The premier of Alberta believes the Peace Country is making the right moves to get ahead in the economy. Speaking with MyGrandePrairieNow.com, Rachel Notley says she’s impressed with the number of projects underway.
“Whether it be the five schools that are modernizing or new school construction that is underway or completed in Grande Prairie alone or the bridge in Peace River or the long-overdue decision to support Grande Prairie college moving towards being a university. These kinds of things I think represent a clear understanding of the value and the vibrancy of northwest Alberta.”
Notley and Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd spent the last two days in the Peace Country. McCuaig-Boyd announced that the Tri-Municipal Industrial Partnership will receive $282,000 in Community and Regional Economic Support funding.
It will help the City and County of Grande Prairie and the Municipal District of Greenview do more planning and land studies, Indigenous consultation, and put a land use plan in place for a proposed industrial park south of the city. The partnership previously received $247,000 in another CARES grant.
The goal is to shorten the amount of time it takes for industrial projects to be built in the area. McCuaig-Boyd says that’s a smart move and one that other municipalities could follow.
“That grant that we gave to them is going to go a long way to help get that so they’ll have the pre-approved area so companies can just look at it and move in a lot more readily. We can only grow from that and it’s going to be huge in the next few years for us up here.”
Notley also confirmed that $80 million in future royalty credits have been offered to Nauticol Energy for its proposed methanol plant south of the city.
Since both the Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Grande Prairie-Smoky electoral districts were created in 1993, it has been lead by conservative MLAs. Notley says in order to win the upcoming provincial election, she needs to start knocking on doors.
“The best thing to do it tell your story and do that on the doorstep with people as much as you can face to face with people as much as you can and then make sure that what you’re saying is thoughtful, lay out what your plan is clearly and then hold yourself accountable.”
An election date has not been set yet but it could be called any time between March 1st and May 31st.