Martin Shields, Conservative MP for Bow River, made a stop in Irricana for the Town council meeting April 4 to introduce himself and touch base with the issues and concerns facing the municipality.
Prior to the meeting, Shields said he spent five 12-hour days travelling to all the communities in the Bow River constituency with some of his staff members from Ottawa. It was important to him, he said, his staff understood thoroughly the constituency for which they are working to represent.
“If somebody picks up the phone, sends an email or a letter, (my staff) understands where that is,” he said. “That’s valuable to me because we have a lot of communities in this constituency.”
Shields began by outlining some of the issues he has addressed, specifically speaking to the needs of rural Albertan communities, which included a response to the throne speech in the House of Commons that he said lacked focus on the agriculture and resource sectors.
The need for improving rural infrastructure is another area Shields said he is working to get education and awareness for, but added the voices of the big cities are sometimes a challenge when it comes to that.
Citing the vast amount of money needed to build the rapid transit lines proposed by the City of Calgary, Shields said without infrastructure outside the city, things do not move to the city.
Shields said there are a lot of roads and bridges in the Bow River electoral district that not only connect the small communities in the constituency but also connect all of Alberta and need to be maintained and upgraded.
“If we want the economy to work, we need those things taken care of,” Shields said. “That’s important to me and that’s important to this constituency.”
With the Conservatives sitting as the official opposition, Councillor Lora Peterson asked Shields how much muscle he had when taking constituents’ concerns to the legislature.
Shields said in the House of Commons, he has no problem walking across the room and not only handing a constituent’s letter of concern directly to the minister involved in the solution process, but also taking the time to explain why this issue is important.
“That’s one of the things I can do,” he said. “I have no hesitation to do it.”
After legislation is introduced to the House of Commons, Shields said it goes through a committee process where changes tend to be made.
It is in this process that he can add input and knowledge of sectors, like agriculture, specific to his riding, which he said hopefully translates into positive change to that legislation.
Voting on legislation, he said, is an entirely different story.
“When it comes to a vote, they got more than we got,” Shields said.
