in fighting, uh, agenda all the rest of that stuff. Right? So, uh, on the harmony side, we, we need to get away from the fight for everything.
Speaker 3 00:19:43 We, we don't need to be fighting everybody to, to get what we need for community. We can work together with these partners. They want to work with us. That's that's the interesting part is the industry government, even you and I, we all want to work together to make this place better. So why do we need to fight to get there? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. So, uh, on the harmony piece, that's the big one there is, is let's work together and, and never, we all going to agree on counsel on everything. And in fact, that'd be worried if everyone just ended up saying yes, and it was always unanimous votes. Right. That, that would worry me more because then, then are they even looking at the material or what's going on? I don't know. Yeah. So the other side of that too, is there's going to be times where I disagree with the will of the council, Vietnam, and my vote would suggest that as well.
Speaker 3 00:20:31 Yeah. But I would still, I would still support my council as, as a decision-making body. Right. And I made a cent, but I will publicly and openly say I support the will the council. Yeah. Uh, the other one is just working with our, um, municipal employees. So one of the goals I'd like to see is to be able to proudly show on our trucks, all our city trucks as a top employer, whether it's a top 50 employer in Alberta or any of those sort of third-party recognition programs, I think that would be, I would be huge for the morale of, of those that work and work hard to make this place through, uh, be amazing and, and give all of us a sense that we've got a solid, uh, municipal workforce. Yeah. Uh, this second point being opportunity is really tailored around like small business and making sure that we give them the tools to be successful.
Speaker 3 00:21:28 I've read over the last, when the last week or so we've had four businesses shut down two restaurants and, and some other stores like that, that extra hurts my heart to see that. Yeah. Um, and what is there for the w what's there for support? It's been a tough year as it is. And I know that us as residents do our best to help, but there's still so much more that I think we can do to help them be successful. Right. And then the other part of opportunity is I think the municipalities should maybe get out of the business of event planning to some extent and let, let the, the groups in town build the events that are tailor-made, that are right sized to the, the group that they're in. Right? Yeah. Um, we don't need a big grand Stan fantastic giant event for something that's going to draw maybe a hundred people.
Speaker 3 00:22:19 Right. But we can, but the folks that organize that they'll know exactly what they need to make that. So, so it would, it would to be, be like an extension of the grant process that we have right now, but really give it some teeth to let people build those events that they need. Yeah. I'm moving on to municipal government governance is really this one's probably the simplest is, is what we're doing effective for what we need in the community. Uh, if we don't know we're being efficient, then how, how can we show that we're being efficient? So it's kind of a deep dive to look in to how we do business to make sure we're doing business properly. And that could be anything from rewrite of the bylaws. There's some good work on that, by the way. Uh, I'd always used the noise bylaw as an example, it was written and used.
Speaker 3 00:23:07 I think it was, it was from pre amalgamation and it used terms like you should, you won't make noise from 9:00 PM to the following fortnight. Yeah. Well, anyone that plays video games knows that's a video game. All the kids are like, I play Fortnite all weekend. Sweet. I love it. So it's been revamped in, in the new community standards by, uh, by bylaw. But that was my example is that maybe it's time to let's, let's reign in our policies. Let's look at how we do to make sure that how we operate as a municipality is, is right for what we need. Yeah. And then the last one is environment, uh, and that's, that's two phase one is to preserve what we have a, we've got so much nature and so much great outdoor space that really needs the protection it needs. Uh, if it hasn't been touched by, by, by us, that's keep it that way.
Speaker 3 00:23:57 And then, and although it seems counter-intuitive, I'm also for increasing access. Yeah. So, uh, in terms of access it, one of the hot ticket items is OHVs, I'm an avid OHV driver. I, I love my side-by-side and I drive it whenever I get an opportunity to yeah. And I think that we need to look at how we can safely provide better access is right now, we've only got four staging areas. And if you think about like in Amazon, who's really going to want to load up, spend all the time to load up, to drive a block to the staging area. Perhaps there's another way we could do it. Maybe build some trails that people can use. And I personally think that if the majority, the majority of people will be respectful and use the facilities that we give them that are accessible and there'll be respectful doing it.
Speaker 3 00:24:44 Uh, waterways is a great example. People are ripping up and down there all the time. They're going through the park and all the rest. Why? Because they're worried about getting caught. But if we let them, if, if we say, Hey, you know what you can use and drive. And just an example, this may not be the right way to go. Or just as an example, if you can use toll and drive, but make sure here's the rules speed limit. You have to have all your paperwork in place, you know, everything else like that, they're going to be more likely to use the facilities. We give them to get up to the trails and then they're not ripping through and tearing up municipal property, uh, causing all sorts of safety issues for people that are using the park and just be an overall dangerous behavior because they're trying, they're avoiding a bylaw that may not be appropriate in certain areas.
Speaker 3 00:25:28 Right. So, and then the other side of accessibility is working with the Goa to see if we can release some more land that's suitable for more lakefront, lots or campgrounds, or any sort of outdoor amenities so that we don't have to leave town, leave the region even yeah. To enjoy the outdoors. Uh, so many people that have lake clots. So they got to leave the, the municipality in general, we've got such a huge region. There's gotta be some more spots that we can open up for that kind of development. Yeah. Yeah. So overall, the it's, it's a, it's a ma it's, uh, it's a whole lot to say there, but it's, it's all you gotta do is remember I'm for our home. That's right. There we go. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 0 00:26:10 Well, we're at the part of the show where it's your mic. Once again, you get a shameless shout out or a plug. I have to imagine I know what you're going to be plugging. Uh, but the Mike's all yours. My man,
Speaker 3 00:26:18 Well, I should be honest. I just finished my shameless plug over the last couple of minutes. So I'm actually gonna call, uh, do a shadow Thomas supporters and the people that are out there keeping me on the straight and narrow and, and keeping my eyes on the prize. And, and then going out there and saying that, you know, we like what you have to say, and we want you to represent us. There we go. So that's where I'm, that's my shadow. There you go. Awesome, man. Well, thank you for
Speaker 0 00:26:40 So much for coming on the show. Do definitely appreciate it. <inaudible> this was fun. And then we want to do it again. That's what I was about to say that I tell everybody that come back again and again, I love having repeat guests and we have a lot more to talk about in regards to what you could be doing on council and food and food. For sure. I love food. Me too. So perfect. I look forward to it then. Me too. All right. Well, everybody at home, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. Thank you very much for tuning into another episode of the Mac city morning show. Once again, it means the world to me. So thank you. Hopefully you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
