Municipal District of St. Stephen Mayoral Candidate: Steve Backman
1. What is your vision for the municipality over the next four years, and how will you measure success?
My goal over the next 4 years will be to reposition St. Stephen for growth through community engagement, strategic planning for our infrastructure, business sector growth, public safety concerns, and recreation. Success will be measured by population growth, new businesses opening, and community event participation
2. How will you balance fiscal responsibility with maintaining and improving municipal services?
This begins with empathy for the tax payer. Through community engagement define budget, the budget needs to be a road map for the strategy, rather than a spending guide. Once complete all items are costed and prioritized. Every budget objective needs to be tracked according to timelines, spending relative to budget and reported in a clear understandable format.
3. What is your strategy for long-term infrastructure planning and funding?
Develop a 30 year Infrastructure plan prioritizing most critical components. This is then updated on a rolling 5 year review. Continuously look for innovative ways and new technologies to increase efficiency of both human and physical resources. Leverage local funding through shared programs with other levels of government.
4. Many communities in the region are experiencing population changes, including aging populations, affordability issues, homelessness. How will your leadership address workforce retention and attract new residents?
I plan to work with the local business community to identify and remove municipality related barriers to growth, cataloging assets within the community which support new business development and leveraging relationships to attract businesses. this will foster opportunities for young people and encourage retention. I also want to build on existing community facilities to create recreational activities which appeal to a variety of interests inspiring a more family focused and attractive community.
5. Describe a difficult decision you’ve made in a leadership role. How will that experience inform your approach as mayor?
As a product manager I was faced with a decision. There was pressure to improve plant efficiency and reduce product skews; at this same time i had noticed that there was a new market segment starting to develop in which no supplier had a suitable product to fill. To facilitate this decision I collected the relevant data, assessed market potential. to complicate this decision, Production team opposed it, Procurement team wasn’t happy about having to find new raw materials, and the sales team didn’t a real need. The analytics said otherwise, so i took the risk. The analytics showed it was justified and the decision to add a skew proved to be the correct one. What i learned is the model of collect verifiable data, apply good analytics and follow the evidence to a sound decision.
5. Why should voters trust you to lead the municipality at this time?
I for always been involved in community volunteering, and team focused which has helped be successful in many community projects. I was a director in the fundraising campaign for the Garcelon Civic Center, Chari of the Shark attack swim club where he hosted two provincial tournaments and the Canada Games Team NB. As president of the Charlotte County Hospital Foundation we have secured new equipment and services for out hospital including Dialysis, Mammography, Cold Cap, X-ray, Cat Scan, AI driven blood analysis, as well as continuing education for staff, and more recently piloting Stay Strong program for cancer patients. I have also been chair of Kirk McColl Church, Youth Choir Assistant Director, and Master of the Masonic Lodge. In my professional career I have received the RVL Walker Award from the CVMV, Am the Charter president of the CAAV and Charter Secretary of the EAVA. I am also a subject matter expert for the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. Recently received the ACCFA Award. I have also been a Key Note Speaker at the Atlantic Universities Scientific Conference and provided scientific presentations at international conferences as well as guest lectures at local universities, Veterinary Colleges and NBCC. Each of these helped broaden my skill set and help bring out the best in teams I have worked with.
Each candidate was provided with the same six questions and equal limits on response length and time. Candidates who did not have publicly available contact information through Elections New Brunswick were required to contact The Courier in accordance with its Municipal Election Coverage Fairness Policy. Candidates who did not respond or declined to participate are noted. Failure to participate will not result in additional coverage elsewhere in the newspaper.
