Jodi Faith

First time candidate Jodi Faith joins Brian on the porch. She loves the vibrancy of Medicine Hat and wants to see Medicine Hat set up community associations to get neighbours connecting. Brian and Jodi discuss ways the city can support small business and get people working.

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Transcript

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I think that when when I was approached to do this, I saw myself as somebody who is very positive, very optimistic, very, very excited about the future. Although concerned. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. And at this time, I'd like to welcome to the porch Jodi Faith, candidate for Medicine Hat City council on October 20th. Welcome. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. You have run an interesting campaign. Your campaign is a little different than others. What is it based on? That's an interesting way to start. I am an interesting person. I know that I am, I'm a little different than a lot of people. I had a group, an individual who actually approached me after having been part of a meeting asking if I would run, if I would be accept the nomination. So I think even right there, that's an interesting start, because it wasn't on my list of things to do. My husband and I moved back to Medicine Hat area about four and a half years ago. I came to care for my mom. She was palliative and, it was middle of Covid. It was a really tough time. I had been running a drug free living house in Saskatoon, and I really believe in the need for recovery and transitional housing. But my husband and I had just made a decision. We were going to put our money where our mouth was. And so moving to Medicine Hat wasn't actually on my list at that time. And, caring for my mom and being able to be there for my family and, and whatnot was was a beautiful thing during that time. And we ended up buying my mom and dad's house. My dad wanted to move out. And, so here I am in Medicine Hat four years later, wondering, what am I going to do when I grow up? You know, I had a couple summers jobs and my husband and I have been blessed. We've had a home in Arizona through the many years. He played baseball at a really high level, and so we had a place down there. But all of that is coming to an end as his health is deteriorating a little bit. And you know what it's like trying to get Canadian health care coverage if you're going to go to the states with issues. So that has had us thinking, now, what is the world going to look like? Right? And, I think that when when I was approached to do this, I saw myself as somebody who is very positive, very optimistic, very, very excited about the future, although concerned, we've got 25, 21 grandkids under the age of 25. We have seven kids and all their significant others, and we've watched what's happened with the world. Our oldest grandson actually recently moved to Florida. And guess what? They're probably going to be able to buy houses and do all sorts of wonderful things down there that they just can't do in the economy in Canada. So I think those are the things that have powered this decision in lots of ways. So it sounds like your campaign is based on a social conscience. I would like to say that I think that that's something that, is very challenging to keep that balance. I think that the bureaucracy and the administration and, and all those kinds of stuff that we deal with on a daily basis don't often take into consideration what is happening in people's hearts and minds in their homes, among their kids. I have been horrified to discover how much hopelessness there is in people's lives right now. Hopelessness. Not homelessness. No. There is a difference. Yes. And hopeless. Like when people are having to choose between rent and utilities and food for their children, or as seniors, you know, they're giving up their vehicles right now. I drive with vintage, minor vintage transport, which is a wonderful program. But I'm sitting beside people that have just had to give up a car because they literally can't afford the cost of a vehicle on a monthly basis, because they're not only trying to make sure that they have food and those kinds of things. But I met a lady who was telling me she cuts her pills in half, so she's getting twice as much, you know, for that dollar that she's spending on her medication. And and, I mean, we actually have supports in Alberta for things like medication, especially for seniors and whatnot, but it's still just the cost of the the dispensing fee was something she had to save, had to work on. And so, you know, obviously people are cutting their medication in half. That's not good. Right. Dealing with food insecurities and the financial insecurities right now are challenging. I think that if we can hear the heart of people and try to say to them, I will be your advocate and on whatever level I'm able, I'm not going to be able to to change the world. I get that. But I think until we find out we can't, we should still be striving towards it. So how would, counselor Faith make changes? Well, I think that there's some amazing programs that are already in place. And because I come from, like, come kind of come at life from a really positive perspective, I love the vibrancy sort of aspect of the city. They have micro grants for neighborhood connecting events. I came out of Saskatoon where I was actually the treasurer of a community association in Saskatoon. We had 47 of them. So every bit of the city was covered by these community associations. And what I found is that I was able to get to know the neighbor. I was able to get to know, I mean, the young mum who needed help at a, you know, crucial moment. You know, Grandma Jody was there. I could pop over and I could babysit for those kids. I wouldn't even have known who they were, except for those community association moments. I think that if we can build community from that perspective now, we get to know what's going on in the homes, in the hearts of our neighbors. And, you know, I mean, it's one thing to say hello as you're getting into the garage and and carrying on with your life, but I feel that those kinds of things are important just from a very grassroots perspective. Like, let's get to know each other better, let's build community a little bit better. And then I look at a lot of the things that are going on at City Hall that are very much focused on building better. I really see the good things that have been done. I see the positive things that can be done. I mean, there are some horrifying things that I've discovered, like when we had our utility rebate checks come back a couple of years ago. Not not any renters that I've met ever received a nickel of that. You know, it went to the landowner because he was the one supplying the actual utilities. And so I think we have to do better with some of those programs. Yes. We were offering something that was really going to make a difference, but it didn't actually get to those people that needed that. I don't know. I, I can think about 47 different ways that I feel as though councilor Faith, as part of this team, would be able to make some really positive strides. And I want to speak to that. It's been amazing that many meet and greets and whatnot that have been going on like as a as a constituency, people are able to see who we are, but very sincerely we are getting to know one another. And I without exception, I really believe that we are going to be able to work together if if you choose those top eight, I have not, with the exception of maybe a couple comments, there's not one personality that I don't feel that I would be able to work with. I think team building is going to be the key. I'm really grateful that we're going to have respectful workplace training. I find it kind of sad that we have to start with that because of that, that society. Right. But I also am really excited about that training. We are going to come together as a more cohesive team than it has ever happened before. That was one of the things that Municipal Affairs said, that they had failed, because we are not the only constituency where some of this stuff was going on right. And that's what I heard in the inspection report was or the presentation, the presentation that they did at City Hall was very much saying, we have failed you in that we didn't make sure that you were trained well enough and prepared well enough for what your job is and how to remain respectful. So I think that those things are going to really lend us to a better place. So then coming back to your message of hope. Yes. You feel hopeful about your other candidates, regardless of whether or not you get elected or not. I truly have a good a good potential council. I really do. I really do. I think that there's, just, really, in my opinion, there's a real cohesiveness to do better and to do well for the future. I mean, you've got so many different ideas out there right now. It's stuff like, I would never really have thought about Saratoga Park, for example, that wasn't on my list of any any concerns or ideas. And yet I look at that and I'm like, oh my gosh, that is a beautiful story that needs to be told. That is on my list. That is one of the stories, is it we are going to tell. You, there you go. And I had not even heard about it. You know. And now, I mean, I have friends who come from that First Nations or May teeside where they actually have those stories to tell, and I love that. I think, there's another fellow who's written love letters to the city of Medicine Hat over the years, and and he's been sharing those. And that's a really beautiful thing. But we've got some really, really wonderful candidates that have grave concerns about some of what they've seen going on. I come from a bit of a small business background, to which I think there's quite a few of our councilors that share that concern, like we got to improve the job situation. But what if instead of whining and complaining about the fact that a lot of people are only getting 20 to 30 hours a week, what if we were able to start a job pool where this guy over here with his small business cannot afford a full time, every day kind of staff member? But what if we could start a job pool where he could pick up that extra employee for 20 hours a week? And so now all of a sudden, the person who's only been working at 30 hours a week has the opportunity to work for another 20 hours a week. And now life is going to change because we know that income in is the only way to help with expenses out. Right? Yeah. How does a City of Medicine hat pay for something like that? Well, I've been thinking about that because one of the deep concerns people do have is our tax rate. And, I was at the meeting on, on Monday night where they've gone ahead to try and start creating a plan for what the Southside Aquatic Center might look like. Okay. So there's a lot of miscommunication out there that has not been determined. They needed to make an actual motion to move forward with purchasing land, creating a design plan, and then working to figure out what are the costs and who are the partners in that going to be. So we're very much at a very beginning point there, right? So the first thing I heard is phone calls like, oh my gosh, you can't be, you know, increasing taxes like crazy. So when I go to the thought of job creation, what if we could actually create an incentivized position where for the small business owner, if he's able to hire someone, we're able to give them a tax rebate. So a tax rebate that would actually go directly to the hiring of that new person, right. So I know it's a little bit convoluted and I have a lot of different kinds of ideas, but I've asked, could something like that be done? Well, of course it could, because we're registering them your business, who's actually growing the job pool. And so yes, we could do that. I think that one of my most popular platform ideas is that we need to really look at the wages that we're paying in City Hall right now, and there's deep concern about that. You know, there was a lot of pushback on the RMC, for example. Well, a lot of what came out of that was like, so we've got all these amazing people working in an energy division that have just been wasting all their time putting together a plan to offload it, like, what have they been doing for us? And so I know that those are not going to be, you know, really popular conversations to have. And they're there would be a bit of pushback from that idea. But the other thing is how many literally tens and tens of thousands of dollars that we pay on a monthly basis for consulting fees. And so we've got some of the best staff in our own building. Why are we asking anybody to consult on these things? Let's just make a decision. Let's empower our staff to do those things without increasing the bottom line and our expenses. Small business. We have heard from many who've sat in your chair during the course of these conversations, saying that it's nice to attract industry to medicine Hat, but we also need to look after that which we have already. Those who are here who are providing jobs, who are paying taxes to the city, medicine. That's so do you have any thoughts on that? Well, I absolutely agree. You know, we have to really start with who we have here. I've actually spent a bit of time going door knocking in actual businesses down, you know, in the industrial park and whatnot, asking how are you guys doing? And, and it's a little bit hopeless in some of those folks minds. Where people used to have 25 employees, now they have 20 where they used to be able to, do stuff, events, you know, take them out and do exciting things to team building. Might not they don't have a budget for those things right now. So that's a deep concern there. Sadly, our infrastructure is where it is. And and so just as an example, an industrial park area over what I would call the south west corner, they're looking to have their roads all torn up. And that is devastating for some of those people that don't have back door access to their buildings. How is that going to work? Because we already saw what happened downtown. The numbers of the businesses that closed during that infrastructure update time that went on and on and on, you know, is is a real concern. So how do we change that, that philosophy? Well, I think neighborhood micro grants to the industrial park, for example, like we could be having a festival around there. We could actually be taking our transit busses and saying, okay, Tuesdays we're going to be taking a tour of this area of town, and we're going to be stopping and we're going to be actually having coffee here. We're going to be visiting with these people. I think the number one thing we're going to change our economy, and especially the economy of those that are already here, is by supporting them. I am horrified and yet proud to say that I've spent more money in small shops since I started campaigning than I ever did before, and I've made a commitment to really change my way of thinking that way. I know that I've not only met amazing people who are running those businesses, but I've heard their dreams. I've heard their visions. Why don't we have an afternoon festival on their corner, where people can be drawn to come in there and actually figure out what's being served and, and who's serving us and, and those kinds of things. And again, they're not huge programs, but what they do is they lift us all up. They get us over there. You know, I love that so many of the small business people have opened their places for these meet and greets. That's how I've gotten to know about lots of them. I love the fact that you're across the street from the olive top. I never, ever understood that the olive top actually served lunch. Oh, yes. Okay. Tasty lunch. Right. And so, because I've been down here and I've been knocking on doors and all of a sudden I'm like, oh my gosh, right. But I think that we need to promote better. And I think that that's a piece. Sounds like you've been discovering the city that you've lived in that you didn't know about. That's it very, very much so. How do we get other people to discover you talking about festivals and whatnot? And the thought occurred to me is you were talking about Saskatoon with all of its neighborhood associations. People have talked about, well, maybe Medicine Hat needs a ward system for its city council, but maybe an alternative would be start the formation of neighborhood associations. That would be my my most exciting sort of growth plan, because the only way we're going to know, oh, Joe, he works over here is by getting to know him. And then what what do you do there, Joe? Well, I sell this or I sell that. Well, okay, I'm going to come and visit right. I became the politician that had a baby in my hands the other day. One thing that people. Did. You kiss the baby? I didn't kiss it. I didn't kiss it, but it was kind of. It was a little bit of a moment for me. I had to kind of laugh. But these young families that I'm visiting with have moved here from BC, from Kelowna, from Penticton. There's no hope for them to have a house or own property over there, whereas they're already looking forward to buying something here. They've got jobs that have brought them here and that's super exciting. But then let's engage them in what does our city offer? I believe the transit system is not being utilized the way that it could be also. And so yes, we've got the Sunshine Trolley and we have some of those initiatives that go on. I've been behind the Tipsy Trolley a few times and have been able to laugh out loud at the fun that it looks like they're having, but we could use the transit system that way to where we would say, on Tuesdays we're going to do this part of the city, and then it's a hop on, hop off, right? We get to actually get up there, take a look what's happening, how to support these people. So I think the neighborhood association philosophy works, as long as you have 2 or 3 stakeholders in that area that are interested, it doesn't take a whole lot more than that. Right. And I think that, what's cool about it now in Saskatoon, it's a little bit different because that's where the recreation funding is, is really handled, which is something we could all be doing, obviously. Right. I think that we've got an amazing communication team at the City of Medicine, how they've been really, really impressed. I love the fact that I learned that there was 3500 homes that were canvased through postcards or otherwise, for the 13th Avenue South Aquatic Center. So there's a bit of a rumor out there. Well, nobody asked my opinion. It's like, well, actually, they were trying really hard to ask opinion, and I think that same communication arm could work to create some of this awareness and community association. If you look now we've got back to school. We're going to move into the Christmas season. We've got the winter season. I love some of the ideas that are being, you know, purported to be really super important, like keeping that hockey arena going. Well, let's have a party at the hockey arena. Right. Let's all come together there and have a celebration. It doesn't always have to be this, this bigger place or that. Let's really come alongside those communities and try and do things. And then that's where you're going to have the local people sign up to be part of that community association. Almost like small town where the recreation center is, the center of the community. Absolutely could. Congregate. Sometimes it's a school. But yeah, that sense of, small town community in a bigger city. Yeah. And I think that what it does also, aside from getting to know your neighbor better, it actually puts value into that area of town. Right? There's some people that that have never been offered the southeast Hill. They've lived their whole life up there. But there's other people that have have no idea that there's those benefits. I think, of the realtors that are trying to sell houses, and I know that that's a tough market in some ways right now. That was one of the things people were talking about, how their expenses are changing because they have to renew a mortgage at this interest rate. And very concerning. I mean, and that's concerning for everybody, whether they're older or younger. But to be able to sort of say, what else do we need in this area? Right? So if we're going to if we're going to thrive here, I mean, we certainly don't want to see our pulled on. So then let's start an advocacy group to keep our pool right. We kind of look to the city sometimes to say, oh, they need to do this and they need to do this. Well, I would like to empower the citizens to say, this is what we need, and we need someone to hear us. And I don't think we need a ward system in Medicine Hat, because I'm going to represent the southeast till the same way as I'm going to represent the industrial park, the same way as I'm going to represent Crescent Heights, because I've had people from all those areas that have spoken to me. I live off of South View Drive and I see, a lot of concern doorknocking with the seniors over there. There's, you know, so I think we obviously at this point we need to be representing everybody as best as we can. And, and by building some of that community philosophy, I think we're going to do better. One of the things we've not talked about, and it's one of the things you can see if you walk down any downtown street, are the people who are homeless, for lack of a better term. The Mustard Seed is has been, trying to find a place where they can offer services. Nimby not in my backyard has been, prominent, battle. They have fought. How is Jody Faith going to help? Put that to me? Well, if you get my platform, you can read right on there. It's it's double spay or single space. Two sides. Yes. Because I have so much to say. And actually, I just created a follow up which answers a whole bunch of other questions. But what a lot of people don't know about me is I came to Medicine Hat in 1994 as my first husband tried to kill me. He had had a psychotic break because of marijuana, and a lot of people would say, well, that's a lie. And I'm going to say to them, this is our truth, this is our family. And then unbeknownst to me, he was also, encouraging my youngest son, our youngest son, to do drugs with him. So Caleb started using marijuana at 14. He gave him cocaine at 16 and crack at 17. So my youngest son is 40 years old today and has battled for over 20 years with significant alcohol and drug issues. So coming from that baseline in our own home, we actually have been in five North with a psychotic break where doctor Booth, who actually at the time said, this is not mental illness, this is marijuana induced psychosis. Get off the marijuana, you're going to be fine. And at that point, my son literally cried because it was like, I've just thought I'm a mental health wreck. And sure enough, he got clean, he got sober, and his mental health was amazing. Okay, so this is the truth. So one of the things that we did and why we went to Saskatoon is Caleb himself had been through recovery and he had failed. So he'd been through everything is tickety boo. Life is perfect. And now he's falling off the wagon. The last time that, it really became apparent was during Covid, because all the groups that he would have had for support were gone. They weren't allowed to gather. And he just phoned and he said, I am gonna fall off the wagon. I'm not doing well. I can't be alone all the time. And that's what we see as we see community. If you look at the unhoused population, you always, always, always see some of them congregating. It doesn't matter where they are, they're going to congregate. I loved the idea of getting them up to the the northeast or northwest part of town there. Because I've watched it happen. They don't need to be downtown. There's no services that they're really getting down town right now. People like Geraldine who are going to them and taking them food there. That's what's happening now, right? The food services are mostly being delivered to them. For example, if you put them on a bus and this is what Calgary did, and I've watched this and it works so well, there were busses that had security on them. And that's where the the individual who needed to get to a shelter or just out of the cold, if we want to talk about that sad reality that's upon us, they just get on that bus and that bus loops to the shelter. But you know what was happening? My daughter's working at a shelter and detox center. So it starts out as a shelter. So now they're safe. But that shelter, there was no requirement for them to ever leave. Well, guess what happens now? They're actually in a safe environment. They're relaxing. They're starting to hear from their nurse every day. You know, there is space in the detox. And those individuals that started out coming in strictly for shelter ended up moving into detox. I ended up helping facilitate just getting some clothing to a guy who was coming out of detox. They let him stay there as long as he needed until they found him a recovery spot in medicine Hat. So Jasmin had called and said, mom, can you take him some clothes? Because he's he's leaving without without clothes. Right. So the piece that then follows is transitional housing, because just because they finish a recovery program doesn't mean they're ready to be on their own. And I believe we have huge opportunity here. I believe in tiny home communities. I do believe that the city needs to get involved in affordable housing. I think the whole idea that any developer thinks that they want to do have affordable housing is a joke. With our economic situation, broad streets coming in, and I've been hearing like it's going to be 16 to $1800 for an apartment there. So this is not affordable. So how can the city look to help with that kind of thing? And I think the transitions from shelter to detox to recovery and then into transitional housing is huge. I've already spoken to the people of Beaver Farms. I've asked for a meeting there to find out if we couldn't possibly use some of the warehouse space up there to actually do some housing. They've already got power. They've already got, everything from water and sewer up there. It would be really, really simple to put tiny homes in there and start building community where they could be growing. I also think that, if you give most of us something to do, we're going to have way more hope for our future than we otherwise would have had. It's been said that Idle Hands are the devil's workshop. And I would agree with that. And I think that a lot of the individuals that are struggling, I think there's also a misconception that everybody who's unharmed at our city has issues with addictions and mental health. I have a friend to who worked for actually Alberta Health Services. Her daughter actually worked, at one of the big retailers in town. They could not as a two income home working part time. They could not afford an apartment in the city. So they ended up buying an RV, not understanding what that cost was going to be. Right. And then all of a sudden they had to buy the propane tank and then like it was just a gong, show the joke. She always said this. Well, at least, you know, if this doesn't work out, I'll be able to live in my car. And then her car was repossessed. And so I feel as though it's a huge issue, and we're not going to I don't care what anybody says, we are not going to be able to grow a vibrant downtown area until we deal with this. And I think that we had a solution that was remarkable and that we could have allowed for transportation and housing all at the same time to be partnering to get the these folks where they need to be and into community outside of the core. On October 20th, we have eight votes. Yes we do. And this is your chance to convince people why they should have faith in faith. Yes, my husband came up with that. You know, like have faith. We have to have faith in this community. That's that's the key is that we can we can reset the bar. I believe that I am very committed to jobs and economic growth, very, very committed to affordable housing and unique housing solutions like home matching programs or intentional communities where we partner, we opened our home and we have a tenant in our home because that helped us get rid of that$900 a month fear when we we're looking at our utilities and taxes. It was just it helped us hugely. But I also believe that there are some great solutions for health and recovery supports. I've got all sorts of, questions that have been asked. And and I know that I'm part of a team that really believes that we are going to do well for our residents. And I think people say, well, what do you want to do? What do you what am I going to do? Well, actually, a lot of what I thought I, I would prioritize has shifted somewhat as I've been talking to the residents. I'm going to be there to serve you. I'm going to be there to continue to hear from you. I will be asking for constant communication as far as how are we doing? And I think that that is a key. I have heard so often that people said they felt they had no idea what was going on behind those closed doors, and I'm part of a committee membership who says we are going to do way more in open doors, even if all we have is outside of that closed meeting. We have a summary. This is what just took place. We were dealing with this issue because I think that as long as we promised transparency and we execute it, people are going to see that we can have faith again in our in the entire system, in the city and all the things that have brought us here. I've I've come back here to retire. I've come back here. I've got so much time that I can spend because of that. And, I have been spending that time and I it's more than a full time job for those people that that think it's not. I would be concerned because I really think that if we're going to do well for the individual out there, you got to be able to be available a lot. And I want to be that voice and I want to be that ear. October 20th Jodie Faith's candidate for medicine at City Council. Thank you for your time. Thank you guys. This is awesome.