ROB MURRAY: I’m chatting today with Mark Walker, running for Council in the municipality of Banff. Tell us a little bit about your background and your related experience for the job of Councilor.

MARK WALKER: I came to town in 2007. I have worked as a ski instructor every winter since I came out here. I’ve also had jobs as a tour guide, a department manager at a prestigious hotel, I’ve worked casually as a bouncer, and a casual labourer. I’m now also a business owner – I co-own and operate Rent-A-Tent and Wilderness Equipment Rentals. In my time I’ve experienced a wide variety of housing situations, eventually purchasing a house with the Banff Housing Corporation. In my 14 years in town, I’ve experienced a very wide cross section of living and working in our community. I think my experience there gives me a very good perspective of the issues that people in town are living and dealing with, right from the seasonal employees that are struggling to find places to live, all the way up to longer-term residents and homeowners that are dealing with the challenges of property taxes and having to pay for servicing a town that sees millions of visitors. I see Banff in the future as a town that is leading the way in how to manage increasing numbers of visitors, with amenities for the people that are living and working here.

RM: What is the top or one of the top issues that you’re really passionate about?

MW: It kind of falls into two categories, one of them being livability in Banff. How affordable it is here, how easy it is to access services and facilities. The other one is planning for the future. More people are always coming, and there’s limited control we have as a town in what we can do about that, but what we can control is how we’re going to manage it. How we’re going to deal with more vehicles coming into town. Under that livability portion, affordability is always the one that’s talked about. I think things that we can do around housing are increasing the number of price-restricted homes in the Banff Housing Corporation profile. That cap on those home prices will help influence the market in the long term.

RM: Looking back the last four years, what’s something that you feel this past council did a good job tackling? Conversely, what’s something you feel they could have done a better job on?

MW: I quite liked the focus on trying to get more people out of their cars, trying to get people biking and walking. I think they’ve done a good job at promoting Roam. When I first came to town, there was no Roam. It’s now way better. There are way more routes. There’s linking to Lake Louise and Canmore. I think that’s a trajectory we need to continue on.

The thinking behind some of the changes in town to parking was in the right place. I just think that some of the rollout has been bumpy, whether it’s communication with exactly how programs were going to work. There are issues with people venturing outside the resident parking zones and parking on residential streets in front of people’s houses. I think that’s a problem that people saw in advance. We need to, now that we’ve had it going for a summer, look at some of those problems that have come up and implement some changes to the program.

RM: If elected, how would you stay engaged with the people of the community?

MW: I’m a fan of speaking to people about the issues of the day. I’ve been doing my ‘Park it with Mark in the Park by the Market’ – going down to Central Park on market days and being available for people to come and talk to. I am a fan of using social media. I don’t think I know of any Councilors that are really taking a proactive role on social media. I understand why they might want to stay away. There are a lot of trolls on the internet, but there are also a lot of people that use it to communicate with their community and don’t go out to meet with people in person or want to sit down and write that email to their Councilor. Over the last year or two, on Facebook pages like Overheard in Banff or Canmore Politics, I’ve tried to be a voice in those places that uses the medium constructively.

RM: What’s another plank in your platform you’d like to discuss today that we haven’t really touched on yet?

MW: I have kind of a growing list of specific ideas or solutions to issues I see in the community. I think we need a new Banff Community Plan. We haven’t talked about resort community status in this town for a couple of years, it seemed to have just vanished, but we have a provincial election coming up in 2023. I think we need to put pressure on the provincial parties and candidates to start addressing the issue of resort community status. Town-wide sidewalk and trail lighting. Removing barriers for local organizations running their own recreational programming. Specific ideas that kind of fall under that vision I have of a Banff that leads the way dealing with livability issues and planning long-term for the future.

RM: Where can people find out more information about what you’re about?

MW: My Facebook page. I will have a website that will have my list of ideas and suggestions. I can also be reached via my contact information on the Town of Banff candidates page.

RM: Why should people vote for you?

MW: I’m bringing to the table a vision for Banff – what it can look like in 10, 20, 50, even a hundred years – so that Banff is a leader in this world of tourism resort communities, and how we balance that incoming visitation with life in this town. I’m bringing the ability to collaborate and work with people. As a ski instructor, our job is to take a complicated subject and to simplify it so that the person you’re working with can achieve something that they thought was impossible. I think one of my talents is to take something that’s complicated and to present it in a way that makes it achievable. My two-year-old daughter my wife and I are raising here in town – I want to see her have the opportunities that we had, or more. I want it to be easier for her to make a life here if she chooses to, but I’d like it to be easier for people like myself that come to town and want to have a career, a house, a life in Banff…I want them to be able to do it without having to rely as much on luck as I did.

Filed under: Banff, Municipal Election