Knelsen praises direction of province following last week’s RMA convention

Mackenzie County Reeve Josh Knelsen is back after last week’s fall convention being put on by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. Knelsen and his colleagues had a chance to interact with municipal politicians from all over Alberta as well as representatives from the provincial government. Knelsen feels good about the direction of the province, despite the fact it is cutting back its spending in last month’s budget. “Everybody is concerned with the province having to make some cuts and changes but I think they are doing a fabulous job for what they had in mind,” says Knelsen. “We were on track to be pretty much running this province on a credit card with an annual interest payment of close to $4 billion if they would have carried on with what the NDP had in place. Even though it hurts a little bit with some of the changes the province is bringing down, it’s a necessity. We need to look ahead and not how it affects us immediately.”

While other counties in the Peace Region declared agricultural disasters, Knelsen says Mackenzie County is in good shape given the weather. “Most of our crops did come off, unlike our neighbours to the south,” mentions Knelsen . “A lot of it (the crops) was wet, but we had a very dry summer with the fires here, so the crops were not very good. It was not a good year for agriculture but it was better than some others had to cope with.”

Knelsen adds that one concern is access to markets for local industries. “Obviously, the path we are on is not working so some changes need to be made,” comments Knelsen . “We have a government that’s very eager –not just willing, eager-to make that happen.”

– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom