Last week, the town began recruiting the help of residents in pressing its needs with the provincial government. In the development stage since the fall, it centres on five current priorities.

Cochrane Now caught up with Mayor Jeff Genung for a Q&A on the topic. Some of the answers and questions have been edited for brevity.

Cochrane Now: This is an expansion of the advocacy work you've been doing in the community as well as your team at the town office. How important is it to get residents involved in this advocacy effort? 

Mayor Genung: I think it's huge. We can't do this all by ourselves. I mean, we can and we have been, but we thought it was important for two reasons.

One. Many voices carry more weight and I think if we can engage our residents and the people of Cochrane to share our message to the province it will be more apt to be successful.

And the second part of it is the education. We hear a lot from residents about schools and healthcare, which I mean, we obviously care about and we're doing our part in trying to provide more, but it's really not our jurisdiction. So being able to educate and inform residents about where and how to engage the province I think is going to be key. 

Cochrane Now: I'm glad you mentioned the last part because it's so important to engage the province in an appropriate manner. What do you recommend residents do first before they even decide to engage anyone? 

Mayor Genung: Well, go to our website and check out what it is that we're really trying to prioritize around the advocacy campaign. And then click on the one that you want to learn more about. For example, if it's a parent who wants to know more about education, there's a button on there for that and you can go in and find your path then get informed a little bit and educated about that particular issue and then what it is that you could do. So, some of our efforts are going to be around 'Here's what we're doing and here's what you can do'. 

Cochrane Now: Are there any tips that you could offer on the tone of this engagement? What type of tone should people set in their conversations? 

Mayor Genung: I'm glad you asked that because I reached out to Peter Guthrie, our MLA and minister of Infrastructure, prior to this going live just to inform him of our intentions. This is not to poke the province in the eye. We are not trying to accuse them of anything, or batter them in any way. We want to collaborate.

We really want to partner with the province in getting the issues solved in Cochrane and getting the provincial funding, getting the school built, healthcare issues addressed, or a highway built. So, it's really a partnership and collaborative approach that we're taking and not accusational or confrontational in any way.

We really, really want to stress that and I'm glad you asked because I think the opposite would not prove fruitful. I think it has the risk of maybe backfiring. 

Cochrane Now: Right now, the town has outlined its priorities for 2024. Is this something you're going to review on an annual basis and perhaps add or subtract items from it? 

Mayor Genung: Yes, absolutely. I think as we go along, we'll be measuring our success and it's a great question around, you know, key performance indicators of what we are seeing. You know, are we moving the needle?

I think and you've outlined well that this something I've been doing since I was elected mayor and I think we've made some great inroads and built some great relationships with the province, but now it's time to engage and ask our residents to share the message.

As issues change or our needs evolve, we will evolve our program along with it. 

The town has established a page entitled "Your Community, Your Voice" that can be accessed here.

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