MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw hosted a special fundraiser at the Glendon RCMP Hall last Wednesday, with several cabinet members and MLA's from across the province in attendance.
Former MLA Ray Danyluk was the MC for the event, which was headlined by guest speakers Ken Hughes and Ric McIver, Minister of Energy and Minister of Transportation respectively, and saw roughly 200 people pile into the village arena for a night that also included a question and answer period with the five ministers in attendance.
Leskiw said she was delighted with how the evening went, stating it was important for smaller communities to have the chance to communicate with provincial ministers when the opportunity presents itself.
“I think it was a great evening – whenever you have almost a quarter of the provincial caucus in a small community like Glendon, where people have the opportunity to pose questions to and mingle with the ministers, it's great,” Leskiw said. “It really brings government to the people and any opportunity where your residents can have a chance to communicate with the government is a great one.”
Both Hughes and McIver took to the stage for individual ten-minute speeches, addressing some of the issues and opportunities in the province.
“We are at a rare and critical point in the history of the province today,” Hughes said. “We currently possess the third largest oil reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, which is a pretty amazing thing and displays why so many people from across the country and across the world are coming here.”
He later made note of the tour of China that Premier Alison Redford embarked on last week as a prime example of the province's commitment to securing investment from overseas.
“At the provincial level, we realized some time ago that we have work to do to reach out to the world so that they can buy our resources, that's the reason Premier Redford was in China,” Hughes said. “It's important for us as Albertans to become part of the global economy, our government is committed to keep building…and ensuring this is the best place in Canada to come to raise a family, get a great job and live a great quality of life.”
McIver too touched on the importance of expanding into the global market, but decided to focus the majority of his speech on provincial roads, much to the delight of those in attendance.
“I'm really pleased to be here tonight with all of you because it's nice to get out and talk to and listen to views from all over the province,” McIver said. “One of the fun things I get to do is visit all 349 municipalities in this province and find out everyone's priorities. Having a larger emphasis on improving infrastructure in rural areas is very much a part if the plan for the future – it's just all about how we manage those improvements.”
McIver then commended Leskiw for her work in the region.
“She is not shy when it comes to asking for something to be done – if a message doesn't get through with Genia, then it simply can't get through at all.”
Ministers respond to questions
Prior to the night's conclusion, Danyluk facilitated a 30-minute question and answer period, with several local residents posing questions regarding a variety of topics, including what plans the province had for the intersection of 41 and 660 in light of another fatality.
McIver seemed receptive to the idea something had to be done to make the intersection safer, but did not commit to a particular plan or timeline for changes to be made.
Leskiw said she enjoyed the speeches made by Hughes and McIvor and was delighted with the turnout and response from the public during the question and answer period.
“The reason for doing all of this tonight was to bring the provincial government to the people,” Leskiw said. “I think a lot of people appreciated that and took something from it.”