Grande Prairie City Council has announced this year’s advocacy key priorities during a meeting held on March 11th.
According to council, 2024’s advocacy priorities include electricity distribution costs, health care support, medical first response funding, support for Northwestern Polytechnic, and provincial and federal funding for housing needs.
Additionally, council says plans to improve rail service, move to automated traffic enforcement in support of recent changes by the Provincial government, and biometric scanning for immigration are in place as priorities as well.
Mayor Jackie Clayton says establishing the priorities helps set the framework for council’s year and identifies which parties will best support the city’s advocacy projects.
“From addressing rising electricity costs, housing availability, accessible health care, and more, these priorities are based on what we’re hearing in the community, and what we’ve identified is needed to best meet our residents’ growing needs in our growing community,” she says.
Last year’s priority list included items such as physician attraction and retention, and council says they were pleased to see those items included in the province’s budget through funding boosts like the $42 million investment into the province’s Rural Physician Expansion Program.
Council has published an annual list of its advocacy priorities since 2021, and the city says they will address any updates as the year goes on.