Mayor Tara Veer sees potential in the provincial government’s throne speech, but is in need of more details.
Despite no mention of the city’s health crisis, Veer is hopeful the provincial budget, which will be announced on March 28, will address the issue.
“We will be watching the budget closely in terms of how the government proposes to attend to the infrastructure and programming needs at the Red Deer Regional Hospital,” said Veer.
Reacting to the Thursday speech in Edmonton, Veer pointed to several key points mentioned during the speech by Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell including economic diversification urban aboriginal housing and the opioid crisis.
“We’re dealing with high level ideas and principles and there’s not a lot of detail about the legislation or regulations that will flow out, or the specific budget allocations,” said Veer.
However, both Veer and City manager Craig Curtis expressed concern about the lack of detail about the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, which provides $20 million in capital funds and $700,000 in operation funds every year to the city budget.
“If there is a reduction it will impact our capital plan and the facilities we have planned over the next number of years,” said Curtis.
Veer said the existing plan ends in the 2019 fiscal year and they’re awaiting details of what the replacement plan will be.
“We don’t know the details yet of what that replacement plan will look like,” said Veer.
The biggest win for the city, said Curtis, was the announcement that Red Deer College was now on the path to becoming a university.
“That’s the single most important economic step for this community that we’ve seen in some time,” said Curtis. “It will have lasting, long-term impact.”
Speaking about the opioid crisis, Veer said the throne speech’s mention of a four-pronged approach to the issue was similar to their four pillars approach of prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement.
“Because the word treatment was used, we will be watching the budget and hopefully there will be a specific allocation to Red Deer recognizing treatment is a significant need in order to ensure equitable access for those seeking treatment in our community,” said Veer.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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