ROB MURRAY: Running for Banff Council – I’m joined by Allan Buckingham. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your related experience for the job of Banff Councillor.

ALLAN BUCKINGHAM: I’ve been in Banff for about 15 years now. I love hiking, canoeing, skiing, and all of those mountain-y things. I also love that our community is so passionate about living here. It’s not an easy place to live, so it’s great to get to experience people who really put in the effort to live in their community. I’ve lived in other places where folks have their job there, it’s just easy and so they do it, but that’s not the case here in the Bow Valley and I just love that passion about our community. I do have a reasonable amount of experience on various town committees and task groups. I’ve been on five different working groups and committees over the last 15 years. I’m currently chair of the Banff Housing Corporation board. I also have experience governing on the boards and executive committees of national and international organizations, so I know what the job is and what I’m getting into. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work for my community.

RM: Why did you want to run for Banff Council?

AB: I ran in 2017 and did reasonably well on a similar message of making sure we are planning appropriately for what happens as we hit our limits. Those are our physical limits, our commercial limits, and our natural limits. The Town of Banff is a little different than a lot of other communities and we have these limits imposed on us by Parks Canada. I like to think big and I like to do a lot of good planning. I’m looking at second, third, and fourth, knock-on effects of what hitting those limits look like, and I just want to make sure we’re planning for them. I’ll give you an example about hitting the limit of the commercial cap. At some point, businesses are going to need to switch how they’re operating in order to keep making money, potentially. You’re upping your prices or you’re changing your business model that might involve more staff. Well, if you’re upping in your prices, what does that mean for affordability in our community? If you’re adding more staff, how does that have knock-on effects on housing and how much housing costs, and are we able to find housing? If you can’t find housing, maybe you can’t find staff, so maybe then that doesn’t work. I just want to make sure that we’re planning for those secondary and tertiary effects because everything’s related.

RM: Did you learn anything from the last time you ran for Banff Council that you’re applying to this election?

AB: I learned one thing – doing it all yourself isn’t a great idea. It really is a whole lot of work. One thing I’m doing a lot more this time is just asking people. I can’t believe how much support I have running on ideas of living within our limits. That’s given me a lot of hope, and I got a lot of encouragement to run again.

RM: Looking back the last four years, what’s one issue Banff Council did a really good job tackling? Conversely, what’s one that you think they could have done a better job on?

AB: One of the ones I find interesting that I actually want to put in as something they did well and that they could have done better on is dealing with the reconstruction of Bear Street during the pandemic. COVID through a whole lot of loops into everything and definitely things could have been done better, but I appreciated the way, even though that construction on Bear Street didn’t go smoothly off the bat, Council took some time, consulted a little bit, and really tried to work to improve on how it was being done. I think the end product is beautiful. I understand it cost a whole lot of money, but it does have a lot of those long-term planning things taken into account which I appreciate, so that we’re not dealing further down the line with accidental water main breaks and bad connections. They really did do some good planning there in making sure that they did their best to account for, as best as they could, what we needed with that streetscape redevelopment. It could have been done a little bit better as we went along with some of those communication pieces, but they did try to learn as they went, hear from businesses, and make some changes.

RM: If you’re elected, how would you continue to stay connected with the people of the community?

AB: All councillors and all hopefuls are going to say similar things, right? It’s about listening to people, being out in the community, and part of it. I really want to make sure that I’m open and people feel like they’re able to stop me in the grocery store, stop me at the library, the post office, or all the different community classes and things I do already. I’m also going to focus hard on answering every email and letter that I get individually, but also all the ones that go to Council. I’m not sure that when people send a letter to Council that they get a direct response and that they feel like they’re really being heard there. I’m sure it happens sometimes, and maybe it happens all the time, but I want to make sure that folks who are interested really feel like they’re getting not just a ‘thank you for your letter, we appreciate it,’ but a ‘here’s how we considered it’ and more details so they know it actually was taken into account.

RM: Where can people find out more information?

AB: Visit my website. I’m also on Facebook and I’ll be around in the community. I’m going to set up a little tables so people can come and chat outside on Bear Street, in the park, on Banff Ave hopefully, so I’ll be around in the community. Like I said, I want to be open, so if you see me on the street stop me and ask me some questions. I love it when people do that. I love this stuff. I’m geeky that way, and I want to talk about it all the time, so I’m happy to have more opportunities to do so.

RM: Why should people vote for you in the upcoming municipal election?

AB: If you’re looking for somebody who thinks big and plans well, who respects our limits, who enjoys reading policy documents, has experience governing, and knows what it is to deal with an organization with a budget in the tens of millions of dollars, vote for me on October 18th for Banff Town Council. These are the things I bring and these are the things I want to work with for our community.

Filed under: Banff, Municipal Election