Breaking bread with the minister

Mario Prusina

Times Editor

 

Alberta’s Minister of Finance and Enterprise was the guest of honour at the Strathmore & District Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Nov. 5 at the Travelodge.

Over 50 people were on hand to hear the Honourable Ted Morton as he spoke about the many issues facing Alberta, before fielding questions from the audience.

“One of the reasons that I like to accept invitations to come to towns like Strathmore is not just to tell people what’s going on in Edmonton, but to also hear what the local issues are,” said Morton. “We certainly heard the concerns about the re-routing of Highway 1 and also health facilities issues are both top of mind in Strathmore.”

With the New Year just under two months away, Morton also spoke about some of the goals of the Conservative Party moving forward.

“Goal number one right now is a budget that keeps us on the path to Premier Stelmach’s promise for a balanced budget by 2012,” said Morton. “As I explained this morning, on the one hand, our books are in better shape than any other province – or frankly any other government in North America – but we are still in a deficit. A big deficit at 5 Billion dollars … we’re trying to toe the line and make sure spending is responsible.”

According to Lin Walker, President of the Strathmore & District Chamber of Commerce, the number of people attending the breakfast surpassed expectations.

This type of event is one way to help the chamber grow and prosper.

“This is one of the steps (to help us grow),” said Walker. “More turnout, more participation from our members and more community involvement.

“We’re not as concerned now about just running the chamber, (but) we want the chamber to be reflecting what the members want.

“That’s our goal for this year.”