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By Hayley Ferguson (CHAT News)

TASK FORCE

Western municipal leaders team up to advocate for prairie provinces

Nov 14, 2019 | 6:10 AM

Medicine Hat, AB – Since the election, talks of western alienation have left tensions high among the prairie provinces.

That’s why the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has announced the “Western Economic Solutions Task Force.”

The goal of which is to bring those concerns and possible solutions to Ottawa as a united group.

“Municipalities for years have been recognized as being on the front lines of understanding people’s needs and finding solutions. So our whole concept here is to bring key people, key stakeholders, municipal leaders in the three prairie provinces together,” said FCM president, Bill Karsten.

Some of those municipal leaders include the mayors of the five biggest cities in the prairies.

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Barry Morishita, the mayor of Brooks and president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, will also be a part of the task force.

“I represent 267 towns, cities, villages including the cities of Calgary and Edmonton that have borne a huge brunt of the cost of what’s happening by this lack of a plan in place, he continued. “So I think it’s better to be involved then kind of sit on the sidelines. So I think this is a really good forum to help other municipalities.”

He believes that the group must help Canadians really understand what is happening in the west.

“That one kind of population isn’t facing unduly hardship because there’s a lack of understanding about what all of this means. So I think that’s the main thing that we’re Canadians from coast to coast, we need to understand each other better, and we’re hoping that comes as a result of all of this of all this activity.”

While nobody from Medicine Hat or Cypress County has been officially named to the 16-member task force, both are optimistic they will be consulted.

“Hopefully after they have their initial meeting they come out with some kind of step-up that they can get our feedback as to what we think and where we think they should go to in the future. Hopefully, they can get that advocacy going with the Canadian government. And I think this is a perfect time for it,” said Medicine Hat city councillor Brian Varga.

Cypress County councillor Robin Kurpjuweit agreed.

“Right now it’s a very important role as elected officials to represent your ratepayers and your community and we take it very seriously. So this is a good opportunity for us to be involved however we can,” he continued. “This isn’t about parties, this is about people. So we’re going to take the people to them.”

Karsten says that the group will meet in two weeks in Ottawa.