Last week they held the Alberta Mid-Sized Mayor’s Caucus Summit and some important topics were discussed.

It was the first time council members from each city were invited to attend as well. The objective of the Caucus is to advocate to the province for the needs of the mid-sized cities.

While more members of the Airdrie council were planning to attend, the cold weather changed those plans and only Deputy Mayor Tina Petrow and two staff members were able to make it.

Petrow shared some of the main topics that were discussed over the three days last week:

  • Wellness
  • Government
  •  Affordability and housing initiatives
  • Community services
  • Growth 
  • Attraction and retention of physicians and
  • Transit initiatives

"We're all kind of dealing with the same challenges just maybe in a different way. I would say that all of them really speak to things that are going on within our community here as well."

Multiple ministers of the provincial government were in attendance to speak to everybody to share what they were working on. Those included Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver, Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis and Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams.

Members of the Legislative Assembly from both the NDP and Conservatives were in attendance as well.

"It was nice to see that cross representation, that the mid-sized cities are important to everyone in our legislature."

While the specifics of the meetings were not shared as they were mostly ideas on how the province can better help these cities, Petrow did mention some interesting things are happening when it comes to health care around the province.

"There are some municipalities who are trying different things, trying these different initiatives and it's great to learn from that. It's also great to learn in those side conversations when you're just chatting one-on-one with some different counsellors or mayors from across the province."

With the recent cold snap, Petrow stated it was interesting learning how other communities are dealing with warming shelters and cold weather responses.

"Airdrie took the opportunity to stand and ask (the provincial ministers) questions about mental health.  We did question them about prevention versus recovery because we need both and they were very open to having further conversations."

Petrow finished off by stating the Mid-Sized Mayor’s Caucus is a great way to ask the province questions and learn how like-minded communities are dealing with very similar situations and taking some of that to help within our local community. 

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