Photo: Courtesy of Ottawa Citizen
Energy Minister and Peace River MLA Frank Oberle (pictured) was the keynote speaker at yesterday’s meeting of the Peace River Rotary Club. In his speech, Oberle addressed the current financial situation plaguing the province. He says the outlook has changed over the last year, with a shortfall of between six to seven billion dollars expected for this year, which represents a fall of 20 percent from last year. Oberle says for this year’s budget, they have to spend money on any critical programs, while putting all non-critical programs on the back-burner, saying all programs will be checked with a fine tooth comb. He says while the province will be making any cuts they can, he adds they will make sure programs for Alberta’s disadvantaged and vulnerable people won’t be harmed. Oberle says the government won’t be making any mistakes such as cutting transportation capacity, nor will they build on an infrastructure deficit they are still struggling to deal with due to record population growth. For example, he says they need roughly 28 new schools to keep up with the influx of people coming to the province. Oberle says with falling oil prices, the government can’t stop building infrastructure and expect it to turn out very well.
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