(rdnewsNOW)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

game face on

Mayor Johnston to hold ‘critical’ meetings with ministers on city’s priorities

Oct 29, 2022 | 11:00 AM

Red Deer’s mayor is set to meet with multiple provincial ministers next week to lay out for them what the city’s priorities are.

Ken Johnston will meet with Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jeremy Nixon on Monday. He’ll then head to Edmonton on Wednesday for talks with Mental Health and Addictions’ Nicholas Milliken, Infrastructure’s Nathan Neudorf, and Municipal Affairs’ Rebecca Schulz.

The number one priority is, not surprisingly, the hospital, which Johnston has spoken to rdnewsNOW about in recent weeks.

In our Oct. 14 story, Johnston called any further delay to hospital construction ‘bewildering.’

“I like the expression ‘game face,’ and I think the province knows what our game face is. I made public weeks ago how disappointed I was the fact we aren’t yet talking about commitments to dates or a definitive start to this project, or some vision of what we can expect. The province is very very aware of how we feel,” says Johnston.

Pitch ideas

Central Alberta entrepreneurs take part in Catalyst Incubator program

23m ago

numerous incidents

QEII Highway very icy Monday morning

3h ago

"unprecedented levels of discrimination"

Ponoka Pride Society dissolves, citing limited resources

3h ago

“We are looking for something specific and concrete from Infrastructure. I’m very grateful we’re able to see Minister Neudorf so quickly, and he will get the urgency from me during these meetings. I want a firm commitment for our community as far as what we can expect.”

Also high on the list is the matter of a permanent emergency shelter, which has long been at the desks of city council members.

A new future shelter site was recently recommended to the province, with The City saying it is still unable to share specific details as land negotiations were still ongoing.

On September 12, 2022, council selected a potential site for recommendation to the province, but the province determined it to be “unsuitable.”

“We’re hoping the province will support our [latest] location and we’re hoping the private owner who will sit with the province can get the deal completed soon,” says the mayor. “My personal goal is that we could make an announcement to the public, at the latest, by end of December. The first step is the province’s approval, and Monday with Minister [Jeremy] Nixon would be my hope for when we could get it.”

Elsewhere on the priority list, Johnston is seeking an update on operations of the recovery community located at the city’s north end.

Johnston’s understanding is it will open by the end of November.

rdnewsNOW has reached out to the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions for an update on this, but didn’t receive a response by publishng time.

Johnston says he also wants to speak with Minister Milliken about The City’s vision for a recovery summit in Red Deer next spring.

“We want to have discussion around harm reduction, the province’s vision for that and where they see us playing a role,” he says, alluding to the Overdose Prevention Site operated by Turning Point.

“With Minister Schulz, we want to hear more about the province’s plan to change the funding formula for municipalities from MSI to a new framework called the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF), starting in 2024. We want to say there are some pluses here, but also challenges around the program’s predictability and certainty.”

rdnewsNOW will have more on this story in the coming days.