Diana McQueen, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, attended Sundre Petroleum Operators Group's (SPOG) year-end celebration last week.
She delivered a speech about the positive work SPOG provides and also touched on the Alberta Energy Regulator and integrated resource management.
“You may be hearing negative stories, so thank you for keeping things positive,” said McQueen during her speech.
The celebration was held at the Arts Centre on Thursday evening and SPOG hosted roughly 130 people. Guests were in attendance from places including Calgary, Edmonton and as far away as Grande Prairie.
The celebration included a dinner catered by Kodiak BBQ & Deli and entertainment provided by Sundre High School students. It also included SPOG's highlights of the year and its annual general meeting, which included the election of officers.
It was the first time SPOG officials have made their annual general meeting public and Tracey McCrimmon, SPOG's executive director, said they are hoping to make it an annual event.
After McQueen's speech, there was a question and answer period. Mountain View County reeve Bruce Beattie asked her about the progress on flood mitigation in the area. She said the province is spending $116 million on mitigation work across the province and is also working on erosion issues with affected communities.
Liz Negropontes asked her what is going to be done about clear cutting along the Red Deer River. McQueen advised her to provide her feedback about clear cutting during a consultation process or online.
Dave Brown, chairman of SPOG's board of directors, spoke about the history of SPOG. He said being a good community organization has always been a priority.
As well, a community volunteer award was presented to Burntstick Lake community representatives Doug and Diane Lindblom and an industry volunteer award was presented to Shell's Eric Berg.
During the election of officers, there were no nominations to replace the existing board members, and the existing board members offered to keep their position for another year.
Dave Brown is still chairman of the board, Patricia Poulton is still vice-chairman, Earl Graham is still treasurer and Alice Murray remains secretary.
Highlights of the year, which McCrimmon shared with the audience, included the proactive engagement process to address local issues with hydraulic fracturing. Neighbour's Day and the work done by the mutual aid committee to help out with the June flood were other highlights.
She also touched on SPOG's top 20 achievements over the last 20 years. These included the 1-800 emergency number, mutual aid, the website, the community affairs working group and the environment working group.
