Troy Nixon to seek second term on Fernie council

Troy Nixon will be running for a second term on the Fernie council in October.

First elected in 2018, Nixon and has family have lived in Fernie full-time for eight years.

Locals will know Nixon for his previous involvement in outdoor pursuits like the Fernie Mountain Biking Club (FMBC) and the Fernie Freestyle Club. He also had a hand in organising the Elk Valley Epic to raise funds for an Ultrasound machine in the Elk Valley Hospital back in 2020.

Nixon said he wanted to continue with the work that current council had begun over the last few years in cleaning up city hall.

“I want to support the community and support our staff,” said Nixon in an interview with The Free Press. “I think we still have a lot of work to do,” he said, elaborating that smoothing out how the city operated and interacted with itself and the community were big items that needed more attention, and doing that would improve what the city could achieve for locals.

“I think we’re on the right path for the community.”

Among other things he said he’d like to push on another term on council, Nixon said he wanted the city to keep making decisions with a climate lens, and to focus more on housing affordability.

“We’ve done a pretty good job at supporting housing affordability to this point (by) not being anti-development,” he said, adding he could only recall a single development variance permit that failed during the last term.

Overall, Nixon said his motivation as a councillor was to help make Fernie a safer and easier community to live in for residents, and also help make processes easier and more accessible for whatever city council came after.

The municipal election will be held on October 15 this year.

READ MORE: Editor’s note: Calling all local candidates