2025 Candidate Q’s: Craig Snodgrass

Thank you High River residents for taking the time to ask our 2025 Municipal Election Candidates the many questions before and at the All-Candidates Forum. 

While we couldn’t get all the questions answered in person, we did go through the questions, remove the redundancy and have the Most Asked questions below that our candidates were invited to answer AFTER the forum.

Read on to learn more about your candidates and the issues that have been top of mind for our engaged citizens.

Visit: www.snodgrassformayor.ca

What does advocacy mean to you and how best do/will you practice this attribute of leadership?

Advocacy is extremely important - there are no jurisdictional boundaries if it effects High River.

What is your position on water conservation?

Water conservation is very important - making sure our water is clean is even more important.

A lot of the candidates talk about local economy specifically; how do you plan to grow the economy?  And how do you plan to encourage sustainable growth?

We have 2 major sectors in High River - Health Care & Agricultural Services. Both of these are the major drivers of High River's economy. My number one rule is to stay out of the business of the business - take care of the core services they need (water, sewer, sidewalks, roads). Growing the economy is a very tough one for the Town to have a ton of influence on in reality. Where a business locates has far more to do with location & access to a market population. Ec Dev officer? We've had 3 of them before and we could not measure any tangible economic growth from this role. Spending the time and money supporting existing businesses in getting up and running with permitting etc, helping with our major events (Balloons, Car Show, Parades etc) that draw people to town and showing new businesses that what they need with the core services will be there.

Providing the amenities and events that draw people to High River to live here or just visit. People drive the economy, bring the people and the businesses will follow. Just a slight FYI - Downtown Space Vacancy - Pre-Flood 32,000 sq ft available; Post Flood 110,000 sq ft available, currently we have less than 9,000 sq ft available. In the words of one realtor - Downtown is Full. Great news.

How do you plan on responding to the growing needs of the youth demographics (ages 10 to 16) of High River to help retain or bring them back when they become adults?

This is why the pool expansion was so important to council. These amenities are what young families are looking for. Continuing to build recreational activity spaces is extremely important - rec centre, outdoor rink, Brian Perry Park, Pump Track. We also need to do a much better job in figuring out what kind of community High River wants to be in terms of Arts & Culture. There's always ways to improve our community for everyone.

With an aging population and increase in disabled persons in our town, what steps do you propose to ensure a meaningful life for all residents?

Accesibility to get around safely. We are always doing our best to improve roads, sidewalks and our Happy Trails system. It takes a lot of money to maintain these pieces so you have to be respectful of the budget, which is why it is a standard line item in every budget.

What does urban sustainability mean to you?

When we max out our allocation of water from the watershed we are on, we need to cap our population. High River is a long way away from this currently but it is inevitable that the day will come. I do not believe in building massive pipelines from other watersheds to continue to increase our growth. It is not truly sustainable to do so.