Wildrose Leader unveils seniors' care strategy
FORT MCMURRAY -- Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in Fort McMurray on Friday accused his PC opponents of displacing seniors and low-income Albertans.
Jean, along with Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo candidate Tany Yao, hosted a press conference outside the northern city's Willow Square to unveil part of his seniors' care strategy.
"If I am the next premier of Alberta, this will be my first act: to make sure that Wood Buffalo gets a seniors' aging in place facility in this location," said Jean.
The 4.06 acres in downtown Fort McMurray has dominated local politics since 2006, when former premier Ed Stelmach announced the land was a priority, and ended former MLA Guy Boutilier's career with the PCs. Stelmach would later say Willow Square was not a priority due to the region's young population. This started a public feud with Boutilier, who was kicked out of the Tory caucus in 2009.
Jean says the land should only be used for seniors needs, but criticized the 2012 destruction of the 42 low-income housing units that once dotted Willow Square. He argued the demolition should have proceeded only after land was set aside for new units.
Wood Buffalo Housing has argued it is not financially viable for the site to be exclusive for seniors, although Jean says that issue will be addressed.
The federal Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation used to own 75% of Willow Square and the plan was for the provincial government to obtain the land and immediately transfer it to the municipality so work on the facility can begin.
Since 2013, Jean, who was an MP at the time, and PC MLA Don Scott blamed each other for the delayed facility. In September of 2013, bilingualism became a hurdle when the federal government offered to transfer the property to the province in a bulk deal. The province would not sign the transfer agreement. Scott said bilingualism at all the sites would be too expensive for the province.
Later that year in December, the federal government proposed renting the property to the province. A draft agreement said the province would need to prepay the land's "commercial market rent" for the next 50 years. Scott called the offer "ridiculous" and told then-Infrastructure Minister Jason Kenney the province would buy the property "at fair market value."
The province then announced they had bought the land from Ottawa for $12.6 million in November. Jean said "the best result has come out" when that deal was announced. On Friday, he said he did not expect the transfer to take this long. Scott says the transfer to Wood Buffalo Housing is still in process.
Scott says the delays still rest on the shoulders of Jean and the federal government, and public consultation for Willow Square's future would be lost if Jean interfered.
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