Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Brent Harris Of The Tool Library
This article is part of series of profiles of entrepreneurs who’ve been elected to city councils in New Brunswick.
SAINT JOHN — Saint John Tool Library founder Brent Harris is looking to build a more livable and sustainable city in his new role as Councillor at Large in Saint John.
Harris was elected to the seat last month, but it wasn’t his first time in the political arena. For the past four years, Harris has been active in the New Brunswick Green Party, running for them in the last provincial election unsuccessfully.
But he says he was inspired by the level of civil engagement fostered by Saint John’s outgoing mayor, Don Darling, and started digging deeper and learning more about municipal issues. This ultimately inspired him to run municipally.
“In Saint John, we have a bite-size city. Yeah, there are lots of issues that are unique to us, but there’s a lot of flexibility we have to try different things and see where they go,” says Harris. “As long as we have the courage and the boldness to go after some of these different approaches, we could really see some major differences which we couldn’t necessarily see provincially. That’s what excites me.”
Harris will be advocating for three core things around the council table: livability; environmental and economic sustainability; and housing. This will include things like supporting forms of active transportation (more bike lanes and beefing up city transit), access to parks and recreation.
He’s also passionate about housing and the role the city can play in affordable housing development. This includes being prepared and ready to take advantage of federal and provincial programs, opportunities he says the city has missed in the past.
“We don’t necessarily have to be spending new money, but we do need to play a more active role in saying, we’re going to support this group and this group in their bids’ and help them make the best plans now so that when a pass comes like that, we’re not left scrambling for a plan,” says Harris.
“We have a plan, we’ve identified places and we have things lined up because then it’s really easy for the federal government or provincial government to say, ‘Oh here, we’d love to support this impact.’ But we’re often left scrambling as a city I found on issues like that.”
Harris is one of four new Saint John councillors who are small business owners. He will be joined by Joanna Killen (co-owner of Slocum & Ferris), Paula Radwan (owner of Taste of Eygpt) and Greg Stewart (owner of AJ’S Lounge). As small business people, Harris says they will bring a new perspective to council.
“We understand what it’s like to be up a two in the morning trying to figure out how you’re going to make this thing work and how you’re going to make payroll that week, and are you’re going pay for you and your families needs?” says Harris. “Those are unique problems and to me, that’s a really good perspective for somebody on the council to have that’s often been missed.”
This perspective can help create a council that’s less risk-averse and more creative when it comes to solving problems.
“The old saying ‘no risk, no reward’ is so true. People are risk-averse for all the wrong reasons and we end up having a risk-averse council because it’s made up of people not used to taking risks and not used to supporting people who take risks and we get a lot of status quo stuff,” says Harris.
“To me, that’s what’s exciting. There are four people there who know what it’s like to bang it out and take risks with their own money and have to wear all the hats.”
More in this series:
- Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Greg Stewart Of AJ’s Lounge
- Meet Your New Saint John City Councillor: Joanna Killen Of Slocum & Ferris