Mayor Jeff Genung is proud of how Cochrane has dealt with funding cutbacks from the provincial government.

The picture became sharper when he was the mid-sized city panelist at a Jan. 22-23 AUMA President's Summit on municipal finances.

The summit was called by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association to discuss the changing fiscal environment, and share ideas on how to adjust.

Genung says he enjoyed the summit but felt uncomfortable with some of the mudslinging.

"It was a bit of an awkward position to be in," says Genung. "I don't like criticizing the provincial government. Of course, we don't always agree with some of the decisions made, but that's democracy."

Cochrane has faced some financial challenges from cutbacks in the fall budget. It lost $120,000 in revenue from traffic fines that now go to the provincial government. A $2 million grant for regional transit was canceled by the Kenney administration. 

"We lost a regional transit grant, but we had never planned anything or spent any resources beyond getting it."

The town has been streamlining, and has made staffing adjustments to negate the impact as much as possible.

"Cochrane is a bit of an abnormally in the province where we haven't seen the massive impacts that other communities have. That's one of the things that was made clear to me at this summit"

"It's not that it there hasn't been an impact, I just think we were able to absorb them in a way that they didn't impact the residents directly... yet."

The full impact of the spring budget isn't fully known, but it seems almost certain children's services funding will be reduced by $350,000. It's a massive 40 per cent reduction the town is attempting to avert or at least have reduced.

On the plus side, the province approved the Hwy. 1A-22 interchange and the extension of the project to the Sunset neighbourhood. A green light has been received for the downtown pedestrian crossing over the CP mainline. Also, it has received a positive reception to the idea of cost-sharing improvement to the Hwy. 1A-Centre Ave. intersection.

Much of that he attributes to town council building relationships. He points to how town council utilized meetings with cabinet ministers at the AUMA convention.

"Out of the six ministers we met, we have received a positive return on five of those meetings. So for me to stand up and beat on a desk and say that we need more is hard to do. I'm really happy with the work that we've done, and the relationships we are building."

It also became clear to him Cochrane is ahead of the curve in economic development. During the summit, it was suggested communities pursue the tech sector.

"We've been talking about that for two years, and we're building an innovation centre this spring. So all of the things that communities are vying to become, I believe Cochrane is already well on the way."