Airdrie-Cochrane MLA and Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie sat down earlier this month and shared his thoughts on a few topics popular topics being discussed around town.
Looking back at this year’s Spring Assembly, he said it was a long one. With the budget introduced in February, he outlined that it ran up until the end of May. With everything wrapped up, he said it’s good to be back.
“I’m glad to be back in the constituency,” Guthrie said. “When you’re away as minister of infrastructure, you’re trying to handle everything that’s related to that. You’re sitting in the chamber, trying to pass legislation, and at the same time, dealing with constituency issues.
“So, there’s real time constraints on you while you’re in session. So now, I’m in catch-up mode.”
When asked about the Bill 20, The Municipal Affairs Statues Amendment Act, which plans to introduce political parties at the local level and giving the province more authority to overrule bylaws and remove elected officials, Guthrie said that there’s been a lot of feedback on the topic.
“In our office, we probably had as much positive on that bill as opposition,” Guthrie said.
With support from both sides of the topic, Guthrie said this usually never happens whenever a new bill is introduced.
“But this particular one, we got it from both sides. And I think, mainly the municipalities themselves, councillors, et cetera, we heard a lot of objections there,” Guthrie said. “But as far as the people of our constituency, we really didn’t get a lot of tremendous opposition to it, like what might have been shown in the media.”
Touching on Bill 21, The Emergency Statues Amendment Act, which provides the province with more authority when dealing with emergencies, Guthrie said that this was all in response to the unprecedented number of fires across the province.
“Something that we found was [that] there was a lot of confusion between some municipalities that were prepared and those that were not, and it there was a lot of communication-type issues that happened,” Guthrie explained. “We had some municipalities reach out saying, you know – please come help us and take this over, and then the others, not so much, because they were ready.”
He outlines that Bill 21’s purpose is to avoid confusion in the event of an emergency.
“We can act faster, more deliberate, and be ready and prepared,” Guthrie said. “Which, we were, but at the same time, it’s really about being able to help [communities] as quickly as possible without having to go through the administrative-type burden.”
As per the recent decision by the province to deny funding for a new senior’s lodge in Cochrane, Guthrie said he is disappointed, but he isn’t going to give up.
“I’m not going to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Guthrie said. “We really worked hard between the Rocky View Foundation, the Town of Cochrane, and my office. In fact, the mayor and I met last Friday, and we started brainstorming about what’s our next move, [and] we started looking at maybe some opportunities for other partnerships that could be out there.”
With another funding year next year, Guthrie said that there is another $25 million that would be available for senior lodges across Alberta.
“We may have to reapply, but we are definitely putting our best foot forward,” he said. “As a group, we’ve had ministers here on four different occasions, and I felt strongly that we were going to be very high up on the list of needs across the province.
“So yeah, I was disappointed, but I’m not giving up.”
As Calgary continues to face the ongoing water shortage due to a major water main break, Guthrie says he feels for the city in their struggles. He outlines that no one could have anticipated that this would’ve happened, and anticipates significant work for them in the near future.
“I think we’ll be looking as a province to be able to work with Calgary, to help them out in any way we can,” Guthrie said. “And whether that’s support from a monetary perspective, hopefully we can get some federal contributions to help and support them.”
