Grande Prairie City Councilor Kevin O'Toole (left) and Kiesha Mastrodimos (middle) present Better Than Fred's Owner John Kriska (right) with the 2020 Inclusive Community Award. Photo Credit: Kiesha Mastrodimos

By Shane Clausing

o'toole seeking re-election

Kevin O’Toole seeking another term on council

Aug 1, 2021 | 7:00 AM

Long-time Grande Prairie City Council member Kevin O’Toole has made it official that he’ll be seeking another term on council in October.

O’Toole has been on council for a decade and says while this will likely be his last time running in a municipal election, there are still a couple of things he’d like to get accomplished.

“There is a number of things that have come up and they’re not completed, and I would like to make sure the things that I wanted to see are in that completion project, that’s why I’m going to hang out.”

“I think this will be my final opportunity to run, I don’t think I’m going to run again. I’ll be 64 at that time and I just wanted to make sure I got one more kick at the can.”

He says his biggest reason for campaigning for another term on council has to do with the fact that he wants to help solve the homeless and drugs and addictions issues in the Swan City.

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“It seems like every term there’s new things popping up. I want to see the homeless, drug addiction and people that have mental instabilities in their lives right now (get the help they need). I want to make sure the province or federal government, or if we have to, the City of Grande Prairie works on that project and completes it,” said O’Toole.

“We need to seriously look at this. Ten years ago when I was on council, we (agreed) that homelessness will get cleaned up in 10 years,” he added.

“To be realistic we’ll never get rid of homelessness situations, but I do feel there’s a lot we can accomplish. It’s costing us a lot of money right now and I’d like to turn that money into something that’s not going to be a band-aid, but a solution.”

O’Toole adds if elected another term, he’d like to see more money put into senior housing and recreation. He is also glad to see a low-cost recreation facility and reception centre in the Smith subdivision.

He mentioned the low-cost recreation centre will be beneficial to the community.

“I’m very pleased that council agreed with me that was something needed. We have a lot of parks in our community, but we don’t have a lot of places where people can play summer sports in the winter. We are in the process of purchasing a skateboard park that’s portable, and take that and put it in there.”

O’Toole wanted to mention he’s loved Grande Prairie and hopes he can continue to represent the nearly 70,000 people here.

“Grande Prairie’s been very good to me over the years. I’ve raised my family and my wife and I have lived in Grande Prairie for 41 years. At the end of the day, I am very happy. I moved here when there was 10,000 people and now there are 70,000. The people of Grande Prairie are truly caring people.”