Local government officials will meet regularly to identify challenges facing the area and determine how best to tackle them.
Our MP, MLA, RDEK and City of Cranbrook representatives held their first joint meeting and agreed on two initial priorities.
“We’ve narrowed it down to two that we’ve all agreed on that we’re actually going to start to work on within the next 4-6 months,” said MLA Pete Davis.
The first is healthcare access between B.C. and Alberta.
Limited access to care in larger Alberta centres such as Lethbridge has been a significant challenge for East Kootenay residents, particularly seniors.
“It’s something that’s very important to people in this community,” Davis added.
“It’s so far to have to go over three mountain passes to get to Kelowna or to Vancouver.”
The second problem they will be tackling is abandoned vehicles and garbage that are being left in rural areas.
The problem has often resulted in different levels of government pointing fingers over whose jurisdiction it is to clean it up.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls about squatting and illegal camps in rural areas and these areas are just being left with garbage and abandoned vehicles,” said Davis.
A local working group will be formed to take initiative.
“We will be putting together a committee and asking for support from the community,” he added.
“We will work on getting some structure to create a proper society to be able to go out and target these areas and start helping out with some cleanup.”
A group of local representatives plan to meet quarterly and will update the public on what they’ve accomplished so far and what will happen next.
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