Tony Sernick says he is running for Estevan city council because he wants to fight for the future for Estevan and be involved with the decision-making process.
This marks the first time Sernick is running for an elected office. A veteran worker in the local energy sector, Sernick is currently in a business development role with a start-up company named Mantle Canada.
Sernick has been involved in the community in a variety of ways as well through various sports and oilfield-related ventures.
If he’s elected, one of the first things he would do is create an energy committee that would work hand in hand with the city’s economic development committee.
“This group would be responsible for lobbying the government. The committee would be made up of personnel from coal, power and oil and gas. Basically Estevan is at the point where we either let the government destroy our city, or we fight to the end. I choose to fight to the end.”
He doesn’t want to see any further increases in taxes or utility rates. The city hasn’t had a property tax increase for the past two years, after increases most years. Water consumption rates did increase in 2020.
If he were to be elected, Sernick said he would need to do a lot of listening and learn to become a councillor.
Sernick said there have been a lot of positives that have happened in the community during the previous term. The city has taken a step forward when it comes to beautification, while switching the city’s primary source from Boundary Dam to Rafferty Dam has been beneficial. The new fire hall will be there for years, and while he didn’t initially agree with the decision to expand the Estevan Police Service’s building, he recognizes it will be there for decades.
“It’s one of things that you don’t agree with at first, but obviously for the future of Estevan, it’s probably been good,” said Sernick.
Sernick said he has always paid attention to what is happening in the community, and the political process has always interested him, but he finally decided to step forward and run for council.
Since he decided to file his nomination papers, people have been coming to him, wanting to know why he has decided to run at this time, and what’s the basis of his platform.
He’s confident that he’ll able to handle the workload associated with being a member of city council, and balance it with his other commitments.
