Verna Murphy - Ward 1 Verna Murphy is a freelance writer in Fort McMurray, and she has been writing about everything related to Fort McMurray for over 12 years. Verna has been married to husband Tim for 22 years, and they have three children: Mitchell is 20, Nathanial is 18 and Shayleen is 8. Verna hails from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and loves that so many from the East Coast now call Fort McMurray home. For eight years Verna and her family brought in foster children from across our region. Through her work, and hearing the stories of the people of Fort McMurray, Verna realized that she wanted to be working with seniors to tell their stories, but also to help their voices to be heard. The week after Verna moved to Fort McMurray she had gone to find out about palliative care and ended up writing about the lack of a long term care facility in our community. That was 11 years ago, and she has felt the frustration of seniors over the years as they have fought for Willow Square to be developed. She is hopeful that the Continuing Care facility will be started in the spring of 2018, and that over the next four years an Aging in Place facility will follow. For the last two years Verna has served on Council’s Advisory Committee on Aging. Verna has also served on the Community Advisory Committee for the last two years, and has worked with the Support Through Housing for three years, and served on that board for two years. In her downtime, Verna enjoys volunteering, reading and listening to or dancing to Matt Minglewood (and she had to fit him into her bio). She looks forward to serving the residents of the entire region, and always loves hearing from anyone about their issues, or just to share their story. Verna now represents Council on the Advisory Committee on Aging. Contact Councillor Verna Murphy E: verna.murphy@rmwb.ca