The announced resignation of Premier Ed Stelmach poses uncertainty for the Town of Olds, according to Mayor Judy Dahl.
“One of the things that I clearly heard with regards to his announcement of resignation is that he was holding strong his promise to municipalities for this (2011) budget because it was made clear to him that there will be no more dollars allotted to municipalities, and I'm afraid that's going to come in 2012, so that would be a huge impact to the Town of Olds. So the implications of his resignation are just going to start to get to the forefront in the next, I think, couple of weeks,” she said.
Dahl said once the provincial government comes out with its budget in the next few weeks, more will be known about how that will impact the town. She said grant funding the town has been looking at to fund various projects may not be as forthcoming as promised.
“We have in our long-range plans dollars allocated that we have from grant funding,” she said.
While Dahl said Stelmach always had the best of intentions during his political career, his successor is going to face some tough times politically.
“A new leader is going to bring new priorities. This is a real tough business to be able to change things,”she said, noting that no matter who the premier is, her priority as mayor remains the same.
“With my experience in the municipal business, we're all facing the same thing, and it's just bringing good infrastructure and safety to our municipalities, clean water, good roads and we need funding for that.”
