Natural Resources committee  One of the biggest challenges we face is housing. If you consider any teacher coming into the marketplace, the market for housing is inaccessible. We find that with our RCMP. We find that with our government service providers. You really need an oil sands income to offset any ot

Natural Resources committee  I would just explain that what I face in our municipality is related to taxation. We have two streams of revenue: one is user fees, the other is property taxation. Independent of output or the levels of profitability for these oil sands companies, we can only assess the value of

Natural Resources committee  As a Canadian citizen, I have an expectation that the federal government will create the proper direction for climate change within our country. As a first nation country, we have a greater responsibility, even greater than those that are developing. Coming from a region that p

Natural Resources committee  I would tell you, from our historical perspective, that in 2002 we collaborated with industry to create what was called the business case. It was an assessment of the type of investment we would see, the impacts on the community, and the investment required to address the populat

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the panel. We really appreciate this opportunity to be here with you today. My name is Melissa Blake and I'm the mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which tends to throw some people off. I'm also t

Finance committee  With respect to the group to the left of me, our health care issues are a reflection of our population. Perhaps if we look at ways in which we can curtail detrimental health impacts over the longer term, that may work. On the other hand, we would have nothing to work for if we

Finance committee  I wish you all the best with those decisions.

Finance committee  They always do that, don't they?

Finance committee  Thank you. The region has collectively engaged in the Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group, which coordinated the preparation of the Wood Buffalo Business Case 2005. They had a very good understanding--when they signed on to the agreement back in 1996--that it would generate

Finance committee  Thank you. We hadn't pursued this from the angle originally suggested by Mike and what you're suggesting now as well. If there are opportunities there, we'll certainly embrace them. We know about the fair share deal in B.C. We've tried to figure out how we might be able to apply

Finance committee  It's not within my purview to do that, but it's certainly my strong inclination.

Finance committee  I think I just want to extend my gratitude to you for taking the time to come to Wood Buffalo, because indeed it is an anomaly. You would expect to find gold on the streets, but what you find are lots of torn-up...and traffic congestion. I'm pleased that you had an opportunity

Finance committee  Thank you. Certainly we have been making efforts--very aggressively in 2005, but pre-dating that to 2002--to articulate the challenges and opportunities we have, the kind of investment we could experience here, which we've more than realized and intend to continue, and then the

Finance committee  Certainly there is. I'm a member of a number of different groups of mayors across the province. City mayors have that issue. One of the areas they were hopeful on was the backing off of the province in relation to education revenues; there's some push-back on the provincial side

Finance committee  I appreciate that, and the concern I have is the risk that happens if this community is unable to move forward. We won't be able to support the oil sands to the extent that we would like to, so instead of producing one or two million barrels per day, that may be what we're able t