INNISFAIL — Devin Dreeshen is being seriously challenged to continue his reign as the MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.
Last week, Sylvan Lake’s Kjeryn Dakin, a 36-year-old first-term town councillor and owner of three Lakeshore Drive restaurants, told the Albertan she has filed nomination papers with the United Conservative Party (UCP) to be the new riding MLA and win it in the 2023 provincial election.
Dakin noted riding nominations close June 28, and the decision as to who will run for the UCP will be made 21 to 30 days after, as early as July 19. Last week she filed her papers, a 48-page application to the UCP’s nomination office at a cost of $2,000.
Dreeshen, who has been the UCP MLA since 2018, told the Albertan he welcomed the challenge, noting the UCP has open nominations, and when he first ran four years ago, he faced eight challengers. He added there may be more than one this time around.
“I think it's a good healthy process,” said Dreeshen.
Dakin is married with three children, and has lived in Sylvan Lake since 2004. She purchased her first restaurant in 2014. She claims support to run provincially is coming from all members of Sylvan Lake town council.
“My personal experience has been that our constituency is looking for somebody who is being responsive, and we're not getting that from him. It's being echoed from many people we're not getting responses back from his office,” said Dakin candidly.
“Emails are coming in, not getting back out. And, you know we deserve better than that, and I have the ability, the energy, and skill set to be able to handle and manage all of that.”
“I'm a multiple restaurant owner, and as somebody who had to go through COVID we needed some response. We needed him to be a leader for us at that point. And he dropped the ball a few times on us. So yes, I will be accessible. I'm going to be accountable and I'm going to be responsive.”
However, the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake riding is huge. Will the Sylvan Lake resident be able to be equally accessible to constituents in Innisfail and riding areas beyond to the east and south?
“I'm not going to treat Sylvan Lake like my main location,” said Dakin. “I'm not going to spend equal amount of time everywhere. I’m going to have offices in multiple places so I can be accessible, set time so people can come and see me. I'll do the same dedication in each community that is inside the riding.”
Dreeshen told the Albertan that Dakin’s claim he’s not accessible to riding constituents is not true. He said his full- and part-time staff has processed about 75,000 emails, and currently has about 2,200 case files.
“Between my two staff and myself we do our best to return calls, return emails, and process government files of people that have issues, whether it be through AISH or granting programs,” said Dreeshen.
“I think we do as good as any MLA could do, especially with two years of COVID where I think my office and other offices have seen a huge spike in calls and emails coming into the office.
"I think I have the best staff in the province when it comes to getting back to people and needing me to follow up with them afterwards."
As for the controversy that saw him resigning his agriculture and forestry ministry portfolio last November amidst allegations of misconduct, Dreeshen said he believes it will not hurt his chances of once again representing the riding, pointing to his track record of helping constituents on many important issues.
Dreeshen noted he was part of the UCP team that ensured a $1.8 billion investment into the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, the three new entrances off Highway 11 into Sylvan Lake, and his strong lobbying on behalf of Innisfail to untie a holding clause in a senior government funding contract to release 60 acres of new industrial development land in the southwest corner of town.
“They (Innisfail) were tenacious in fighting and trying to come up with ideas of how they could unlock those 60 acres of industrial land and it’s great to see lots being sold now,” said Dreeshen, who is also proud of his commitment to Sylvan Lake constituents to secure the intersections.
“That's something that everybody in Sylvan Lake has said is their biggest issue they wanted to see addressed and we got the funding for it.”
