Communities and life in rural Alberta is vital to the province’s future, said Premier Ed Stelmach during a visit to Castor on March 12.
“Rural Alberta is where the action is,” Premier Stelmach said in an interview with the Independent/Advance after he cut the ribbon to officially open the new Castor Community Hall.
“Communities are growing and they’re working through some of the difficulties we’ve had the last few years in the economic recession.”
“The future looks optimistic for rural communities and Alberta,” said Premier Stelmach.
“We’re finding that a lot of people are moving out to smaller municipalities where there’s a good quality of life,” said Premier Stelmach.
“Here in Castor, you’ve got a hospital, excellent seniors’ care facility and that helps seniors retire in the same community they helped build.”
As several municipalities consider their futures and are in a dissolution process, such as the Village of Donalda and the Village of Gadsby, the premier said he and the government want to leave those decisions up to residents, rather than the government restructuring municipalities, like it has already done with health regions and school divisions.
“We’re not going to do anything from top down,” said Premier Stelmach. While the government would assist municipalities to deal with major challenges, he encourages neighbouring municipalities to work together – that many municipalities have already voluntarily taken steps to form regional partnerships.
He noted that the ministry of municipal affairs is conducting a review about municipal operations with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties.
“What’s viable? What isn’t?”
“What can we do to assist them through the process?”
Agriculture and small business are also top priorities for the provincial government as it seeks to recover strongly from the recession and to be highly competitive in the global market and have the most innovative and most competitive economy in North America for each of the province’s sectors.
“The next step is to look at agriculture,” said Premier Stelmach.
“Small business is a huge contributor.”
“What is it that government is doing that is maybe infringing – creating greater costs for small businesses?
“What is it that we can do better?
A plan to build the economy is the focus for the provincial government over the next two years.