Dane Lloyd, M.P. Sturgeon River-Parkland speaks at Chamber & Rotary

by Lucie Roy

Dane Lloyd, Member of Parliament for Sturgeon River-Parkland spoke at the Rotary Club Breakfast meeting and the Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday.

Lloyd spoke of his constituency office that is now open in Morinville at the offices of Putnam & Lawson and open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday every week. He said his office is here to assist from everything to getting your passport, renewing it or if you have employment insurance claims or issues with the Canada Pension Plan, his staff members are here to help you.

In his presentation, Lloyd said his vision for Sturgeon River- Parkland for Morinville and for Sturgeon County in the future is one where we have prosperous rural communities.

“We need infrastructure to deal with the expediential growth and economic potential of our area,” he said. “We need wastewater lines, we need overpasses to facilitate travel and economic growth and we need recreational centres to accommodate our growing families. Rural communities may not have the flashy public transportation systems of our urban neighbours but in our resource-dependent economy and with wide stretches of open country any government that ignores rural communities does so at its own peril and I am committed to standing up for our communities to ensure that they get the funding that they deserve and for me that means looking into the funding formula to ensure that rural communities can access federal funding.”

Also covered was the need to be ready to fight against new taxes and ready to fight for victims of crime and their families and ready to fight for Canada’s and particularly Alberta’s energy industry.

Lloyd spoke on what he sees as a crime epidemic across Western Canada and Motion 167 from his colleague MP Shannon Stubbs that calls for the Government to take action to begin curbing rural crime.

“I have met with stakeholders, rural crime watches and police across the riding to gauge what the problems are and what possible solutions may be for this important issue,” Lloyd said. “Some of the proposals involve more resources for community policing in rural areas and others have suggested possibility of making license plates for the front of vehicles mandatory. There are a number of solutions that are needed because it is a very complex issue and there is no one solution that will solve rural crime.”

Lloyd spoke of pushing forward with his No Body / No Parole legislation to help ensure that killers like Travis Vader who refused to tell the McCann family what he did with the bodies of the parents, Lyle and Marie McCann, stay behind bars where they belong. He said he has drafted legislation and is currently working with Canada’s former Attorney General Rob Nicholson and former Ottawa Chief of Police Senator Vern White to introduce a comprehensive Bill in the very near future.

Lloyd said the Conservative team in Ottawa is holding the Liberals to account in order to support the energy industry here in Alberta. While Lloys said the Prime Minister is doing little to ensure that critical pipeline infrastructure such as Trans Mountain Expansion Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Project and Enbridge Line 3 are built, Lloyd said he is worried that even if these critical energy corridors are constructed that the Liberal government will refuse to support any further expansion which is needed to ensure the viability and success of Alberta’s energy industry.

Lloyd mentioned that recent comments from the President of the Royal Bank of Canada highlight that there is a real-time movement of investment away from Canada and into jurisdictions like the United States.

“Investment in Canada is plummeting, and it is the financing that we need to ensure to ensure our long-term growth and prosperity,” he said. “This is a critical issue that our government needs to look at.”

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