City council candidate Brandon Tichkowsky loves to serve

Brandon Tichkowsky is one of the four candidates running for an open seat on Weyburn City Council. The by-election will be held May 31st, 2023.

Tichkowsky works in construction and is also the associate pastor at the Wheatland Community Church. He told Discover Weyburn that he loves to be keyed in to what the people are saying, he excels at being part of committees and boards, and he loves to serve.

He said while Weyburn's people find different ways to express their concerns, some of what they're saying is being heard.

"One of them being the roads, every spring anywhere in Saskatchewan, roads," he said. "And the cost of living going up, that's a big one. We see taxes going up everywhere. We want to have these programs in our communities, but it costs money. We have to either give up some of the programs or we have to give up some of the taxes. People always like not having to pay more taxes, but then we want the programs. The primary thing that I'm wanting to focus on is trying to find innovative solutions to our problems so that we can have our cake and eat it, too." 

Another issue Tichkowsky said he wants to help with is transparency in municipal government. 

"There's a lot of people that are becoming more skeptical about what's going on behind closed doors, and we need those doors to be more open, I feel, and because it's a public position, people should be able to know what's going on around every corner and get the details of what they want to know. Of course they they can't know some of the particulars, but they could know the general information and why decisions were made."

He noted, "this just brings peace and unity and clarity and understands the perspectives of those that are representing us."

Tichkowsky said he was born for the boardroom.

"I'm very versatile. One of my biggest strengths is problem-solving and I like to have a discussion. I like to be able to go through all the ideas and try to understand as best as possible the other perspective and what the facts are."

He said he was never much of an avid reader until he discovered policies.

"I love reading through policy and procedure. I growing up, I wasn't too interested in reading. I read the odd book, but when all of a sudden when I started going on boards going through policy I could read it for hours. It was so strange and so I enjoyed working at that level. Going through policy, hearing people's perspectives, standing up for the little person. Trying to make sure we all have a fair shake at the deal."

"I have a strong work ethic. I work hard at trying to find solutions."

"I like to see the overall well-being of people and that's my primary drive, is to see our community thrive, and for the well-being of everybody, as best as we possibly can advocate."

Anyone who has met Brandon likely already knows he is a people person.

"I love having conversations. I'm open to conversation, and probably too open at times, my wife will say, because I'm willing to have a conversation at 10 o'clock at night, when she's wanting to go home and I'm not quite done," he shared. "I'm very open. I love having discussions, I love getting the heartbeat of the community of people, what's concerning them. I love to help people."