The man who has been the director of finance on both sides of the North Saskatchewan River is now seeking the mayor’s job in North Battleford.
David Gillan has officially filed papers to run for mayor this week. Along with Lois Laing he is one of two confirmed challengers so far to incumbent Mayor Ryan Bater in the 2020 race.
As for why he is running, Gillan told the News-Optimist he didn’t want to “sit on the sidelines anymore.”
It was “time to stop talking and start doing something,” said Gillan, who adds he’s received a lot of encouragement “from people I respect in the community” to run.
Up to now Gillan has been director of finance in Battleford as well as their deputy chief administrative officer — a role that was upgraded to “acting” CAO this summer with the departure of John Enns-Wind for New Brunswick.
Before that, Gillan had served as director of finance in North Battleford. He pointed to his finance background as a unique one he can bring to the mayor’s role.
There are “not many people who have been finance director on both sides of the River here, and know what’s really going on in these places,” said Gillan.
As for Battleford, they will need to find a new director of finance no matter what the result is of Gillan’s mayoralty challenge.
Gillan confirmed that he has already resigned from his finance role in Battleford and is currently working out his notice period to allow time for a replacement to be found.
“I wanted to pursue other things, this being one of them,” said Gillan.
Since filing his nomination papers, Gillan has been busy putting in place a campaign manager and getting ready to officially start campaigning with a news release expected this week.
Gillan said he will have a very specific platform and that will be coming out soon — one that will be very much “results-driven.”
“I’ll be talking very specific because I’ve been on the inside,” said Gillan. “I’ll probably be one of the candidates that can really get into it.”
