Buckley Belanger plans to run for mayor of Île-à-la-Crosse. (Buckley Belanger/Facebook)

By meadowlakeNOW Staff

Municipal election

Long time MLA announces bid for Mayor of Île-à-la-Crosse

Sep 12, 2024 | 9:00 AM

Serious and solid leadership. That’s how Buckley Belanger described his political aspirations as he announced his intention to run for mayor of his home community Île-à-la-Crosse in northwestern Saskatchewan.

“Several groups of people have pursued me and asked me to let my name stand for the election of Mayor. I want to announce I will accept the nomination once the process begins.”

In a post on his social media page, Belanger acknowledged long time mayor Duane Favel was not seeking re-election and then spoke about his desire to lead a transformational team that could bring positive change to the area.

“Part of the whole process of having great ideas and plans for our community is to use some of the connections in the network we’ve built up over the years and bring some of those regional ideas to the forefront,” he said.

Belanger’s political career started in 1988 when he began what would be three terms as mayor of Île-à-la-Crosse. He was first elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature as the MLA for Athabasca in 1995 as a Liberal member, but eventually resigned from his seat and crossed the floor to the New Democrats. In a1998 by-election, Belanger won Athabasca for the NDP and would remain in the seat until 2020. The following year, he ran for the Liberal party in the federal election but lost to Conservative Gary Vidal.

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“I’ve been sitting at home and spending a lot of quality time with my family,” he said. “Our family has gone through some dramatic challenges and like many other families, we’ve been able to weather the storm and continue fighting for our community, children and beliefs.”

While he didn’t reveal an entire platform, Belanger did touch on a few key issues he plans to address in his campaign including a strategy to build culture and sport. Belanger said there needs to be a massive investment in both.

“In my opinion, we have to really revamp how we approach recreation in general. There needs to be some serious money put into a community effort to build our athletes and cultural champions as well. And its not just about boys in hockey – that’s important, but I think we could build a golf course, we need girls in volleyball and hockey, we need a robust soccer team,” he said. “La Loche is a great example of how they invest in their kids. We need to revamp our approach to sport development and cultural opportunity.”

Belanger also spoke about the need to de-normalize drug use in the community. He said it’s getting ‘worse and worse’ and is hurting families and the business community which ‘counts on these folks to come to work.’ Belanger said there needs to be a new approach and a better way to engage users and bring them back to the work force and community as they once were.

The long-time politician also touched on property tax fairness.

“Property taxpayers should not be viewed as a bank,” he said. “One of the things I want to work towards is fairness to the taxpayer, not only on the rates but to also disclose where their rates are going.”

At the end of his announcement on Facebook, Belanger encouraged the community to became engaged. He wants to see different faces on local boards and more names in the election process.

“We need to engage the communities and bring back the people that can make a significant difference and that’s how you begin to restrengthen and rebuilt your communities – with hope, opportunity and optimism.”

While no official dates have been set, municipal elections will be held this fall.

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