Barry Morishita says municipal governments are looking for more autonomy from Ottawa and the province.
The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association President is taking a tour through the Peace Region to hear from mayors, reeves and councillors all over Alberta.
Morishita came to Peace River with Angela Duncan, AUMA Director for Villages West and the Deputy Mayor of Alberta Beach.
He tells the Trending 55 Newsroom that this tour is a fact-finding mission.
“It is outreach,” says Morishita. “We get to see the communities we are representing to the federal and provincial governments.”
Morishita, who is also the Mayor of Brooks, says this is the third year he has done this tour, which included stops in Fahler and High Prairie.
While he mentions that each community is unique when it comes to their specific needs, he feels that most members want more control of local affairs.
“We have good ideas and good solutions,” he says. “We really do believe that, to the detriment of communities, that the province and the federal government have a regulatory approach to fixing things and it should be an outcome approach.”
Morishita used the April flood in Downtown Peace River as an example.
“I am sure there is a better solution in this community but we are so regulated by what we can do, rather than how it ends up.”
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
