Fingas new to Moosomin council
October 15, 2020, 9:08 am
Kevin Weedmark
There will be no election for Moosomin town council this year, with all councillors in by acclamation, but there will be one new face around the council table, with new councillor Kyla Fingas replacing outgoing councillor Jason Miller, who decided not to run again.
This is Fingas’s first time serving on town council.
“I was born and raised outside of Moosomin and I moved back here in 2011. I live with my husband and my three children and have worked at Conexus for almost 17 years and just want to give back to the community,” she says.
Fingas says she has been involved in the community for a number of years in various ways. “I’ve coached ball in the past and I’ve been involved with the Creative Vision group,” she says. “I regularly volunteer with the theatre as well.”
Fingas says she never thought of running for council until someone encouraged her to do so.
“Someone in the community kind of tapped my shoulder and said ‘you know, I think you’d be really great,’ and I hadn’t considered it before. So I talked to my husband and he thought it was a great idea, and I thought I’d give it a shot,” she says.
“I don’t really have an agenda at this point. I have some long-term plans but I think I first need to see what the perspective is like from that side of the table before I can really say what I hope to accomplish.”
Fingas says long-term some of the things that are important to her are health care, the school, affordable housing and economic development.
“A couple of the issues that are important to me would be a plan to develop additional long-term care options for Level 2 and 3 applicants in order to make Moosomin a place where you can really live cradle to grave,” she says.
“Advocating for the expansion of schools in Moosomin (is also important to me) as classrooms are at capacity and space is at a premium.
“I believe there needs to be exploration into affordable housing options for low income individuals as current rental rates leave little room for saving for a down payment towards home ownership.
“And I believe in really supporting the economic development in our community to make this a preferred shopping center for Southeast Saskatchewan plus Manitoba.”
She says she is particularly passionate about seniors being able to stay in Moosomin once they need additional care.
“I think aging in place is really important, and that’s something we don’t have right now in Moosomin. I think we have a gap that we need to find a bridge for,” she says. “Right now we’re sending people to Sunrise Villa in Maryfield or Broadview and Wolseley, and to private homes, and then they are having to separate from their loved ones, and then we have elderly people on the highways travelling often to see their spouses.”
Fingas will be the only woman on Moosomin town council, which hasn’t has a female councillor for the last two years.
“I don’t know that being a woman makes me a special part of council, but I do think it’s important to have that demographic represented,” she says.
