(L-R) Councillor Lawrence Lee, Chief of Staff Sean McIntyre, Councillors Cindy Jefferies, Kraymer Barnstable and Dianne Wyntjes at the 2022 Alberta Municipalities Convention & Trade Show in Calgary on Wednesday. (Councillor Lawrence Lee)

By Alessia Proietti

Sept. 21-23: Alberta Municipalities Conference

Red Deer to discuss shelter, funding, addictions and hospital at municipalities conference

Sep 21, 2022 | 11:03 AM

Almost all Red Deer city councillors are headed to the 2022 Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) annual Convention and Trade Show today (Sept. 21) to advocate for local priorities.

Held in Calgary for the first time in five years, nearly 1,100 members and over 130 exhibitors will be attending the conference from September 21-23 at the TELUS Convention Centre, making it one of Alberta’s largest gatherings of municipal elected officials.

“The overall purpose there is taking a look at what we have as priorities, what other communities have as priorities, and how together we can advocate and be a strong voice,” said Councillor and Deputy Mayor Bruce Buruma, who will be in attendance alongside Councillors Kraymer Barnstable, Michael Dawe, Vesna Higham, Cindy Jefferies, Lawrence Lee, and Dianne Wyntjes.

For Red Deer’s priorities, Councillor Buruma stated, firstly, the intent is to finalize shelter decisions. While the chosen location will be presented to the public at Monday’s council meeting, he said educational sessions on affordable housing, such as the Municipal Identified Unique Housing Priorities resolution in the conference agenda, and discussions with other municipalities will provide an opportunity to hear what may be working in other areas regarding homelessness.

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“It’s opportunities to connect and network with people and often times through that we find out some new ideas and ways of learning from others,” he said.

The second priority for the City, he states, is discussing municipal funding issues from the provincial government towards operations, capital projects, infrastructure and social programming. Some resolutions to be discussed at the conference include Transportation Infrastructure Funding, Operational Transit Funding for Small to Medium Sized Municipalities, Hydrogen Industry Support and more.

The final priority for Red Deer, Councillor Buruma stated, was looking at future steps regarding addictions and mental health to ensure community safety.

“I think the important thing for our community to realize is that while the City has some influence on these, these are areas of provincial responsibility. The operations of programs around that, shelter providers, all of those people, are provincial matters,” he said.

A resolution titled Advancing Action on Alberta’s Drug Poisoning Crisis will be discussed, advocating for the provincial government to engage municipalities, people with lived and living experience, front-line agencies, and other partners into a comprehensive drug poisoning prevention strategy, increase affordable housing, and reinstate the inclusion of neighborhood-level data in the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System reporting, among other recommendations.

Councillor Buruma also confirmed the City will be advocating for updates on the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre as no news has yet been heard while the public is, “eagerly anticipating future directions”.

The schedule for the conference is as follows:

• Wednesday, Sept. 21: Opening ceremonies with ABmunis President Cathy Heron
• Thursday, Sept. 22: Ministers’ Dialogue Session #1 with six cabinet ministers and UCP Leadership Candidates Forum with all seven candidates
• Friday, Sept. 23: Speeches by Premier Jason Kenney and Opposition Leader Rachel Notley and Ministers’ Dialogue Session #2 with another six ministers

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