Hon. Ken Hughes…
Minister of Municipal Affairs
Minister of Municipal Affairs Ken Hughes says despite a shake-up in the leadership of the government, they intend to keep the course set out in the most recent budget.
Hughes was through Drumheller on Friday, March 21 to meet with Drumheller Town Council. This followed on the heels of meeting in Hanna. The Mail caught up with Hughes following the meeting.
“It has been a very difficult few weeks for a lot of people, but now David Hancock is the interim premier to be sworn in on Sunday. I am confident Mr. Hancock will deliver solid stable government through the transition period. We are about to enter a leadership process that will become evident over the next few days as to how that will play out. I think that is an exciting time for Albertans to come back together again and reengage in the political process,” said Hughes.
He says they are keeping the course.
“It is steady. We are moving forward, we’ve increased funding a bit in line with inflation and we will be working hard and going about delivering the services Albertans expect from us.”
On Monday, following The Mail’s conversation, Hughes expressed interest in the leadership.
Since Hughes has been Minister of Municipal Affairs, he detailed his work on satisfying the thousands of claims made following last spring’s flooding.
“When I was asked to take on this portfolio in December it was clear to me we still had a lot of work to do in the Disaster Recovery Program. So I asked my officials how we can move these files forward more quickly so Albertans affected by the flood could get an answer, if possible, of what they would be covered for and what they wouldn’t be covered for,” Hughes told The Mail. “We are going to have, by the end of this month, around 90 per cent of the residential Disaster Recovery Program completed. That is a big accomplishment since December 1.”
Hughes addressed concerns about the current flood mapping for the valley. In August of last year, the town received a letter from then Minister of Municipal Affairs Doug Griffith essentially granting permission to Drumheller to develop within the floodway given the protective measure undertaken in the valley. This information however has not been made clear through provincial mapping.
“We are working on the regulations. Now that I have met with Council I will ask our officials to move forward more quickly to have the regulations spell out the details of the special exceptions of Drumheller and Fort McMurray. The fact is, these are two communities where there is a circumstance that under the old maps, before the berms were built, would have been in the floodway,” said Hughes. “We need to communicate clearly what the development rules are, that will help the banks and insurance companies understand what the rules are.”
One other concern of the town is MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) funding. Hughes said he inherited a mandate of decreasing the MSI operating funds and rolling them into the Municipal Partnership Fund. He does not want this to be a burden on municipalities.
“There was a shift in funds a year ago, from moving funds from the MSI operating account over into the collaboration account, and that may have an impact on municipalities like Drumheller that we don’t really intend. What we want to have happen here, is for municipalities to work together and deliver services just as effectively as they can,” said Hughes. “I asked Council to make me aware of what the impact of these changes are so we can respond and be supportive of the community.”
