Francesca Ward, the mayor of Slave Lake in Sinclair's riding, says she and the rest of town council echo his concerns.
"I fail to see the logic between having a provincial budget that is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to tear down an arena when we can't have a highway maintained, and we can't keep our [emergency room] open," she said in an interview.
Ward said Highway 88 connecting her town to the hamlet of Fort Vermilion to the north is not just a case of maintenance but of fundamental safety.
"Not to be dramatic, but it [the highway] is costing lives now," she said. "It needs more than asphalt being topped on the surface. It needs passing lanes [and] it needs shoulder widening."
Ward also backed up Sinclair's concerns about rural health care, saying the emergency room at the Slave Lake hospital was closed at least twice in the past year due to low staffing levels.
"We're asking for basic rights that Albertans in cities get to experience," she said.
edmontonjournal.com
