Mayor Peter Brown gave his State of the City address June 20 and touched on some of the frustration between City needs and provincial dollars. It seems the province, which instead appears to be focusing on bigger cities such as Calgary and Edmonton, is overlooking Airdrie. City council and staff, according to Brown, have expressed the need for an additional interchange to allow residents another option to get on and off of Highway 2 “numerous times” but the province continues to ignore the requests – not even acknowledging the need on the funded or unfunded lists. There is also the need for affordable housing in our city with only 44 affordable housing units in the city and approximately 140 people on the waiting list, according to Brown. This need has also been overlooked by the provincial government. A recent meeting with the Minister for Seniors and Housing Lori Sigurdson was described by Brown as not “terribly productive.” We think it’s fair to say we won’t be getting a hospital. Instead, the province has plans to build a North Health Campus in Calgary. It did throw us a bone with 24-hour access to Airdrie Urgent Care, which, to be honest, is little more than a Band-Aid solution. We shouldn’t be terribly surprised, this provincial government has a history of putting big cities first. Look at how it handled the Springbank Offstream Reservoir and Rocky View County’s opposition to it. Despite the need to take privately owned land and outcry from residents, the province is plowing ahead with the project. Then, there is the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Growth Management Board, which the province mandated and the County strongly opposed, saying it gives Calgary the power to veto County developments. We aren’t sure what it will take for the little guy to be heard, but it sure is frustrating.
