James Sieben is one of the mayoral candidates in the running for North Battleford city council. (submitted photo/James Sieben)

By Angela Brown

Mayoral candidate

Young candidate for mayoral race hopes to make a difference

Oct 26, 2020 | 2:00 PM

James Sieben hopes to make some positive changes to the community if he is successful in his bid in the mayoral race for the City of North Battleford.

“I am running because I want the public to be heard and listened to by somebody who has lived here all his life, and cares about the well being of the public,” he said.

The 22-year-old is currently employed as a lab technician at Parkview Optometric Services in North Battleford. He is also working on his undergraduate program studies online through the University of Regina.

If elected, Sieben aims to focus on curbing crime, which he said is the biggest issue of concern for the community.

“I think the way to tackle that would be to offer more activities for people, especially later at night. Because we really don’t have much [here] right now,” he said.

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Sieben also wants to see a higher police presence. He said he appreciates the work of the North Battleford RCMP Gang Task Force, and would like to improve on that, to have them even more active.

The candidate is also interested in reallocating some of the city’s resources and wants to cancel the community safety officer program.

“I don’t think that it is doing any good right now, and I don’t think people really want it,” he said. “Instead, I’d like to put those resources and the time into more emergency services, like fire and ambulances, and police. I think the resources would be better elsewhere.”

The hopeful believes he offers a new approach to make the community better.

“I think the people would want to vote for me because I am quite young and I have a good grasp of what the people want, and what they would like to hear,” Sieben said. “I am also all ears. I want to hear from other people. I want to hear what issues they have and what they would like to see addressed.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW