Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning for McMurry wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned in to the Mac city morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start this off the same way we do every show. I want to thank everybody at home for tuning in. You could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly does mean the world to me. Now on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:25 Oh, she caught Milos near listen to the next <inaudible>.
Speaker 0 00:00:34 All right. Now we got a banger of a guest today. This gentlemen has been in the community for years. He sits on council. He actually, we're not giving away the street we live on, but he lives across the street from me. Um, I've known this gentleman for a long time, um, but we've never had a proper conversation. So I'm excited to have one today with him, as you all know, I don't introduce my guests. I let them do that themselves. So on that note, sir, can you please introduce yourself and tell the people at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 2 00:01:02 Well, good morning. Good morning to your, uh, your ever-growing, uh, listeners is a pleasure to be here. I actually, I didn't know where I was driving today. That kind of brought me back to, uh, 1985 where, uh, where I lived just up the road, banging stone. And I just feel the struggles of yourself and many other people that just rebuild that's where I'm at today and to rebuild and you're right. Uh, you know, I've been here about four decades and, uh, when I first came here, I worked for the small business community. Uh, the dorms, the Verghese, the Wendell's, uh, you know, to Roberts Peter bearers, uh, you know, those guys, uh, made shorter than I had 40 or 50 hours a week that, uh, when I got on my feet, uh, Peter Rivera, Nelson that on all sides hotel, I don't know why that does, but it took a bit of shiny Toby.
Speaker 2 00:01:54 And that was right after, uh, Mrs. Judy dicks gave me my first leg up in life, uh, started in the hospitality industry, nice Mr. Well, from dwellings and stuff. And that's how I come to get into, uh, I would say myself and Eddie King be the, uh, the two best disc jockeys in Fort McMurray, the all sands hotel. And when I, when I say the two best ones, a little Eddie was probably the best painter, the best body man in town. And, uh, he used to come and play the music I get paid and he played the music and I just do my social thing for the, uh, for the, all of a sudden it's hotel. So that's a bit about myself. Uh, very humble beginnings. I started on, uh, as a janitor at Suncor for green Lake janitorial services worked for, uh, I think it was 32, 33 nights when I first came here because never had no place to live.
Speaker 2 00:02:45 And that's where, uh, uh, you know, my cousin Sean was here and the skidders put me up out of grabbing terrace. Like I say, roll ahead. And, uh, you know, very thankful for all my people, I think to be, you know, like you say, we might be neighbors. Uh, I don't talk to you that often, but I didn't know that you two grew up here as your wife. Yup. And one of the biggest, uh, uh, feats of my life and one of the biggest pleasures outside of, uh, being a married, raising three kids here in the community was the fact of, uh, my service and the Catholic school board, where your wife was instrumental every year with citizen anonymous, making sure that the, uh, that the less fortunate were looked after. And, uh, uh, over the years being part of that, watching the kids come back after they, they leave Lake Murray to support that program.
Speaker 2 00:03:37 It keeps life pretty real, and, uh, not every day. And for big Murray is a good day for anybody. I don't know if I've had bold share of, uh, personal struggles, shortcomings, uh, uh, being on the show today, I guess for me, you know, a week and a half ago when I committed us or probably three weeks ago to committed to come on the show about a week and a half, I didn't think I was going to be here because, uh, again, I chose to, uh, take a shortcut and it got myself injured. So it's a pleasure to be,
Speaker 0 00:04:13 Yeah. You had a bit of a tumbling on a Ski-Doo. I saw you might've heard some of your ribs.
Speaker 2 00:04:18 Yeah. You know, I, I, uh, I heard a lot about broke ribs, go to Garland and applied for dollar chief. Uh, I to embarrass him by, by my association, but, uh, he heard his ribs one time broken, but I broke six was saying a little bit earlier. My little buddy Eddie, uh, he laid for dad done to what we used to call the drag strip out there. It's for your Creek. But, uh, you know, he broke his back and his neck. And I remember seeing him in the hospital, but I tell you a week and a half ago when I broke six ribs and a bag of my head, you know, looking around the hospital. Oh, dear. Uh, very thankful for the services we had because, uh, you know, I've seen that flash a few times, but, uh, something tells me when you're about to take your last breath, you think about, uh, your family does what keeps you going?
Speaker 0 00:05:07 There you go. Yeah, man. So we thank you for coming in today. Under, uh, those conditions. We know like the ribs, I saw you sitting down a little gingerly when you sat there, it was a tough one for you. So you're tough. There's no doubt about that. So what I want to get you in on a Keith is I love your story about your humble beginnings is phenomenal. I think that's most people that come to Fort McMurray, they have a dream, they have a hope, and then they're able to turn it into a fortune here in Fort McMurray. And I think you have one of the best stories in regards to your started off humble. So now let's talk to the people at home. What you've achieved. You talked a little bit about sitting on the Catholic school board council. Um, you also sit on municipal council. So let's talk about that component of your life.
Speaker 2 00:05:53 Well, I tell you, I, I can, I can tell you that I've had five, uh, the Catholic school board, and this is my fifth term. And I think I was doing the match, right? Uh, I think that'd be about 18 years after this term. It's been a long haul man. And I can only remember a couple of really testy times. And I've been working with tree Subaru. That is a great staff. Uh that's that's the school board. And boy I've told you, if you can help one kid, you've done your gig. Yeah. But now if you flip over to city council, that's a different beast. It's a different one on that. If you're not aligned, if you're not aligned B the city Koestler people will eat you up on your first day. You can look across the table and have a cry. I have a, I have a human situation conversation with somebody like we are no, right.
Speaker 2 00:06:54 And we both agree that the sky is blue. And if somebody close to him ever gets close to them, they'll tell you the sky was red an hour later. But I think the biggest thing I'll take away from my two terms that city council, city council, every decision that's made by bureaucrats city council, where's it. And I can tell you the last three and a half years in this community, we could have been so much better as a team to serve residents that so deserve it. And people got to realize when you're elected, you have one vote. That's it? No matter if you're a mayor or a counselor from downtown Fort McMurray or uptown or Gregg guar or uptown in Timberly. But when you get in that seat, when you get in that seat, you have to realize every man, woman, and child, no matter what color, no matter what race, no matter where we're from, we need to represent the region. We've allowed ourselves to become the doormat of just about every level of government, every member of, of, of a need that needs to come for some kind of funding. And we just sit back and watch it all happen. How many communities in Canada could build a Dyke that they know they're going to move? How many communities can say, we're going to spend 35 million to build a snow dump. When I have elders, seniors, and kids with no place to live, then decisions are made for us.
Speaker 2 00:08:53 What is time is time that the elected officials be heard. And I can tell you that this hasn't been a joy ride. You know, I've learned so much on city council about the ugly side of life is a tough gig. It's not out about that. No, I don't pity myself for taking the time, because at the end of the day, boy, I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot rhino and I've served with some great people. You know, I've served with Eva, Tilley, lads, buzzier, Sheldon Jermaine. I've had some wonderful CAO, CAS, Marcel ULI act like people that were born and bred here. I knew that you're not going to be famous if you make a decision, but you made a decision, right? A boy, Jesus, we made some good decisions to me, you know, killing that billion dollar arena. Dream downtown was the right thing to do then.
Speaker 2 00:09:58 And it's the right thing to do. Now. The only mistake was made was knocked down to buildings that were given good revenue, good taxes, and good employment. And the only people that had a beef with the all signs hotel, where people had never stepped foot inside of it. Cause we all roll ahead. You know, 30 years, we all talk about the arts. Everybody loves the arts, right? But the same guys that loved the arts, couldn't wait to get that place torn up. And I can't count on these hands and toes today. How many people went to Nashville from the all signs hotel to carry on or careers in the arts. And now we have a parking lot down there. We're talking about building a park, right? God bless us. All right. So if you want to talk about city politics, I don't know if it's a good day because of had a lot of time to think about what we've achieved as a council, right? In the last three and a half years and what our community has been true. You know, whether it be the fire, the floods, we still managed to piss away a few million here and there. You know, we had an opportunity, you know, where I sit here today and that's why I get balled up a bit.
Speaker 2 00:11:27 You know, we had the vision, I guess back then to say that our city could manage the day to day operations, but a rebuild after the most deadliest natural disaster in the history would take a special crew at the day to day to crew. And I heard lots of elected officials talk about the first few days into the fire. They're going to do this and do that. And even, even the other levels of government, but I know there was two or three people that got it writing for seven days a week. And with a few members of the community, they dug her heels and done a great job along with some great work with the city planners and everything. Wasn't no, but boy, I tell you, we were ahead of some other communities. I went through the same thing. So I sit here today. We had all that vacant land downtown that was just ripe for development and spruce our community back up.
Speaker 2 00:12:22 And you know, we didn't have Harvard degrees or university degrees, but as a group of people, we thought that rather than wait right here to all the dust to settle, why not offer the good people, a place to live, build a fresh condo downtown, where we had ruled already a few blocks, but we could put some life back at us. And then later on in life, when the, when the, when the dust all settled, we could make this some kind of park. Everybody in the city could have joy. Right. But, uh, we weren't, we were just a couple of elected officials. That's all we were. So we couldn't change the world, but we, we never gave up fighting. You know, you sit here today. There's still a lot of turmoil, especially with this, with that, with these places, because you know what, as you grew up here, as I grew up here to the same places when St.
Speaker 2 00:13:14 Crude was just starting that's right. You know, people, people, people with some roots in the community, you know, where people say, you gotta let go of the past. Well, you can't forget about the people that could've put your hair today. That was the crew to the soul course of the world. And that's just where we're at today. Right. It's kind of fitting her and taking her, taking a few questions about city council, because you know, you don't often get to sit and watch a couple of your own decisions or what'd you do to support us. Like we're still here 2021 talking about getting water's soar to rural communities. And I remember getting skinned alive, skid the law by the same naysayers eight years ago. And I thought about Jesus, why would you want to build 50 to $60 million rec facilities when you don't have Roger Waters?
Speaker 2 00:14:08 Whore? Why not get that in there first? Because maybe, maybe I had a half a clue. We come from communities that have eight, $9 million facilities that look after 10,000 people. And if nobody believes me drive died in a bicycle or drive to West locker or get out there and see all Berta, not even everything, haven't got to be 50 million because what happened here, sir, for the last decade, our standard building envelope has to start at 10 or 20 minutes. And then the sky's the limit. Well, what's going to, everybody's done a great job pointing out what, what we have, nobody wants to talk the truth. The truth is we're going to go from 80 to one tax ratio to five to one. And why did I understand that? Because I remember this new term status, man. The biggest arseholes just made a deal for 10 years to try to transition.
Speaker 2 00:15:19 Well, I think roll ahead. Four years later, we're at seven and a half to one. And when we get to five to one, I don't know, we'll probably have a little over half a billion. If everybody goes right to, uh, have for taxes to cover all these expenditures, but we'll still have the same size municipalities road and probably some more people because Leggett are not as they shut down the routes for the airplanes. People can't get to their hubs anymore. So guess what? They're going to have to be like me and you going, won't have to live in Fort McMurray. Well, God bless them. No. Hey, there you go. So what's going to write itself. I think we just got to the patients to hang in there. That's it? So that's the city council piece.
Speaker 0 00:16:03 All right. Well, thanks for your honesty. And we're about to get a lot more from you. Cause we were at a segment called the Mac city minute or town is going to ask you five questions. I don't know what they are getting ready for them. Tanner hit him with this questions. Question number one. What is your favorite place to hang out in Fort McMurray that doesn't exist anymore?
Speaker 2 00:16:24 Well, you know what? That's not, that's not a hard one. Guys. We gave away cars, we gave away bikes. We said people in Nashville. We looked after the elders. We looked after their families. We had bathtub races on Franklin Avenue. We started the bare ball club. And I think later on in life, it became the softball club, uh, 60 fibrosis, uh, baseball tournament that we, when we didn't open Sundays, we had to bear a ball league for all the hospitality people. So the best place that I could think of, and actually I lived above, it would be diggers, Roddy club, not diggers, but diggers variety club. That was the new edition where we had the only, only Calgary flames. I think they won one Stanley cup right in ADA.
Speaker 0 00:17:14 I think it was 89, 89, 88,
Speaker 2 00:17:16 88. Well, I know today because on that Saturday we had the girl next door contest that we hosted at Butch to manager myself, be the DJ Eddie ashy be the real DJ. We had 12, uh, applications. Well, actually we had probably a hundred, but we picked 12 local ladies that came and done the girl next door contest. And then the last contestant, it ended up being like the WWF. Okay. And it was probably the most money we raised for a nonprofit. And I got to tell you that there's guys out there today. Remember this one, the girl next door contest, where he had the buckets of the bear. So that's the best place to hurt us does not open
Speaker 3 00:18:01 Right on question number two. What is one thing that hasn't changed about Fort McMurray? Since you got here,
Speaker 2 00:18:08 The good people are still the best people and you know, you got the families like the caliber crews. Uh, he got the guys like the Costco Lowndes. Uh, you got the Virgo families. What? I think there's a long line of support here and I couldn't go out and forgive me if I can't remember everybody, but uh, take a garlic. Brian Hatfield. He know he don't live here anymore, but he comes back to the community. Terry Connors, Leddy cleric. Jeez. They know what, uh, like Chris Phillips last year I went down, uh, lucky enough to see Chris Phillips, but I was lucky enough actually to seize his retirement. I had the plane full of people there for Beck. Maria, do, you can just see that this guy, man, him and Scotty Upshaw used to come here for years and put out golf orbit Hatfield, and those guys, Lenny Clark and the Gaza, you know, that's, I think that's a long answer to that.
Speaker 2 00:19:04 I don't have any short answers because when you think about Fort Macquarie, like, was he a family? Lots of I'd say good people here in the community that keep on giving. And I do people, you know, do people, they don't leave. Robert, you know, when, when he checked out, he never checked out because he still has these people that are help us over. We need to help. Like these guys are still connected, even though they don't have to be. And now you got this whole new generation, Hey, you got like the bougie family. Hold on. Every one of them, you know, from the little kid Michelle right on up to, I call it booboo. That's the skipper cold, uh, uh, the Antoine's Lloyd bell. You have a whole new generation. You don't get married to your daddy. And geez, you know, we're lucky to have so many people here that at leave a legacy and you know, a little guy like me, myself, and abroad, we may be able to show you a couple of hundred deer or something like that. But I mean, these guys committed in a big way and make sure that the, when the, when the people step out, they step in. And that's what I like about four big brewery.
Speaker 3 00:20:08 There you go. Question number three for you. What is one thing you think people overlook about for McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:20:17 Well, I that's, that's easy for me, very easy. Uh, what people overlook double for McMurry is this. I hate the fact, you know, I want to tie the city right back into this. I hate the fact that we have to go out and hire people to come in, to hired her old people from the outside to tell us what a great backyard, what a great place we got to go fishing. Well, we have so much here that we could be producing ourselves. That's what that don't, that, that actually bothers me and how we treat people. You know, I worked at an organization that has a, a, certainly a, it has an issue. And then what people miss about here, we have, Yolanda's a nation. For example, we have elders here that could teach us so much about so many things. And if we want to draw them in an experience, we just got to look to the mistakes we made.
Speaker 2 00:21:25 You know, we still can't seems like we still can't get, get around the, the, the trade agreements or we're afraid to challenge them. You know, we have guys coming into our community feed, the only capital projects we have while our local people are starving. And then for people to say to me, I don't understand business, small business. No, I might not sit around the horse. You would be be, I don't have the checkout checkout checkout, but boy, I tell you, when you made your life for the first eight years here, putting yourselves from college, working for the small business, well, who would the name of God would know, understand the small business, any better you got to survive. And if the city is going to go out and spend 250 million next year, is it too much to ask that at least 80% of that gets spent locally, where, where it's commercially salted and safety meets it all.
Speaker 2 00:22:19 Just like the other regs in the industry. Now what's missing here, the city and the industry need to pull together the industries at the table, but we got to get the egos out of the way and, and start drawing on the resources that we have with them because we have a good engineer up North that has free time, or, or we could, we could get led to her experience. You wouldn't have me move these dogs around her, attempting to the crack all the time. I mean, when I get people telling me we can't build a Daikin to wintertime, I guess still being sick.
Speaker 3 00:22:53 There you go. There's your answer home. All right. Question number four. What has working in the oil industry affected your two terms on council? We'll go back again, sir. I'm sorry. How has working in the oil industry affected your two terms on council?
Speaker 2 00:23:11 Well, I, I, I tell you why, if you know what I, you know what I really like all like, uh, when I get, uh, well, you know, on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whatever, whatever they call them. And they said, geez, look at that boy. He's he's, uh, he's got DigiTrust hair. Well, I tell you what your shoes you're aware of. What was your word? The car I'm driving. All. It comes from the ground. At some point I've been in a conflict ever since I was born because I use oil. I use all the keep B family heaters, I suppose my did. What would the VIX award where we could mix a Cole when he didn't want to catch the chimney of our? So my two terms on council had been affected by industry tremendously. There you go. And they're going to be affected more when I'm not honest, because gosh, the industry used to give us 1.5 billion a year.
Speaker 2 00:24:08 And we had people here from out of town that created their own legacies, like the city center and all this stuff. And they couldn't, they couldn't get the cash down to pay quick enough. Well, now we still have some reserves left. We got our debt paid off, but it's not hard to do when you got all that cash coming in or what's going to be a challenges. My son is 21 today. He was 21 years of me life. They want to know the bloody babies or happy birthday. They're a young man. And, uh, I he's going to come back here I suppose, to be a teacher right away. I was not right away, but maybe a year ago, but all your joy, this is, this is going to kill some people. And I say this, I enjoy my house today, next to yours or close to yours, I'll look up my tax, boom, and go, bam.
Speaker 2 00:24:57 Woo. She's 1200 for the beauty. Beautiful civil she's 2300 for the school tax, but all together. No, it's, uh, I think last year I got to correct myself. I think last year was 13 to 12. I think it was my tax for 2,500 bucks. Now, if you took that tax, bill went to St. Albert. Wow. I declare the family, uh, that's who I worked for most of my life. You know, if I took, if I showed them that bill, they did take, I fogged your numbers on the way down, like load count. So we pay not a whole lot. Okay. That's because we got the big, big chunk of money at 18 to one, but she's covered down. She covered down. It's just like a plane and her wheels are just about to hit the runway. All I can hope is this is what I leave behind for my son and that generation that they don't have to go back to where we were in the late eighties, early nineties, where they were four or five grand. Because when your taxes start to cost, you 12 or 1300 a month, then you're not going to attract a whole lot of people here. That's right. And your final question, what has been your favorite moment working with the community of forming me? Well, you know, here's a plug for your wife and I go to try to get this house.
Speaker 2 00:26:17 Everybody gets welled up. When they talk about this organization. My favorite moment was, you know, we, we used to have these auctions and stuff and of course COVID politics and all that stuff, but we'll get back at it when it's, when it's time. But, uh, uh, ask the bot, you know, Johnny Gillis, daddy did Justin her, but the batty family was, yeah, A's still he's Philly's pub. We started this a live auction and there bro, my brother, they spear chair. So I tried to replicate it, but he's the chiropractor. So we paid her off in the master colors, put us at a golf clubs and his becomes the master chair. We take it over to East village. I would a bunch of stuff. Wasn't the car boat was a chair and actually bought, you know, he got a few bucks. He's good to the community. He buys a charity auction and uh, was always good to help set us another. So they said there was, I was that chair. He said, you know, it was great. I took it down to white side's beach. ILAC the bitch. I tied it out the back of my boat. So you got up the middle and he cut the rope. He said, I'd never seen the chair sing. So
Speaker 0 00:27:57 My,
Speaker 2 00:27:58 Did I tell you why I sit in that boat? All that bowl was is about is that I've had a great run. Those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:28:11 There you go. Well, ki thank you very much for coming today. I really do appreciate it, man. Thanks for all your honesty. Uh, you know, where the show is. I can almost promise you that this will not be your first and or last, uh, time on the show. I hope you come back again and again, anytime you want to talk about anything, this is a platform that's completely open for you. And you know, I love to sit and chat with you. So thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 00:28:34 It was a pleasure. Now I can tell you that, you know, I think there's a few other OBD outlets like yourselves to tout and, uh, of course COVID, you know, has, has humbled everybody, cause it didn't matter if you were rich or poor, you couldn't go nowhere. So we got to know each other a little better. Mental health has become an issue with a lot of people, but also I guess in the midst of all this, you, you and the other BD people are going to be quite busy between now and the end of August, because don't forget, this is an election year. That's right. You got two, uh, two, three school boards. That'll be up for a rougher election. You got mayor and council that are up for election. And uh, and heavens knows there's always at least 20 or 25 people run for council. And I think I've, I've got to throw this out here. Let's hear here, I think for the first time.
Speaker 2 00:29:35 And I've been my first day without a ballot, 87. So I think it, the educated guess I don't get choked up about this cause it's politics sometimes dirty. So I'll tell you, I think this is the first time that we're going to have an election for a Bayer in a long time. Yeah, it's been a while. I see that flash a few weeks ago. I see that flash and I'm looking forward to, uh, you know, a good leader that does be nothing else or it'll lead. And people got to understand that the lead, you need a team around, that's willing to work with you, but you gotta be able to work with dev and nobody benefits from an elected position. Only all the, every other member of our community. That's right. That's right.
Speaker 0 00:30:32 There you go. Thank you. Well, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world, whoever is tuning in which it grows and grows every day. Once again, I want to thank you. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you spent with us today, it means the world to me. And on that note, we'll see
Speaker 2 00:30:48 You tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 0 00:30:52 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
