MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw welcomed the new Minister of Municipal Affairs Ken Hughes to the region last week to meet with local leaders for discussions surrounding what priorities each municipality had moving into the new year.
Hughes said he was happy to take the time to visit what he described as a “hugely important” area of the province.
“I was here in the Bonnyville area for a series of meetings with all municipal leaders in the region and I think (it's important) to do so because this is a pretty exciting and interesting corner of Alberta,” Hughes said. “I'm here to convey the message that we're going to work with communities to meet their needs.”
Representatives from the Village of Glendon, the Town and MD of Bonnyville and City of Cold Lake attended the two-hour sit-down with the minister at Bonnyville's Neighbourhood Inn on Thursday, with talks surrounding regional collaboration and issues of excessive growth in the region coming to the fore.
Hughes elaborated, “There's immense growth happening in this area and with that growth comes the challenges of dealing with the growth. When I look at communities like Cold Lake, Bonnyville and Glendon, what I see are communities bursting at the seams. The need for roads, housing, municipal infrastructure and all other public services are perhaps more difficult and intense here than many other parts of Alberta.”
Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski said he was delighted to see the minister taking the time to visit the Bonnyville region.
“I was definitely encouraged by the talks that occurred between ourselves and Minister Hughes, and I'm very happy that Genia was able to make arrangements so that we were able to get together and talk about our issues,” Sobolewski said. “We're seeing a lot of pressure in this area because of growth and as such that is placing a lot of demands on our infrastructure.”
He added, “What we wanted to do is begin to impress upon the province that taxation alone will not rectify these issues, we need additional sources of revenue and from a provincial standpoint...we need to start looking at creative ways for funds to be spent and distributed.”
Sobolewski noted that talks centering on regional collaboration were high on the minister's radar and that he was keen to impress upon the minister that the town would like to see some of the grant money available through municipal collaboration projects rather than the funding finding its way to the larger municipal centers in the province.
Village of Glendon Mayor Laura Papirny was also in attendance at the meeting, and she said she was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with the minister and share some of the issues facing the village and its residents.
“It was a great networking opportunity. We are much smaller than the MD, Bonnyville or Cold Lake, so it was great to be able to discuss with him our issues and concerns.”
City of Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said he too was pleased to be able to share his thoughts in person with the minister, and thanked Leskiw for setting up the meeting.
“I think the thing we as a city took away from the meeting was the way the minister spoke about regional collaboration,” Copeland said. “What he said in a speech to everybody was basically that he's looking for municipalities in this area, because of the growth associated with the oilpatch, to work together in a collaborative way and make this area a better place to live for residents.”
Copeland added, “It's refreshing to see Minister Hughes coming to this area so soon (after being named Minister of Municipal Affairs), but a meeting with the province was long overdue. We just need to make sure now that the province continues to work with municipalities in the region to help address the issues we face. Here in Cold Lake we're facing issues with health care, transportation, roads, it really doesn't stop. The pressures we face in this area are incredible.”
