Council candidate ready for city growth

After a decade of living in Steinbach, Mitesh Kumar wants to give back by becoming a city councillor.

Kumar made the announcement of his candidacy in a Facebook post, where he shared a variety of issues he’d like to focus on.

“Steinbach is growing fast,” he said. “My vision is to respect the heritage, values that built this community while welcoming new opportunities and planning for the future.”

This is Kumar’s second attempt at winning a council seat.

He ran in the 2018 election, when he was still new to the community.

Now with 20 years of experience in Canada and 10 in Steinbach, he said he’s ready to put his background to work.

Kumar has a bachelor of business and post-graduate from George Brown College and has experience in sales support, logistics, supply chain, business, visa consulting, finances, non-profit involvement and community service.

He served as the treasurer on the board for Summer in the City, was part of the South East Equity Coalition working toward public transit and worked for Elections Canada and Eastman Immigration Services.

“My campaign is based on a simple belief,” he said. “Steinbach is not failing, we are growing. Growth brings opportunities but also growing pains and challenges that need planning, engagement, oversight, transparency and full-time effort.”

That requirement for more effort has prompted Kumar to reduce his work commitment to part time so he’s available during business hours for council and community work.

“I am not asking for additional pay, and I am not promising to solve every problem,” he said. “I am offering more time, preparation, research, accessibility, engagement and follow-through.”

Consultation and advocacy are important to Kumar who said he’d like to see a senior housing and healthy aging task force, community area connectors, a non-profit grant and resource roundtable, development impact scorecards, a digital pet tag and lost pet notification system, better grant and project tracking and other partnership-based ideas he said should be low cost.

He supports public transit and said council should support the concept in principle to allow the group to attract private sponsorship and grants.

But he added they must ensure it’s financially sustainable.

“We don’t want to run empty buses,” he said.

Remaining financially responsible is important to Kumar who said taxpayers’ money must be carefully used.

“We all work so hard to earn every single dollar,” he said.

Kumar is hoping to reach every household in Steinbach on the campaign trail and as of press time has already been to 600 homes.

“I believe residents deserve more than a slogan,” he said. “They deserve the opportunity to review my background, priorities, ideas and commitments.”

He’s also launched a website to share his platform at fulltimeeffort.ca and is hoping to host a town-hall forum in September.

“Canada has been my home for 20 years,” he said. “I built my family life here and Steinbach is where I think I’ll retire and age.”