Skip to content

Building for future and engaging youth key issues for would-be councillor

A 34-year resident of Thompson and a 28-year employee of Inco and Vale, council candidate Robert Chuckrey says he's seen enough to appreciate recent improvements to the city and to have a balanced view of what the future holds for Thompson.
Robert Chuckrey
Council candidate Robert Chuckrey says Thompson can grow even as mining employs fewer and fewer of its residents.

A 34-year resident of Thompson and a 28-year employee of Inco and Vale, council candidate Robert Chuckrey says he's seen enough to appreciate recent improvements to the city and to have a balanced view of what the future holds for Thompson.

“People were always scared that Thompson was not going to be there when the mine wasn't there,” says Chuckrey, who moved to Thompson in 1980, finished high school here and worked for local businesses before being hired at the mine in 1987, where he works as a heavy-duty mechanic. “Well, the mine had less and less employees and Thompson still was growing.”

With that in mind, he said he's pleased that the municipal government in recent years has begun working on projects that assume the city is going to be here long after their terms are over.

“Growing up in this town and seeing things that weren't brought into place because either they weren't informed or they weren't looking at government projects or anything from the federal government or provincial government, now they're looking at getting more stuff done by getting the programs in place,” Chuckrey says. “It may be an inconvenience to the city at some times but it's a necessary inconvenience to be able to keep our infrastructure going. A lot of people don't understand that some of the government grants you get, they have to be done during a certain time. You can't change that otherwise you lose that kind of money and you don't get the funding next time down the road.”

Chuckrey says that, if elected on Oct. 22, he will make sure he learns everything he can about an issue before making any decisions or statements about it.

“I like to, when I'm looking at something, research it, make sure I have all my facts,” says Chuckrey, who has served as a volunteer coach in gymnastics and soccer when his children, now adults, were growing up, as well as being president of the Kinsmen Club for a couple of years. “The worst thing is to not know as much as you can about something before you go talking about it or doing anything about it. You have to have your information. When I'm speaking to someone, I give them the facts and don't give them a long-winded story. People don't' want to sit there for a long period of time. When they ask a question, they want to know the facts right away.”

Chuckrey says one thing that council and the city need to do is keep people informed of what's happening and to reach out to younger residents.

“We have to give them more information,” he says. “People are not sure what's happening. Our community has a lot of young people in it, from schoolchildren right up to the age of 35, that need to understand more of what's going on in their community. They are the people who are coming up at an age where they're going to be your next councillors. They're our next hope.”

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks