MLA Report: No longer the forgotten corner

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on December 28, 2018.

As many Medicine Hat constituents know by now, I will not be seeking re-election. I will remain as the MLA for Medicine Hat until the next general election and the Speaker of the Alberta Legislature until a new Speaker is chosen by his or her peers.

It has been a privilege and honour to represent the people of Medicine Hat and to serve all Albertans as the Speaker for the 29th Alberta Legislature.

When I was elected, I vowed that Medicine Hat and southeastern Alberta would no longer be the forgotten corner of the province. I believe that objective has been achieved. I was proud to play host to more than 50 ministerial visits to our beautiful city while doing my best to connect industry, agriculture, business and community stakeholders with ministers and their staff during visits to Edmonton.

The plummeting price of oil hit our province hard. At the peak of the recent downturn, 5,400 Hatters were unemployed. Last month, that number was 2,100, according to the Medicine Hat-specific numbers reported by Statistics Canada.

While the province has been hit hard by the downturn in the resource sector, Alberta continues to have the lowest taxes of any province in the country while still boasting the highest average wages.

Since I was elected, I was proud to be at the groundbreaking ceremonies for Dr. Ken Sauer School and Ecole Saint John Paul II as well as their respective openings. I also attended re-opening of new and renovated facilities at Schuler School, Eagle Butte High School, Monsignor McCoy High School and Medicine Hat High School. In addition I participated with Premier Notley and Minister Hoffman in the reopening of the new hospital addition and the sod turning for the Masterpiece Care Facility.

Between Jan. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018, the city requested nearly $52 million in Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding to replace aging sewers and roads as well as other projects. The city received nearly $46 million of that requested amount.

In the past few years, four major renewable energy projects have been announced around Medicine Hat — three in the last month — while CanCarb announced a major expansion just a few weeks ago. Aurora Cannabis broke ground on one of Canada’s largest cannabis production facilities. Three microbreweries opened along with a distillery and the Hut 8 bitcoin mining operation.

These facts speak for themselves. Medicine Hat and southeastern Alberta is on its way to becoming Energy Central. It will take confident, positive leadership, not pessimism, doom and gloom.

As I said in my speech announcing my intent not to seek re-election, in 2019 Alberta will face choices — vision or division, invest or divest, build or burn, ahead or backwards, love who we choose to love or judge with cold indifference, ignore the world or work with the world.

Let us work together 2019 to make a better world.

Bob Wanner is the MLA (NDP) for Medicine Hat constituency.

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