Leadership race won’t slow projects: premier
CALGARY — Premier Dave Hancock insists a change at the top of the Progressive Conservative party won’t slow down the province’s plans to spend millions of dollars on measures designed to prevent or mitigate the next big flood in Alberta.
In an interview, Alberta’s new premier said Wednesday that big-ticket priority projects for the government — from flood mitigation developments to building schools and Calgary’s southwest ring road — won’t be sidetracked by the sixmonth race to replace Alison Redford.
“Do you think Calgarians want us to wait for six months, eight months with respect to flood mitigation? Or people in High River? Should we be holding off on that? I don’t think they would want us to do that. They want us to continue to make decisions that are in the best interests of Albertans,” he said.
A number of critical decisions are facing the Tory government in the months ahead, from building dozens of new family care clinics across the province to continuing to push for increased market access for Alberta’s oil and gas resources.
At the end of September, for example, legislation for the provincial program regulating heavy greenhouse gas emitters expires, meaning the government must decide whether to continue the initiative or alter it — potentially increasing the price for carbon.
In the wake of last summer’s disaster that claimed the lives of five Albertans, the Redford government pledged last month to set aside $859 million over three years for flood recovery measures, including more than $700 million for mitigation developments.
Wildrose MLA Jeff Wilson said he’s concerned the government will grow distracted during the PC leadership race, as a number of cabinet ministers cast an eye toward the premier’s chair and consider their political future.
“When you have ministers thinking about possibly taking a shot at the leadership … it’s only reasonable to assume there are going to be disruptions,” said the Calgary-Shaw MLA.
But Hancock said he’s asked his cabinet ministers to look at departmental priorities and determine what matters need to be completed due to timeliness, or issues they should tackle because groundwork has already been done. “We need to do the things that need to be done ... we cannot stop because of a change in leadership. We were elected as a government.”