Melissa Blake
Mayor, The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Melissa Blake's thorough trouncing of incumbent Doug Faulkner in the Wood Buffalo mayoralty race in October caused some surprise among political commentators in Edmonton and Calgary, some of whom mentioned the 35-year-old's youthful appearance. That same shock didn't register in Fort McMurray, where the two-term councillor had already earned the respect of the political, social and industrial establishments with her firm grasp of the booming city's problems - especially its mounting debt load - and her no-nonsense approach in making the community's case to extract a larger portion of the royalty revenues and tax dollars that flow south to Edmonton. The one-time Syncrude tour guide and recruiter has repaid the electorate's faith through her effective lobbying for $1.2 billion in new infrastructure funding for her sprawling community, which included securing the endorsement of Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel for Fort McMurray's demands for more roads, bridges, sewage systems and other infrastructure improvements. - WG What infrastructure improvements does Fort McMurray need to sustain its economic growth?
We need both hard infrastructure and soft services. We have had exactly the same infrastructure as when the city was 30,000 people and our population is now well over 50,000 people. We need to get basic infrastructure such as a tertiary sewage treatment plant. That will cost $100 million and we can't afford it with our current tax revenues. We need a new regional landfill to be put in place to replace our current one, which is almost at capacity. We need a new RCMP service station. The present one is full, and as we get more officers because of our growing population, the situation gets worse and worse. At the same time, we also need to maintain our quality of life and have access to those soft services attract people to the community. We also need these services to reflect the population that we have in Wood Buffalo. We are a young community, with an average age of 30. We need to provide services to ensure that we don't just attract people here, but that they stay.
Who do you think is the greatest Albertan ever?
When I was younger I loved Wayne Gretzky, but that's not the right answer for this question. Premier Klein would be a good answer because he helped eliminate the debt. But quite frankly, the person that I admire most is former Syncrude CEO Eric Newell. I know him because I worked for Syncrude for 10 years and he was an excellent leader, but I also know that his commitment was to continuing education and aboriginal involvement in the local economy. He was sincere in wanting to achieve those goals.
In 100 years, will you warrant your own chapter in the history books, a footnote to great events or a single Google hit?
I'd be a footnote as long as they give Wood Buffalo a chapter in the history book
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