Caring.
Committed.
Community.
Cain for Mayor.
People over politics
This website, and all content on it , is authorised by Sharyn Cain - sharyn@cainformayor.com
My name is Sharyn Cain and I am putting myself forward to be your next mayor of Waimate.
If elected, the mayoralty and our district would be my priority as a full time role.
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​I'm standing because I care deeply about our community and believe in practical, inclusive leadership. I want to ensure that council decisions reflect what really matters to locals—whether that's reliable infrastructure, fair rates, or protecting what makes our district special. I believe I have the necessary skills, personality, experience, and knowledge to make a valuable contribution as mayor of our district.
Living in Waimate since the age of 5, and raising my (now adult) children here, I am very committed to caring for our community, the people, and the generations to come.
I bring a wealth of experience in local government after nearly 15 years on council, 12 of which have been as the deputy mayor.
Within council I have chaired the Finance and Investments portfolio, the Regulatory, Water and Waste portfolio, Environmental Services and Finance committee, the community and sports grants committee, and am currently the chair of the Chief Executives Performance Review committee and deputy chair of Audit and Risk, amongst many other roles both internally and externally.
Outside of my role on council, I have been independently employed as the district licensing commissioner for the three South Canterbury councils since 2016, and work voluntarily as an adult educator. I've worked closely with people from all walks of life, and I know how to listen, collaborate, and get results.
I am not aligned to any political party or action group.
Local government should focus on practical, local solutions, not party politics. My decisions will be based on what’s right for our community, not a party line.
Local government, and rural communities, are facing many uncertainties and challenges with reforms, legislative changes, and unfunded mandates. I will continue to advocate and challenge the centralisation of services, one size fits all proposals, and fight for equitable outcomes.
“I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
Because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
Edward Everett Hale.
A bit about me and mine
Family - Ethan, Sharyn, and Briana
I grew up with volunteering, and being active in the community, as part of family life. Since a young age I have been involved with many groups and organisations, and currently I value being Chair of Waimate St John, a member of Rotary, and a general "jack of all trades" taking photos, doing hair, cooking haggis and many other wee jobs for community groups.
I am lucky to currently have most of my immediate family in the district, including my son Ethan and daughter Briana, with Mum close by in Timaru.
Downtime for me involves being outdoors as much as possible, exploring our district, supporting community events and sports fixtures, taking photos, and time with family and friends.
I love sports, creative pursuits, nearly everything scottish (highland dancing and pipeband) , and a good book, when I'm not being pressed for attention from my 2 dogs and 2 cats!
"Before you accept tradition, challenge it"
Vision, values and ideas
Moving forward in the next triennium of local government for the Waimate district and our community.
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*Below are some brief points, with topics to be expanded upon in blog posts further down the page.
*Keep checking back for new blog posts each week.
Representation and Engagement
Empowering Voices
I’m committed to listening to all voices—urban and rural, young and old, and everything in between. I’ll hold regular community drop-ins, respond to concerns promptly, and work hard to earn your trust.
I’ll communicate openly, report back regularly, and be available through email, social media, by phone, and face-to-face.
You’ll always know where I stand.
Genuine consultation means listening before decisions are made.
I believe in democracy, and that our council governance team should be made up of elected members only, as they must be accountable to the community that elected them there.
Please check out the blog post below for details of my ideas.
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Governance and Accountability
Building Trust Through Responsible Leadership
I believe ratepayers have the right to know how decisions are made and how their money is spent.
Councillors should be answerable to the public. That includes regular updates, publishing voting records, and setting clear goals we can be measured against.
All elected members should share the workload utilising their individual skillsets, be supported with ongoing training, and help create and facilitate more community engagement opportunities.
I will encourage all councillors to be part of civic duties across the entire district.
The Canterbury mayoral forum needs to go back to basics, with a focus on advocating with a collective voice on a few key issues that the region collectively supports.
We need to work on regional and national relationship building.
Enhance our stakeholder engagement.​
LGNZ membership - see blog post
Code of conduct for councils needs a nationwide overhaul to give it more teeth.
I would like to look at a new committee structure that allows for more interaction between governance, management and the public.
The elected members only employ the chief executive (CE), who in turn employs all other staff.
It is not appropriate to have members of the public involved in the review of an employees performance, including the CE, however we do undertake 360 reviews that seek anonymous feedback from public key stakeholders as part of the CE performance review.
Rates and Spending
Smart spending and clear cost breakdowns
A full and thorough rating, finance, and revenue review needs to be undertaken as a matter of urgency in the new council term.
Rates need to be fair and sustainable.​
We shouldn't be afraid of the possibility of rates capping, rather we should be working with our community to understand their vision for our district and how those priorities fit in to a funding structure.
I would lead a review of our investment strategy and portfolio, with a view to the potential of setting up a perpetual investment fund, with much better returns on investment.
We need to look at ways to increase revenue, that is not from rates.
We need to make appropriate use of intergenerational equity and debt.
Target rates, and fees and charges need to be reviewed to ensure the user pays v general good settings are correct.
We will need to consult the community on what they see as core services, what levels of service they expect, and where they would like changes made.
We need to consider whether there are beneficial uses of Ai, chatbots, and online automation for some of the time consuming, laborious tasks, and where people could use easy access to simple answers on a 24/7 basis.
I would lead a process to look at activities where we should be incentivising the "good behaviour" for example, kerbside waste and recycling collection, and water usage.
​We need to support and facilitate economic development and flexibility for business through advocacy, zoning, development contribution review, incentives, marketing, and more.
Could we work with others in a public/private/community partnership to diversify our employment opportunities with the likes of a pest processing plant, a return to the berry growing capital of the south, or instigating a tech hub for virtual assistants, online tutors, E commerce, and Ai chatbot trainers.
​​Please see blog posts for more information.​
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Community and Local Issues
Ensuring your concerns are addressed
Safety and crime - while policing is a central government issue, councils can support safety by investing in lighting, well designed public spaces, and partnering with police and community groups, as we have done with the CCTV cameras. We will be pushing back hard against the proposed Canterbury staffing review and fighting to retain local services.
Library, event centre, pool, and parks and reserves - these things enrich our community. They need to be well-run, accessible, and balanced with our financial reality.
Resilience - we need to plan ahead to try and protect people, property, and infrastructure from weather related events and natural disasters. That includes making smart land-use decisions, considered town planning, and investing in resilience measures where locally appropriate.
​Collaboration - we need to actively facilitate opportunities for partnerships and collaborations with​
businesses, community groups, like minded councils, and other organisations.
Volunteers - our community is powered and enhanced by the huge number of amazing volunteers and volunteer organisations we have. We, as council, need to work with, facilitate, and empower these people and groups to keep doing the great work they do. It shouldn't be a community expectation though that they will take on responsibilities of council without support or funding.
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Community and Local Issues
Thinking about what's important to you
Fluoridation - I oppose adding fluoride to Waimate community water supplies - there are other individualised measures that can be undertaken to reduce our poor dental health statistics.
​Advocacy - it would be terrific for our community to have a strong ratepayers group and a vital business association. I would be keen to work with these types of groups, in a positive manner, to come up with new ideas, tailored solutions, and community based localised outcomes.
We should instigate forums and strategies for different sectors of the community - rural, youth, and older persons for example.​
Local government funding agency (LGFA) - there has been commentary and concern that councils external borrowing from this organisation means ratepayers houses are used as collateral. The security on LGFA loans typically consists of council ability to raise rates revenue and general security over council assets—not individual ratepayer properties.
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Education
Fostering understanding and igniting democracy
I would like to instigate a localised civics education programme with our High School, which would be governance led, so no cost to council.
As explained in the communications blog post below I would like educational workshops held on council activities, finances and legislation.
I would introduce focus groups to see draft consultation documents for "fresh eyes" input before they are approved.
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General - we need to advocate to keep our terrific schools, rural schools, WHS, and mobile kindy service.
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Central Government
Successive governments have talked the talk about supporting local, rural, and the regions but yet the stripping of services from our community continues.​
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The centralisation of services not only depletes the make up of our district but it exacerbates the issues they have in the metro centres like housing shortages, cost of living, infrastructure deficits, and transport congestion.​
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Central government should have to undertake bipartisan 10 year long term plans and 30 year asset management plans like we do, particularly with regard to key areas like health and infrastructure. This would stop a lot of wastage caused by pendulum politics (see blog post), and parties still have many other issues to have their different directions on.
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Successive governments have also hinted at the perceived high number of councils we have. This has ramped up over recent years.
I would like government (whomever that is at the time) to be honest about their intentions so we can have a full and frank conversation about it with our communities, rather than "death by 1000 cuts".
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At present the removal of services, the constant reform, the divide and conquer mentality, using us LG as a diversion (don't get me wrong, LG can do things wrong and be our own worst enemy), being patch protective, and not entertaining measures our sector suggests that could help, like new funding and financing tools, GST share, and audit review is very unhelpful and has contributed to the breakdown in the working relationship between central and local government.
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I am personally not in favour of amalgamation as I have not seen evidence of it being successful anywhere in New Zealand, and I will always favour local voice and local solutions, but it needs to be a community wide conversation and choice, with a majority view supported.
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Partnerships have to be two way streets, and so mandates from government need to come with funding.
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It is easy to say take away the well beings and stick to core business, but where does that leave rural service towns? Dying out?
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We should be up for the conversations but we need everyone to be onboard.
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BLOG POSTS - Click on the post to read in full and use the arrows to see more topics .
There are many blogs so please click on the "see all" tab to access them all
This is me.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT MATTERS
Proudly endorsed by local leaders and community volunteers
"Sharyn has worked tirelessly for the Waimate community and district whilst undertaking the DM role. She is passionate about development and is meticulous when it comes to details regarding any council business and keeps us informed and up to date with her exceptional communication. A young, vibrant lady who has endless drive and commitment to the community.".
- Bridget Johnson
For Sharyn, it is all about her Community; she has a remarkable ability to connect to all people.
Sharyn is a powerful and passionate family woman, who has shown strong leadership in her current role as Deputy Mayor.
Vote Cain for Mayor.
- Pauline Dore