What a week! I’m very thankful for the support of our community, and to be heading back to work with Council.

Elections are both exhausting and exhilarating. Then on Tuesday at 10am, Council orientation started. It’s been a week of not just wrapping up a campaign and getting signs down, but also getting to know my new colleagues.

Today everything will become official as we get sworn in and start a new term. As we head into it, some thoughts:

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As voting starts this weekend, a lot of people are asking me “who are you voting for?”

I want to highlight that we aren’t just voting for Council. School Board elections are happening too. And they are very important! So I’m also researching Trustee candidates, not just Mayor and Council.

I need to be able to work with EVERYONE who gets elected. So I’m not endorsing individual candidates.

However, I’m happy to explain my overall approach to figuring out my ballot.

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The City of Grande Prairie will be implementing provincial measures, including Alberta's Restriction Exemption Program, starting on Monday. This means significant but temporary (hopefully very temporary) changes in many City facilities. More info is on the City website here.

I'll explain a bit about how a decision like this gets made below.

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Last week,over 10% of our hospital beds had COVID patients in them. That number is presumably climbing. Hospital doctors are sounding the alarm.

We have had surgeries cancelled. Patients sent to other hospitals. And yesterday, there was potentially a time where no ambulances were available in our community.

This should be incredibly worrying to us all.

We also have thousands of kids ineligible to get vaccinated returning to school this week. I’ve heard from many very worried parents.

In hopes of better supporting a push for action, I haven’t been too public over the last week. I always try to speak and listen at Council first before I go public with something significant. But today a Council Committee had its first conversation about recent COVID changes. So now, my take:

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