Meet the Mortgage Broker & the Mayor

BROKERING COLLABORATION

In mortgages and municipal government, Darnelda Siegers works to achieve understanding and a clear action plan

BY LISA GORDON

Whether she’s building a mortgage deal or leading a local council meeting, Darnelda Siegers is used to navigating a sea of constant change.

A mortgage broker since 2007 and the mayor of the District of Sechelt, B.C., Siegers wears a few different hats and is certainly well versed in time management.

In her role as a mortgage associate with Mortgage Alliance – Enrich Mortgage Group Ltd., Siegers thrives on the fact that no two deals are the same. With a teaching degree and a major in math, she makes it a priority to ensure her mortgage clients are educated about the entire purchasing process. In fact, first-time buyers are her specialty.

“I love working with first-time homebuyers,” she said. “I really like working with people who don’t understand how it works. I walk them through it until they are comfortable.”

Siegers always takes the time to understand her clients’ goals, and that begins with a frank discussion to find out what they know about the home-buying process and what they are hoping to buy.

“I explain what I do and how I support them. We start at the beginning and I walk them through it, all the way to signing at the lawyer’s. If the ratios are a bit tight, I’ll have them send me the listings so we can run the numbers to make sure it will work for them.”

Siegers’ mortgage business accounts for about a third of her working hours, with the other two thirds belonging to her mayoral role. To help keep her mortgage deals moving while she’s serving at council, Siegers employs a fully licensed mortgage associate, Jennifer Bell, who handles all of the paperwork and shepherds deals through to conclusion.

In 2009, Siegers and her husband moved from Calgary to Sechelt, located on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. Two years later, she successfully ran for local council.

“I did two terms as a councillor, seven years in total, and then ran for mayor in 2018,” Siegers told Canadian Mortgage Broker. “My job as mayor is to connect people, organizations, non-profits and businesses to facilitate achieving the future we all see for the community – whatever that is.”

One of the challenges she encounters as mayor is collaborating between the four governments on the Sunshine Coast: the District of Sechelt, the Town of Gibsons, the Sechelt Indian Government District and the Sunshine Coast Regional District. This year, in fact, Siegers serves as Mayor of Sechelt and the Chair of the Sunshine Coast Regional District. “Through the role I have in municipal government, I sit on all kinds of committees: the homelessness advisory, housing, seniors’ planning table, Sunshine Coast Community Forest and Sechelt Downtown Business Association, to name a few. I am a director of the Partners in Change Society, which is looking to bring nonprofits together to combine their talents,” said Siegers.

“In the mortgage world, while you’re always dealing with mortgages, all the parameters change with every deal and the environment changes. In local government, we’re always addressing something new. There is just so much we deal with. It’s huge and we must try to balance the present while having our eye to the future.”

It’s been an eventful year for municipal government on the Sunshine Coast, as Mother Nature delivered the one-two punch of drought in the summer and intense flooding in the fall. Add to that the morphing regulatory environment surrounding Covid-19, and you begin to see why Siegers must be a master of time management.

“During the flooding we had a state of local emergency and a boil water advisory in place,” she recounted. “Roads collapsed and were impassable. It took up more of my time. While I’m not actively involved with the day-to-day of emergency response I have to sign all the orders, so I need to be really clear about what’s happening.”

Darnelda Siegers was 'locked up' for the Jail 'N Bail fundraiser held to support Cops for Cancer.

With local residents concerned about climate change and issues such as watershed protection, sustainable forestry, stormwater management and rising sea levels, Siegers is always dealing with multiple priorities.

“Wherever you stand, you’re never clear what the ground will look like tomorrow where you’re working,” she said. Referring to Covid-19 protocols, she recalled: “One weekend, the province made an announcement about recreation programs. On Saturday morning, it was announced there were certain limitations coming in that required us to shut down our facilities. Then, we were notified our region wasn’t involved – but then it was. That was all in one day! There have been continually changing provincial orders to alter and shift what we’re doing. In that environment, it’s tough. Residents in our communities look to us for direction.”

With the next municipal election set for Oct. 15, 2022, Siegers is often asked whether she will run for the mayor’s seat again.

“I am getting that question almost daily because of the election coming up,” she said. “I have to say that for the last almost two years now, it’s been really difficult. It’s been a hard slog, not being able to travel and being immersed in it all the time. It’s an opportunity to make a difference in my community, but I do need a break. I have booked some time off and in the spring, I will let them know my plan.”

Meanwhile, Siegers is still involved with the Sunshine Coast chapter of 100 Women Who Care, a local group she founded after reading about the parent organization in a newspaper article.

“I thought it was a great way to give back to the community. A group of about 75 women gets together four times a year for an hour, and charities present a five-minute pitch. We choose one and then we each write out a cheque for $100.”

Leisure is a scarcity for Siegers, but when she does have free time, she enjoys reading and riding her new electric bike.

“The Sunshine Coast is very hilly and the main highway runs along the ocean,” she said. “I rented an e-bike for active transportation week and really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see what I can do with my own electric bike.”

She and her husband, Adrian, own a sailboat and they love to get out on the water. It’s like a mini getaway – but with cell service on the boat, Siegers can always review a council order or check a mortgage deal.

Siegers and her husband Adrian own a sailboat and she enjoys getting out on the water.

“When I have time, I also love to bake and cook. I enjoy trying out new recipes and I give a lot of it away. When the District of Sechelt was really busy dealing with water and stormwater during the flooding, they ordered pizza for our Public Works and Parks teams and I baked them cookies.”

Siegers draws a connection between her parallel realities of mortgage brokering and municipal mayor: “In both worlds, we can look at what we have to do today or look at what the future holds and how we get there. The rules keep changing and we continually have to learn and grow to stay on top of the mortgage industry and municipal government. It never gets stale.

“I love both worlds.”

Attending an event at the local SPCA as part of a fundraiser.

This interview with Darnelda Siegers continues our series Brokers off the Clock. In every issue, we ask a mortgage broker to tell us what they like to do when they’re not behind a desk. Be it working with animals, travelling to exotic places or researching your family roots, we want to know how you unwind. Would you like to be profiled in a future edition – or suggest a fellow mortgage broker? Contact info@cmba-achc.ca