Mayor Peter Brown says he plans to engage the public in every aspect of municipal affairs in the coming year.
During a presentation to the Rotary Club of Airdrie, Brown touched on topics including Airdrie Transit, the premier’s resignation, support for local business and the current school crisis, Jan. 25.
“We will be dealing with a number of issues in 2011 and one of the most prominent is transit,” said Brown.
“Currently, it is not a very successful system for ridership or income and we are planning to open the door for more community involvement on the topic. We know that Premier Stelmach resigned and we are hoping that doesn’t affect a number of different funding principles for the City, but only time will tell.”
Brown said solutions to the transit issue will be addressed during the Feb. 7 City council meeting. The City is also working to attract more businesses to Airdrie, the mayor added.
“We are engaging business leaders,” he said.
“We need to find out what Airdrie does well and what we need to improve on to attract businesses with higher paying wages. We need to bring in key customers and eliminate red tape. We are looking forward to getting out in the community and making these changes.”
Jean-Marc Lacasse, member of the Rotary Club of Airdrie, said the organization invited Brown to inform Rotarians about the City’s plans for businesses in the community.
“This is an opportunity to see what is going on in the community,” said Lacasse.
“We are hearing what the politicians have on their plates for the coming year. The City needs to connect with businesspeople in the community and vice versa. It is a two way street.”
Brown said he also plans to include residents in conversation to address their concerns about their neighbourhoods, snow plowing, taxes and anything else they would like to see tackled by the City.
“We meet with community groups frequently. We have recently met with Village residents and we plan to meet with residents in Bayside,” he said.
Brown said one of the most prominent concerns he’s heard from residents is the lack of school space.
“If we are not going to get help from the Province, we will have to look at the alternatives and consider a made-in-Airdrie solution,” he said. “There are a lot of homebuilders and businesses who want to come into Airdrie and they cannot be successful if residents stop coming here because of the school situation. This is not a municipality issue, but we need to address this because it affects each and every one of our residents.”
