Gary Patara runs for council

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Gary Patara wants to bring a business-based, data-driven perspective to Fort St. John’s city council and, in doing so, help make decisions that bring the most good to the most people.

With a background in real estate, land development, and finance, Patara explains he is well-placed to lend skills to the leadership of the city. 

“I’m a numbers person,” he says. The skills he brings from that background, however, are not limited to the world of integers. Listening to the staff around him and making connections with other business owners, he says, will also serve him well as a councillor. 

Business is vital to a city, he says—and as such, so is liaising with prospective and current business owners.  

“I really do think that business owners in town bring a lot of economic value to the city. They employ a lot of people…so their voices need to be heard and represented,” Patara said. 

Representing and supporting business in government, he says, is good for the growth of the sector and, with it, the growth of the city.

“Public support is really important…in some ways, it’s very circular because, in order to attract business, you have to have a large enough population to support the business to begin with.”

He has personal experience with this cycle. Business is what brought Patara north to Fort St. John in 2013 after the Site C Dam was announced and, with it, an influx of people and opportunity.

A sense of duty, though, is what brought him to run for council. 

“I thought that this would be a great way for me to give back,” he said. “As an individual, I think we are each contributing members of society. We each give back to society in our unique capacities.”

It is his capacity for business and numbers he hopes to use to give back by providing another data-based perspective on city council.

When it comes to the decisions he would take part in on the council, Patara makes a point of addressing the importance of working together to “come to a decision that adheres to quorum,” or, essentially, build consensus.

His approach to these choices would be “a very utilitarian [one]… so, therefore, you seek to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” 

The decisions need to be based on good data and logic, he says, and promises that he will do so—not only because the decisions of one council could have ramifications for decades but also because this basis is more likely to lead to consensus.

Patara’s commitment to data and logic echoed his passion for financial literacy. He hopes that good information and decisions based upon it would be easy for the public to understand. 

“I would strongly support and educate people…furnish people with all of the relevant information and data,” he says. 

Patara is one of ten candidates vying for a seat on Fort St. John’s six-member city council. Three candidates are also running for mayor in the city. 

The municipal general election, where cities, towns, and districts will select their leadership for the next four years, will take place on October 15th, 2022.