The Rural Municipalities of Alberta’s (RMA) Spring Conference took place last week, and Brazeau County representatives attended to meet with and advocate to ministers in the provincial government.
Multiple council members, Reeve Bart Guyon and CAO Rudy Friesen met with Drayton Valley–Devon MLA and Minister of Tourism and Sport Andrew Boitchenko, as well as Minister of Transportation Devin Dreeshen.
During the meeting, both ministers reportedly reaffirmed their commitment to upgrading Highway 621, a project Reeve Guyon says the county has been advocating for for two decades. The commitment was originally made last year.
To hasten the process, the province has agreed to let Brazeau County tender the initial engineering work, for which it will be refunded once complete.
“That’s pretty positive. Once the engineering work is done, you pretty much know for sure the project is going to go ahead,” Guyon commented.
The engineering portion is estimated to cost about $3.5 million. Guyon said the county is starting that process this year in the hopes of having it shelf-ready for work to begin in 2027, provided it is still a top priority for the provincial government at that point.
Speaking of Ministers Dreeshen and Boitchenko, Guyon stated, “They’ve really been an asset, both of them, taking time to come out and see the project and just being committed to what they talked about, so I feel pretty certain the project will go ahead.”
Guyon said the entirety of the Highway 621 project is about a $35 million investment in the county. His current strategy for communicating with ministers is to focus on one major project at a time, as the current infrastructure funding shortage has been an ongoing issue, he said.
While he was pleased to have the Highway 621 commitment reaffirmed and sped up, Guyon said the county is a significant contributor to the province’s coffers, and residents are beginning to share frustrations with a perceived lack of return on investment from the province.
One resolution put forward and supported at the conference could have an impact on some of this infrastructure funding. The Municipal District of Bonnyville has asked the Government of Alberta to change its definition of a bridge to match the national standard, which defines a culvert spanning 3,000 millimetres or more as a bridge structure.
Guyon commented, bridge and culvert maintenance and replacements are expensive ventures that aren’t always feasible for the county to take on. For example, a bridge may have only 20 users but cost millions to fix, making it a difficult project to justifiably collect from the local tax base.
Another resolution addressed proposed changes to the province’s electoral boundaries, stating that the RMA does not support the changes as they could undermine rural representation.
“The electoral boundary redistribution, that usually means that our voice gets thinner and the areas get bigger,” Guyon stated. “We’re lobbying to try to keep them the same so the rural voice doesn’t get lost amongst the ever-increasing number of urban ridings that are out there.”
Guyon continued to say the government needs to focus on the “whole empire,” not just Rome. While the majority of Alberta’s population resides in urban centres, rural communities control the majority of the province’s land mass and agriculture, forestry and oil and gas industries, he said.
Moving forward, he said the county will continue to advocate to the provincial government and build relationships with ministers.
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