In the run up to the 2017 election, we asked our readers and listeners what issues matter most to them. Every day, we ask candidates for their thoughts on healthcare, growth, traffic, city facilities, downtown, and the other issues important to their campaign. Today, Shelley Bitz addresses your issues.

Business banker Shelley Bitz is one of the 23 candidates vying for votes in the upcoming election.

Bitz said she's seen substantial growth in her 38 years in Airdrie, especially in the last ten. She believes the city's rapid growth has kept the City so caught up building for current needs, that it hasn't kept track of future needs. To address that, she thinks it's important for the next Council to be forward thinking. That means not just building houses and roads for today, but also planning for five or ten years down the road.

That is especially true when it comes to traffic. 

"I think a lot of the traffic issues are based on the fact that we're not anticipating the further growth and we're building roads to get into communities that, again, two years from now we have to tear up and then traffic's backlogged."

Bitz said she knows Airdrie's proximity to Highway 2 means a lot of traffic issues require provincial approval, and she said she would advocate at the provincial level to make sure the things Airdrie needs in the next three years are already being planned for now.

Bitz is very passionate about healthcare in Airdrie and has been involved with the Airdrie Health Foundation, playing a key role in starting the Light Up The Night gala to fund healthcare needs in Airdrie. She has experience advocating at the provincial level for healthcare, which she would continue to do if elected. Bitz said Airdrie needs adequate equipment and an adequate building to address Airdrie's healthcare needs, including emergent care, seniors care and hospice care. She does not think Airdrie will get a hospital, so she thinks Airdrie needs to find its own solution and then work with the provincial government to meet Airdrie's healthcare needs.

Bitz also one hundred percent believes there's a need for more facilities in Airdrie. When planning for those facilities, she thinks it's important to take into account all of Airdrie's demographics.

"I think that when we address that need, we need to realize that we are a young family community. So yes, it has to do with our young children and our youth, but we need to not forget that there are parents in those families who like to do things, and those parents have parents."

Bitz thinks a new facility needs to be multi-use and multi-generational, and she said it will require public and community backing.

While Bitz thinks downtown needs to be revitalized and made walkable, she's not sure the City's plan is quite right.

"In saying that, do I think that City Hall and parking and some of the thing that were put out there are actually what is going to make that happen? I don't."

Bitz said downtown needs to add things that will attract people into the core. She thinks that Airdrie's private sector is strong and smart, and in partnership with the creative community, can make downtown vibrant.

Bitz also said she would focus on engaging Airdrie's youth if elected. She's not entirely sure what that would look like, but she spoke fondly of the Club 16 that used to cater to Airdrie teenagers, and she thinks an updated version of that concept could be the answer.

 

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