It’s a new day on Rocky Mountain House town council as all seven members of the 2025-29 Rocky Mountain House town council were sworn in Oct. 30.

The council is made up of Mayor Shane Boniface along with newly-elected councillors Denise Boniface, Trevor Kalyn, Justin Sinclair, Kevin Stalker and reelected veterans Dale Shippelt and Ken Moesker.

 

Boniface describes the past few weeks in the leadup to the election as hectic, as balancing demands of running a business and a mayoral campaign at the same time turned into long hours.

Rocky’s new mayor previously served on town council before resigning in 2023, and says it’s great to be back in the fold, especially with a council he believes is set to do great things for the town.

 

It was a change election, as five members of council are new with only two incumbents returning. Boniface surmises that voters desired a general change in direction from the previous council.

Rocky Mountain House mayor Shane Boniface speaking to the change town voters sought in the 2025 municipal election

 

He says, in the early days of the new administration, council will be busy getting up to speed with previous council priorities.

Along with that, however, Boniface says council will also work to find new opportunities to bring new business to town, as well as residential and commercial lots.

“Sit back and watch, we’re going to make things happen,” he adds.

 

 

During the campaign, an issue came up at forums pertaining to the fact that the mayor’s wife, Denise Boniface, will be serving alongside her husband on council.

The mayor says it won’t be an issue.

“My wife is quite capable of standing up for herself, she tells me where to go quite often,” Boniface said. “Like I said in my speech at the legion, I bought my wife’s wedding ring at Sears, not my wife — she has her own mind.”

 

 

 

 

Boniface says he’s excited to get to work with the new council, of which he says bring many diverse perspectives to the table.

“We have so many different backgrounds, everybody has a different life experience, and it’s wonderful to bring so many different careers all into one place,” he says.

 

 

The newly-elected mayor also says he looks forward to working with the two members of the previous council, Ken Moesker and Dale Shippelt.

“They’re very much team players, both of them, and I suspect once our entire team is up to speed, we’ll be on the same page going forward.” he says.

To that end, one of the first agenda items in the morning’s organizational meeting was naming a deputy mayor.

Normally, the deputy mayor schedule would be alphabetical, meaning Denise Boniface would be first to hold the position.

However, Mayor Boniface suggested it be switched around with veteran councillor Dale Shippelt being the first appointed to the position.

“Councillor Shippelt was here the last term, and will be able to bring us up to speed — no sense throwing Councillor Boniface into the deep end right off the bat,” said the mayor.

The amendment was accepted unanimously.

 

 

The new council will get straight to work with its first regular council meeting scheduled for Nov. 4