Chris Nand has declared he’s running for a seat on the District of Sparwood council.
A resident of Sparwood since 1976, Nand came to the area with his family when he was a teenager and went on to work at the mines after graduating at the local school. He’s worked at the mines since he was 19 years old at Kaiser Resources, B.C. Coal, Westar Mining and finally Teck since 1993.
With his wife, Nand raised two daughters in Sparwood and volunteers locally. He served as the president of the United Steelworkers Local 9346 union for nine years between 2003 and 2012, during which the union went on strike for 67 days over labour contracts in early 2011.
This will be Nand’s first attempt at winning elected office.
“I thought I’d give back to the community that has given me so much over the years,” said Nand in an interview with The Free Press.
“I don’t have a personal agenda, I just want to make life better for the people that built this town and for the generation that is coming up and their kids.”
Nand said he wanted to make sure the people’s taxes were spent wisely and there was fulsome engagement before large sums of money were spent.
“I want to make sure the council doesn’t decide what’s good for the community. The people should tell us what’s good for them.”
He spoke about a desire to see housing tackled in the community, noting Teck’s presence and the rising cost of homes, adding that he didn’t believe it was the district’s business to be building housing, but with so much land, solutions could be found. He also talked about the need for better healthcare access, given the Sparwood healthcare centre is not open full-time.
With the election a little over a month away, Nand said many in town would already know him and what he thought about issues around town.
“I would like to see councillors go and talk to the people one on one. That’s what I plan on doing, talking to people and seeing what their needs are.
The election takes place on October 15.
READ MORE: Editor’s note: Calling all local candidates
scott.tibballs@thefreepress.ca
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