The Town of High Level recently received a visit from Alberta Indigenous Relations Minister Richard Feehan.
He was in town as part of his tour visiting the various communities’ right across the province.
Richard Feehan, Alberta’s Minister of Indigenous Relations. (Photo/Twitter)
The YL Country team at CKHL was able to speak to the minister on Monday at the constituency office of Peace River MLA Debbie Jabbour. Feehan says that he was there to learn about what tools are needed for development, as well as form good relationships.
“I’ve been up in the community at least three or four times since I became the (Minister of Indigenous Relations),” said Feehan. “I’ve had a chance to visit, of course, all of the First Nations, as well as the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement, over the past year. But, I thought it was time to come into the town itself a bit more, and learn a little bit about the resources located within the town.”
Feehan adds that he’d previously met with Mayor Crystal McAtteer and other town council members in Calgary.
“Just before I came up, we were all at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention,” he said. “They were also able to give me lots of good information and help me understand what people were working on, and some of the wonderful things that were happening in the community.”
He adds that he likes seeing people working together on the various projects that are important in each region.
“Like if FASD is an issue, if housing or employment are an issue,” continued Feehan. “If we’re going to make any progress on any of them, we have to have relationships between the various people.
“For example, you can’t have the Beaver here, or the Dene there, or have Paddle Prairie to the south, and the town right in the middle,” he said. “Not having all of those groups actually talking to each other never works, so communication are something that we’re going to be working.”
Alberta Indigenous Relations Minister Richard Feehan meets with members of the High Level Friendship Centre. Also in attendance is Peace River MLA Debbie Jabbour. (Photo/Twitter)
Feehan says it’s not his job to decide what the priorities are in each region.
“My job is to listen to what the priorities are,” he said. “So, I’m talking to each chief and council, and I’ve learned from them that housing is a big issue. Housing Minister Lori Sigurdson has about a billion dollars being invested into social housing over the next few years, and I hope to see some of that money arrive up in the High Level area.”
Another challenge that’s facing the Mackenzie region right now is the costs of heating your home.
“One of the things that we’re doing as part of the climate leadership program is we’re trying to work with all the First Nations, the Metis Settlements, and the Town of High Level to assess the energy needs in the area,” said Feehan. “Doing things like solar panels, and retrofitting buildings with them, will allow us to reduce the costs by upwards of 50 percent.
“They can then use the money they save from lighting, and putting it towards programing instead,” he continued. “Another example is the recent construction efforts of the new school at the Tallcree First Nation. As they started to build it, we worked with them to build in all the climate stuff as construction continued. It’ll also hopefully lead to them using a wood pellet system for heating, that’ll use the resources in the community around them, and potentially provide employment for residents in the future.”
Feehan also met Monday with High Level RCMP, the town’s Friendship Centre, as well as with the Women’s Emergency Centre and the Northwest FASD group. On Tuesday, he met with the Board of Trustees from Fort Vermilion School Division.
– Posted by BET
