Sherwood Park Minute: Issue 126

Sherwood Park Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Sherwood Park politics

📅 This Week In Sherwood Park: 📅

• There are no Council or Committee meetings this week. According to the County's meeting portal, the next scheduled meeting is a Council meeting on Tuesday, September 15th at 9:00 am, followed by a Priorities Committee meeting on September 22nd and a Council Public Hearing on September 29th.
  
  
• Jordan Walker has been nominated as the United Conservative Party candidate for Sherwood Park in Alberta’s next provincial election. Walker represented the riding from 2019 to 2023 but lost to NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski in the 2023 election. He won the nomination vote against Kathy Flett, securing the support of local UCP members. During his previous term, Walker served as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health. His nomination sets up a potential rematch with Kasawski as parties begin preparing for the expected 2027 election..
  
  
• Ward 4 Councillor Bill Tonita is drawing attention to the cost of maintaining Strathcona County's infrastructure ahead of what he expects will be a challenging 2027 budget. In a column, Tonita wrote that Council has taken a more hands-on approach to the budget this year, holding workshops since early January. The County's latest state of infrastructure report estimates the replacement cost of its assets at $7.13 billion, including 102 bridges, 1,731 kilometers of roads, 11 recreation complexes, 14 community halls, and 613 kilometers of water distribution pipe. Tonita notes that July's heavy rainfall led to $16.3 million in emergency repairs, paid from municipal reserves, and warns that provincial grants supporting municipal infrastructure have fallen by more than 50% over the past five years, placing increased pressure on municipal budgets. He says he is mindful of residents' affordability concerns and is inviting feedback on budget priorities in the months ahead.
  
  
• Nate Glubish, MLA for Strathcona-Sherwood Park, is defending the provincial government's record on physician recruitment, writing in a column that Alberta now has 14,156 registered physicians, the most in its history. Over the past year, the province added 1,226 physicians, a 9.5% increase that includes 510 family doctors, which Glubish calls the largest single-year gain in family physicians ever recorded in the province. He points to a record $34.4 billion for health care in Budget 2026, 41% of total provincial spending, with $7.7 billion going to recruiting, training, and paying physicians - a $1.4-billion increase from last year. Glubish acknowledges that many residents are still waiting for a family doctor or facing long emergency room and specialist waits, attributing the strain to Alberta adding roughly 500,000 people over the past 4 years. He says more than 1,000 primary care providers and nurse practitioners are accepting new patients right now and that more than 88% of Albertans report having a primary care provider.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Kyle Kasawski, the MLA for Sherwood Park, is criticizing the provincial government for moving ahead with plans to attract AI data centres without first consulting Albertans. In a column, Kasawski wrote that major data centre projects can currently be approved without environmental assessments or public consultation. He argues that data centres create few jobs, do not pay income tax in Alberta, and consume enormous amounts of power, threatening to outpace the electricity grid's capacity and drive up utility bills. Kasawski says the Alberta NDP has been hosting its own consultations, including a session in St. Albert that drew hundreds of attendees. He noted that the government has since decided to hold consultations of its own, though he argues they come after decisions have already been announced.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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