By Justin Dionne

Grande Prairie Councillors sending letter supporting oil and gas industry

Dec 18, 2018 | 4:30 AM

City Councillors will be sending off a letter in support of the oil and gas industry.

The request to send the letter was made by Grande Prairie local Robert Engen during the council meeting on Monday.

“The motion that came out of Council today was to write a letter in support of the oil and gas industry in general, the need to get Alberta’s resources to tidewater in general, but also, more specifically, around the need to ensure that Bill C-69 meets the interests of oil and gas communities like Grande Prairie,” says Mayor Bill Given. “Council chose to be a little bit more specific, and identify that we wanted to speak to the Senate committee that is currently reviewing Bill C-69 because we want to have a direct impact on this issue on the interests of our residents.”

Mayor Given also addressed Councilor Bressey attending the Support Oil and Gas Rally as a resident, but not having any councillors on stage during Sunday’s rally. 

“The invitation actually came through about mid-week last week, when a number of council members had already made previous commitments,” said Given. “Fortunately, Councilor Bressey was able to attend, but in terms of speaking, we really saw that it was provincial officials that were at the podium, and for the City of Grande Prairie, our opportunity is really to support this overwhelming community grassroots initiative by hitting at the levels of government we can best interact with. We saw that as a result of the motion tonight; Council is going to take that community grassroots energy and direct it to the channels where we can do the most effective advocacy.”

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The letter is being sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Rachel Notley, and the Senate committee currently reviewing Bill C-69.

Other highlights from Monday’s council meeting were the Northern Lights Area Structure Plan passing third reading, which designates the land for long-term commercial and industrial needs, along with considering the needs for future development of recreational areas.

Council also gave first reading to Borrowing Bylaw C-1391 – Long-Term Debt Consolidation and Refinancing. The bylaw will allow the City to consolidate 19 individual loans with a lower interest rate if it passes second and third reading.