MyMcMurray Portal

Hear Mayor Melissa Blake speak to the media after her meeting with Thomas Mulcair:

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Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has finished his tour of the region.

After a morning meeting with Mulcair, mayor Melissa Blake says they had a frank discussion.

“He’s got some valid points, he’s got some that I disagree with,” she said. “But overall I respect the visit that he made to our region and the time that he spent while he was here, and there were others in the party that indicated that they would be coming back to the region, so I think that’s a positive sign as well.”

Blake says they didn’t skirt around the big issues.

“The dutch disease – I put the question on the table,” she said. “He went into explaining why he sees it the way that he does. I have disagreement in terms of the extent of involvement that the industry here locally has, in terms of the dollar appreciation impact.”

She says while she appreciated the visit, there were definitely areas where the two of them didn’t see eye-to-eye.

“The difficulty for me was that, in terms of environmental sustainability, the municipality is absolutely adamant; we want to see ourselves as a global model for sustainable living in the north,” she said. “So it’s not inconsistent with some of the larger picture thinking that they [the NDP] have in terms of the projects and internalizing the cost.”

The NDP leader had previously said the region was being used as a free dumping ground by industry.

Mulcair refused to speak to local media.

Published May 30, 2012