Bart Guyon is hoping for four more years as Brazeau County reeve. Last week he announced his intention to seek re-election at the upcoming municipal election.
Guyon’s time in local government goes back almost to the beginning of Brazeau County as an independent municipality. The County was created as the Municipal District of Brazeau, in 1988. Guyon was first elected to council in 1992. While he was out of politics for some of the intervening years, he was elected as reeve in 2014 and has served in the position ever since.
“The position isn’t important. It’s what you can do,” he says. “One person can have an idea, but it takes the whole council to make it happen.”
One of those ideas was to make the County an attractive place to live and invest. For Guiyon that means maintaining a low tax rate coupled with a reduced amount of municipal red tape. He says the County has reaped the rewards of those policies and he wants to see them continue in the future.
“I care about Brazeau County and I care about the people that live here,” he says. “We have a philosophy that puts the citizens first.”
“When we lower taxes it really levels the playing field for everyone.”
Guyon says his aim is to offer those who make their home in Brazeau County a degree of certainty in an uncertain world. He wants residents to feel that the County is on their side.
“There’s been so much upheaval that people are a little stressed these days,” he says. “One of the things we’ve done to help with that is to have the lowest taxes in the province … No other municipality has done what Brazeau County has done.”
While low taxes are important, so is maintaining support from other levels of government.
An area Guyon would like to focus on is securing funding and grants from the Province. The County has enjoyed some success in that area, including the recent announcement of a road widening project on the Cynthia Highway. Guyon says the Province receives a very significant amount of revenue from oil and gas, forestry and other industries operating in Brazeau. It’s important to ensure a portion of that money returns to this part of Alberta.
“There’s a significant chunk of money going from Brazeau County to the province. We need to convince the Province to reinvest those dollars back into Brazeau County,” he says.
Now in his late 60s, Guyon has had some health issues during the current council term. However, he says these days he feels as good as ever and still has the strength and motivation to lead the County forwards.
“I’m back in the saddle. I’m still farming 100 quarters,” he says. “I seem to have undying energy.”
Nominations for the election remain open until noon on September 22. To date there is one other confirmed candidate, former councillor Pat Vos, running to be reeve.
The election itself will be held Monday October 20. Guyon says he’s looking forward to the vote and hopes electors will put their faith in him.
