Happy New Year Chestermere! I hope that through the Christmas season you were able to take some time and skate on our lake, walk through the snow, have some much needed time with family and friends, or escape somewhere exotic or at least warm. We were extremely humbled to see the amount of giving and generosity in our City and County especially given the economic situation for so many of our friends and families. Both the Chestermere and SE Rocky View food banks were full to capacity and could not take any more donations. That says so much! Remember that cash is always welcome and you can get a tax receipt. We accept donations to both as well as the Veterans Food Bank. Some issues for the New Year:
Shredding: Oh yes, the “shredfest” as Mark Dykstra from the Edmonton Sun called it! The investigation has led to 16 recommendations all of which need to be implemented as the rules that were in place were not strong enough to stop this nightmarish gap in procedure. The system obviously needs to be changed. The government has a duty to document its decisions and preserve the information they are based on.
Pipelines: It’s time to see our Premier publically support Energy East. She will have met with Manitoba’s Premier by the time this article is released. We need her to “secure support for a pipeline project” as stated by Wildrose Leader Brian Jean. Manitoba’s application for intervener status on the pipeline needs to be withdrawn. Did you know approximately 600,000 bbl/day of foreign oil is imported by Eastern Canada? Oil produced by states with far weaker environmental safeguards than Alberta’s oil, and oil whose production generates no jobs for Albertans and our fellow Canadians. This is a piece of energy infrastructure that is environmentally sound, creates jobs, and gets our product to market. Our provincial government needs to be courageous and advocate for this pipeline. Environmental stewardship, economic benefit, and resource development can and should go together. This is fundamentally how our province will slowly turn around. We have said this over and over. The drop in oil prices is not controlled by the government, but how they proceed and mobilize the strengths and talents of our province IS under their control and shows that they are invested in the economic and social well being of the province. You can NOT have one without the other.
Home Front: We would like to offer as much help as we can to victims of the floods. See facebook.com/ChestermereRockyview, phone, email, or stop in at our office. Regarding the application for annexation by the City of Chestermere, we believe that the “traditional annexation process provides all parties directly affected with full, fair and open consultation opportunities” as stated by Pat Stier, Shadow Minister of Municipal Affairs for the Wildrose opposition. I encourage Chestermere residents to contact our Mayor regarding some of the issues surrounding taxation and the annexation at pmatthews@chestermere.ca. And as always, we love to hear from you.
