City of Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston as key speaker at The Red Deer & District's Chamber of Commerce Luncheon. (Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Mayor Ken Johnston keynote speaker

First in-person luncheon for Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce

Feb 3, 2022 | 12:03 PM

Members of the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce gathered Wednesday in-person for the first time this year for the organization’s first luncheon of 2022.

The event was held at Gasoline Alley’s Holiday Inn after two years of virtual gatherings.

“I think we all value the personal side because the relationship, what I’ll call the relational capital between people, is so leveraged, it’s so fantastic and you can grab the energy in the room; you can channel it. You can’t do that across a screen,” said Mayor Ken Johnston.

Not only did the City of Red Deer receive an award for their 45 years of membership with the Chamber, but Mayor Johnston, presented his highlights for a hopeful year ahead.

One theme rising in importance for 2022 is the city’s energy production and its environmental and economical impacts.

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Mayor Johnston touched upon the latest pioneering venture concerning carbon capture and hydrogen production. Central Alberta, and in particular Red Deer, has been noted as geologically advantageous for a project.

“We have the infrastructure and we certainly have the carbon storage here,” he said.

Earlier in January, Enhance Energy, operator of Alberta’s largest Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) prepared a virtual presentation hosted by Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP). Their Origins Project envisions a hub to properly store CO2 with the goal to move Alberta towards zero net emissions by 2050. That CO2 can then be transformed into hydrogen for fuel, electricity and other forms of energy.

The mayor hopes it one day can become another NOVA Chemicals, who’s plant in Joffre turns ethane, a component of natural gas, into plastics and at times, hydrogen. He added he will be attending the Canadian Hydrogen Convention this April in Edmonton.

In light of recent long hospital wait time reports, the mayor called attention to an infrastructure expansion he hopes to see come to fruition in 2022: the Red Deer Regional Hospital. With the provincial budget to be released on Feb. 24, the mayor urged Red Deerians to write a letter to their MLA that the hospital is in “need of a makeover”, in emergency rooms, psychiatric care, and cardiology, among others.

Finally, the revitalization of the downtown, a hot topic for the city, Mayor Johnston shared the success of the Capstone development hosting over 50 events in 2021, attracting multiple attendees. It is an amazing place to meet, even with the current circumstances of the downtown area, he said.

“The key to downtown is two things in my view: residential attraction and solving, with some purpose and with some sustainability, the social challenges that we face downtown,” said the mayor.

With the permanent shelter potentially located near the Capstone and downtown districts, a public hearing is expected to be scheduled in March. The mayor reiterated that he hopes the public does not benchmark the permanent shelter against the current temporary services. It’s not a larger warehouse but rather a transformation in the way we deliver these kinds of services, he said.

Mayor Johnston ended on a positive note, with the message, “be an ambassador for your city. Love your city, promote your city.”