2016 has come and gone in Starland County and Reeve Barrie Hoover took a moment to recount some of the challenges and achievements over the last year.
    He said despite weather challenges this year, agriculture fared better than most expected.
    “2016 started out, in the farming area, dry and later the rains came and came. We had an early frost. Most crops are in the bin thanks to a late winter. It was another challenging year but most farmers said crops were better than expected,” he said.
    He adds the weather also delayed some projects.
    Road building was delayed and was put to next year’s plan because of the amount of rain received through the season.
    The economic situation in the province had its affect on the county.
    “The County was subject to shrinking assessment and thus lower tax revenue so adjustments had to be made to keep within budgets,” he said. “Less road maintenance because of the downturn of the gas and oil industry.”
    There is also more economic uncertainty due to changes in policy at the provincial level.
    “Concerns with our new government, mainly of what the carbon tax is really going to cost for every taxpayer. Government is again downloading services to the municipalities with little or no funding. No one seems accountable for their decisions,” he said.
    “In the New Year we already know that again, the tax assessment is going down and this means tax revenue will be down so the budgets are going to have to be adjusted so taxes can remain stable. We are trying to keep services at the same level or better, while we know that there will have to be cuts to accomplish this.”
    Another interesting issue this year was the thought there was in County employees forming a union but, when it came to a vote, it was no.
    Going forward, the County has a big challenge in 2017, as CAO Ross Rawlusyk has decided to retire in the spring.
    “We are happy for him but not for us. Ross has done so much, in thirty-plus short years, building the County as it is today. I am not sure how we are going to fill the very large shoes he has left. We wish him all the best for many years to come.”

     The Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta is getting ready to pick its new leader in March, and the local constituency association is having a meeting to select its delegates.
    The new leadership party will be selected using a delegate system. This means that 265 delegates from the province will be attending the convention March 17-19 to vote for the leadership. The Drumheller PC Constituency Association will be sending 15 delegates to vote.
    Constituency Association President Mark Nikota said they had initially selected the delegates, however they jumped the gun. “We had our AGM in September and at that same time did the selections for our riding. After that happened, PC Alberta came out with new rules and said constituencies couldn’t have their selections done until after the time period that candidates had time to declare they were running for the leadership,” he explains. “They told us we jumped the gate and would have to do our delegate selection again.”
    This does not preclude any that were initially selected.

    To be a delegate, the person must hold membership in the party for at least 14 days prior to the meeting on January 19, they must attend the meeting in person and be committed to attending the March convention. At the meeting, the delegate nominees will be asked to speak.
    Currently, there are four running for leadership of the party including Stephen Kahn, Jason Kenney, Richard Starke and Byron Nelson. It could be a divisive leadership battle as Kenney is running on a platform to unite the Conservative Party with the Wildrose Party. The other candidates appear to be running to rebuild the PC brand. Nikota says it is tough to tell how the vote will go.
    “People can say they stand for whoever, but until they walk into the voting booth in March, it is really hard to say who is supporting who,” said Nikota.
    “Personally I don’t think it is as easy as saying ‘let’s form a new party from the other two and defeat the NDP.’ Lots of people are scared obviously of the NDP and what they are doing, but I think it is an easy answer to say let’s form a new party and win the election.”
    “I personally want to see what a new party looks like and just forming a new party isn’t any guarantee because when you look at the last election, people wanted to leave the PC Party, but people in the cities, and even in our riding, voted for the NDP. They chose to go left and not right.”
    In the constituency, he is seeing both positions.
    “I feel momentum both ways, I see people saying, ‘wait a minute - we have to stop and think this through because last time people voted for the sake of change, look where it got us,” he said. “The NDP are sliding the middle and hoping the two parties merge further to the right and then they are going to win the cities.”
    The meeting is at 7 p.m. January 17 at the Jurassic Hotel in Drumheller.