There are a number of issues and concerns Mountain View County (MVC) would like to see the parties in the ongoing provincial election address during the campaign, says Deputy Reeve Angela Aalbers.
The election was called on March 19 and will conclude with the provincewide vote on April 16.
Mountain View County includes portions of both the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills constituency and the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre constituency.
The future of provincial grant funding programs that support rural communities is of ongoing interest to MVC, she said.
“I would like to see the candidates to speak about the clarity on funding for infrastructure,” said Aalbers. “That would be for grants such as the MSI (municipal sustainability initiative) funding and really addressing a strong partnership between the province and the municipalities.
“From the municipal standpoint the parties have to address how they plan to move forward in a strong working relationship with municipalities. And that’s not just grants but all sorts of things, in how they fund our agricultural societies, how they fund our volunteer organizations, these sort of things.”
Provincial funding remains vital to the running of municipalities, she said.
“It’s key for us and this uncertainty around the MSI is negatively impacting our ability to do long-term capital planning,” she said.
The province says it plans to reintroduce a new granting program or continue with the (current) granting program, “but they won’t tell the municipalities yet what that is going to be based on and how much funding that is going to deliver,” she said.
Rural crime and the need to address it is another key issue for the municipalities, she said.
“The province says it is going in the right direction, but we still hear from our residents that there are huge issues with rural crime,” she said.
“And not only on rural crime, but on the whole justice system and how they are dealing with the criminals.”
Another key issue of concern for municipalities is the need to “deal with all of the things that are negatively impacting our business," she said.
“That’s predominantly for us oil and gas, not only from a job perspective, but from a linear tax perspective and the ability for some of the smaller companies to be sustainable.
“And of course there is the agricultural issue as well. If they are increasing the amount of oil production that is going by rail, how is that going to impact agriculture?”
Whichever party forms government after April 16 should be “lobbying hard on our behalf with the federal government to ensure our businesses are strong,” she said.
The future of the Bighorn Country proposal is also of interest to county residents, she said.
“I think our residents are really concerned as to where that proposal is going,” she said. “I’d like to see the candidates address the clarity on what they would do if they get in power.
“Are they going to continue with that idea? Are they going to scrap it and start again? We are just uncertain.”
The Bighorn Country proposal would create several new provincial parks along the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies west of Sundre.
