Mayor Peter Brown said a meeting with Alberta Premier Jim Prentice on Nov. 21 at the McDougall Centre in Calgary was a good opportunity to let the new premier know about the various challenges facing the city and its residents.
“I talked to him about the transportation challenges we’re facing, specifically on Highway 2, and I spoke to him about our healthcare needs in the community as it relates to 24-hour healthcare,” Brown said.
“I also updated him on the work we’ve been doing with the Airdrie Heath Foundation (AHF) in partnership with Alberta Health Services (AHS).”
The AHF was founded three years ago but only became a foundation in October 2013. Its members include Brown, MLA Rob Anderson, physicians and medical professionals from the community, and concerned citizens. The AHF is working to bring a modern state-of-the-art 24-hour medical facility to Airdrie.
Brown said he asked for the November meeting with the premier.
“It was just a good opportunity to sit with him since it was the first time I was able to meet with him as the Premier,” Brown said. “We met for about 20 minutes.”
“Those were the two areas of concern that we talked about. We are sitting pretty well with the school announcements at the moment and those are our two big concerns right now.”
According to Brown, Prentice is aware of some of the issues Airdrie faces.
“It’s always good when the premier takes the time to understand the issues that we’re really struggling with here in the community and we’re really hoping to have him back early in the new year to sit down with some of our business leaders and give him an update on the work that needs to be done,” Brown said.
“He did say that with the price of oil being where it is, their budget is going to be very, very tight. They’re very aware of us and our concerns and what we need to accomplish in the next two to four years.”
Brown attended the meeting along with Stan Grad, a local businessman and landowner.
“Stan is someone who is working with myself and a number of other people to help secure (funding),” Brown said.
“He’s the philanthropic arm of our capital plan for a new health facility. He’s a well-known philanthropist and someone who’s contacted us and would like to be involved in the creation of plan for funding the health centre we’ve been proposing.”
Brown called it a “positive meeting.”
“I think that the premier obviously has a lot to do in the first six months of his term,” he said.
“I just wanted to make sure he was aware of some of the challenges of one of the fastest growing cities in Canada faces. We’re hoping to work closely with him and his ministers to get where we need to go. We have to get some solutions to our problems and I believe we’re going to get that kind of support from our premier.”
