Former Crown prosecutor Ramona Robbins hopes to earn one of eight Medicine Hat city council seats.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Ramona Robbins says as a Crown prosecutor her job was to present information people didn’t necessarily want to hear.
Now, the council candidate says she’ll use that same skill to communicate the city’s financial challenges to citizens and, she argues, help council tackle a host of social problems in the city.
“I didn’t feel represented by council anymore,” she told the News of first mulling a council run last spring, stating it seemed too many items were passed “quickly without an explanation or discussion.”
“I’m not being critical and I’m not sure why that was … but it’s information that I wanted to know.”
And information the city should be more willing to share, said Robbins.
The well-known former chief Crown prosecutor has since July worked in a management role at Alberta Justice, a promotion she says removes any conflict and frees up time. In general, she says City Hall should be more forthcoming with information.
Council passed a local mask bylaw in late 2020 and had hosted a bi-weekly COVID update, but Robbins – who has a main campaign plank to “talk openly about COVID – and other candidates have said more should have been done.
“The nuts and bolts of running a city is one part of the job, but there’s a responsibility to show leadership in a crisis,” said Robbins, 50.
“The role of council is to ensure there is a safe, secure, well-functioning community – What’s the No. 1 issue for Hatters this year? Garbage collection, or COVID?”
Financially, Robbins said the “No. 1 issue” for the next council is the budget. Council approved $15 million in budget cuts in 2021 and a further $8 million next year to keep taxes at 2019 levels without using up more reserve funds.
That bridge financing supplanted long-gone natural gas dividends, but with a host of capital projects and a new economic development plan, Robbins says the reasoning hasn’t been well explained.
“We’re a two-income family where someone just lost their job,” she said. “At the same time, if your kids need new boots, then you buy some boots and find somewhere else to skimp. You can’t skimp everywhere, but you can’t live on your bank account forever.”
She said the city should limit itself to low-risk financial activity, and concentrate on building community services.
“We’re always swinging for home runs,” she said.
Robbins moved to Medicine Hat in 1998 to work at a private law firm, became a Crown prosecutor in 2002, then chief Crown prosecutor in 2009. She now handles out-of-region case management.
The mother of twin eight-year-old girls has been active in local musical theatre and has sat on the boards of the Friends of the Medicine Hat Public Library and Medicine Hat Family Services.
