Dear Editor,
In response to a letter to the editor alleging Mayor Pankiw misrepresented facts regarding the senior’s lodge during the campaign; the allegations are baseless.
The application process for a new 80 unit Rimbey Senior’s lodge first stalled and then, in effect, expired. Any claims or allegations to the contrary cannot be supported by evidence or fact.
On October 29, 2013 an updated application for a new seniors lodge was submitted to the Minister of Municipal Affairs. This application is considerably different than the original 80-unit application prepared in 2011. After 18 months of stalled negotiations, there is now every reason to expect the land purchase for a new lodge will be completed within days or weeks. Most importantly, changes have been initiated at the lodge to improve working conditions for the staff. All this has been done within the first month of the new administration. I am happy to say I worked closely with the new mayor to make this all happen.
Regardless of what critics think of Mayor Pankiw, he has accomplished more in one month to advance a new lodge than the previous 18 months. Further, I will be meeting with Mayor Pankiw tomorrow in Edmonton to discuss a variety of options to secure funding for a new lodge. This will be our second meeting since Mayor Pankiw met with Minister Griffiths to discuss a new Rimbey Senior’s Lodge.
No one needs to ponder how Mayor Pankiw came to possess correspondence from me. When he set out to learn the facts of the matter, he asked! This does not require an apology.
Joe Anglin MLA
Rimbey - Rocky Mountain House -Rimbey
Editor’s Note: In an article in the Oct. 15 edition of the Rimbey Review Kathleen Range, Press Secretary to Municipal Affairs Minister, Doug Griffiths said the proposal, which first went before the government in 2011, has not been discarded, although the government wants additional information. “What they will be doing with the existing facility needs to be clarified,” she said. We are expecting a revised proposal,”
Denis Beesley, president of Bethany Group, the CAO of Rimoka housing also stated in the article a revised proposal was in place and he had plans to meet with the Ministry that week or next.