Mayor Don Iveson and Alberta’s premier-designate Jim Prentice met for the first time Tuesday, and said it marked a change in the sometimes tumultuous relationship between the provincial government, and Alberta’s capital.
Prentice and Iveson met for about an hour Tuesday, behind closed doors – but spoke to reporters afterwards at City Hall.
“You certainly will see a new spirit of partnership from the get go,” Prentice said.
The new spirit would be a change for the previously rocky relationship between the two levels of government, with past complaints of unreliable and unsustainable funding in a rapidly growing city.
They were issues brought forward in a recent blog post from Iveson, in the post, he said it was time to have a “grown up conversation” about funding – Tuesday’s meeting, Iveson said, was the first.
“We had the first round of grown up conversations, and I’m optimistic to take it from here,” Iveson said.
One project mentioned in Iveson’s post was funding for LRT expansion, a subject Prentice said the need for was “obvious”. Iveson said the words were encouraging, but said they would discuss the topic more later.
“I didn’t feel like shaking down the premier designate for LRT funding before he is the premier,” Iveson joked.
Prentice also met with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi – a political analyst called the meetings critical.
“Both Nenshi and Iveson are incredibly popular right now, so it works well for Prentice if he can win them over early on and get them all working together,” Bob Murray with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy said.
The premier-designate said he would lay out a way to re-start stalled talks on a big city charter, to outline roles and responsibilities for Edmonton and Calgary, within two weeks.
It’s also expected Prentice will be sworn-in as premier Monday, when a new cabinet will be announced.
With files from Serena Mah
