By Curtis Galbraith

Local Business

Good news in new provincial budget says local Chamber Chair

Oct 25, 2019 | 1:21 PM

Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce Chair Dan Wong says there is good news regarding the new Grande Prairie hospital and Highway 40 in the new provincial budget.

The new hospital is still fully funded.

“Those kind of big projects are really necessary in our area. We’ve been waiting on the hospital completion for a while. I believe the budget even has the expansion of the wing that wasn’t going to be completed and now it will be.”

Wong says the Chamber is still trying to clarify if the Highway 40 project is a new one or one announced late last year by the previous government. That would see 19 kilometres of the road south of the Wapiti River bridge twinned between 2022 and 2024.

He thinks this budget will attract investment to Alberta.

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“In our Alberta economy, its really resource-based and it requires corporations to invest in major infrastructure projects.That creates jobs for everyone and this budget really does look at attracting that at a time when, economically, we’re very stagnant across the country.”

He is also glad to see education fully funded, as enrollments continue to grow in this community.

Wong acknowledges cuts will cause some concern.

“But, overall, I think it’s a very good approach to get our costs in line with comparable provinces and it can be done through efficiencies.The government took a very measured approach at making sure that nothing drastic happened and there are going to be years going ahead for government workers to adjust to those levels that we’re trying to reach.”

The budget did not include any money for pay increases for public sector workers. A number of contracts the government has with unions expire next year.