Brosseau running to be Bonnyville Mayor in the fall

One person has submitted their nomination forms to run to be the next Mayor of Bonnyville–Elisa Brosseau.

The current town councillor made the decision officially last Wednesday. She has served on council since 2017.

Born in Bonnyville and growing up in Fort McMurray, Brosseau says here will always be home.

“We always came back to Bonnyville. It was always home to us,” she said.

“Honestly, the reason I wanted to run for mayor, I’ve been on the council for three and a half years, and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. I decided to run for the mayor position because I just know in that position you can help out more with that vision and you get to be that voice of the council and beyond for the community,” said Brosseau.

Brosseau decided to run for town council in 2017 after being a stay-at-home mom with her three children. Getting back into the workforce and active in the community was part of the driving force for vying for a council position then.

“I wanted a seat at the table and in the decisions that are affecting our municipality directly. And the only way you can do that is actually being at the table where those decisions are being made,” she said.

Brosseau sits on the Library, FCSS, and Alberta Bilingual Municipal Boards. She is now on the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority board, the housing committee, and is the chair of the Canada Day committee and Community Futures Lakeland in a volunteer capacity.

Regional economic development has been a growing passion of hers, after that committee was formed with the M.D. of Bonnyville. She said she canvassed business owners when first earning the council seat to hear what issues are concerning them.

“I found personally myself that there was a little bit of a disconnect between the town and local businesses, as I started my council position in 2017,” she said.

“The biggest thing I did hear from them was that lack of communication directly between businesses and the town. So that really reinforced to me that we need to perhaps be a driver in how we can support our local businesses and support our local economy.

“I really want to see us go to an area of wherever we all want to go. So I really feel like it’s a team approach,” said Brosseau.

“But I really think we shouldn’t work against the grain, we need to work with what’s already here. And, of course, we have oil and gas, so I think that will be a big driver. But I think it’s also coupled with innovation–innovation in tech. I mean, everybody’s talking about it, we only know through COVID it’s accelerated so much. And so how can we work with that in the energy sector?”

Brosseau is the lone individual who has submitted a form to run for Mayor, while current councillor Chad Colbourne has also thrown his hat in the ring to run for council again.

Nominations close on September 20 ahead of the October 18th municipal election.

“I have a clear vision for our future. And I really think that I could work hard to bring that vision to fruition. I’m ready to dedicate myself to that. I’ve set aside any other types of work or anything that I would do to solely dedicate myself as the mayor, to work hard to make Bonnyville a place where people want to stay, they can have great recreation, have great jobs. And so I think I would be a really great leader to work on the future for Bonnyville.