Wednesday, October 19, 2022 Vol. 45, No. 42
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Kurek holds town hall in Viking New Irma CAO Patricia Harcourt
has deep roots in community
Editor
Battle River-Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek hosted a town hall at the Viking Carena Complex last Friday, October 14. Although attendance was sparse with about 10 people present, there was still plenty to discuss in a two-hour period. Kurek had spent the morning at Viking School talking with the Grade 9 Social-30 class, and previous to that had just returned from a trip to Poland to discuss issues with officials in that country that pertain to rural Canada as well. Apart from dealing with what he called “headline grabbing stuff,” Kurek said MPs spend a lot of time helping out their constituents with “individual challenges.” He invited anyone having issues obtaining government services as well as other problems with government to call his Camrose office for assistance. “We’re generally not the first call but when you hit a brick wall reach out to us we’ll go to bat for you,” he said. “We do everything we can and try to get it sorted.” He gave the example of a single mother who is basically in survival mode and needing help, such as obtaining a child tax credit. However, he started on these issues discussing the redistribution of the federal electoral map which, when it comes, will leave Viking in the Battle RiverCrowfoot riding in which it currently resides. “Rural representation is an issue,” he said, noting that “the dynamics of rural (representation) is very different from an urban riding.” The rural ridings have many different councils, mayors and rural challenges such as dis-
Patricia Harcourt Editor
Battle River-Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek fields questions at town hall meeting in Viking last Friday. tance between municipalities. “I wish I could be in more places at once,” he said, even though he noted that the rural areas are “like minded.” Some of the same issues in Poland reminded him of Viking and area, with Poland worried about oil and gas security. “They’re desperate for energy.” Unfortunately, Canada lacks the pipelines to deliver it and he called for that to be corrected. “We’re 10 years behind the infrastructure to get oil and gas to Europe,” Kurek said, calling the energy and food security issues also relevant to people in rural Alberta, “because we live it.” He then went on to discuss the “pushback” the governing Liberals received on several fronts this year, including new policies in fertilizer and meat that angered many producers. The problems with passport offices and their inability to produce the documents people needed to travel was also highlighted.
“It’s been a mess,” he said. “There are many examples of how incompetent the (governing Liberal) management is…It’s getting a little bit better but not by much.” Kurek also blamed the federal government for not allowing productivity levels to rise to prepandemic levels, stating they are now only 50 per cent of what was happening before the pandemic even with health restrictions having been lifted. He said the government should have been aware that Canadians would want to travel after two years when it was shut down. And more staff should be hired to make it easier for Canadians to renew or get passports. Kurek said the numbers of staff the government claims were hired was falsely claimed to be 650 when it was actually only 68. “Providing passports should be a very basic level of providing services,” he said, adding the Continued on Page 13
The Village of Irma has a new Chief Administrative Officer who has deep family roots in the community. Kelly Short assumed her new duties on October 3 and is learning the ropes with a lot of support from the local community. “I enjoy being a part of my community as a volunteer for community groups or as a board member on community organizations,” she said. “My family roots run deep here, and I am looking forward to doing my part and helping my community in my new position as the Village of Irma CAO. “My family is from here,” she said, by way of explanation. Before marrying, Kelly’s last name was Larson, a familiar one to the Irma community. “My parents were born here and moved away when I was a baby.” They went to Wainwright, just down the road from the home area, where she was raised and graduated from high school. Kelly eventually moved back to Irma where she married Sheldon Short. Since 2005, she has worked as a contract property assessor with municipalities, spending five years in Flagstaff County, among others. She received her training in that field at Lakeland College. Now she is in training for her new position in local authority administration, while stressing the need for transparency in local government.
Right: New Irma CAO Kelly Short