Smith, Notley, Morishita in Cochrane next week

The leaders of three major Alberta political parties will be meeting in private with representatives of 24 mid-sized cities in Cochrane next week.

The Alberta Mid-Sized Cities Mayors' Caucus (MCMC) is here for meetings, Mar. 22 to 24, that include a session with Premier Danielle Smith, NDP leader Rachel Notley, and Alberta Party leader Barry Morishita.

Cochrane mayor Jeff Genung, who chairs the caucus, says it's a chance for dialogue with the leaders in advance of the spring provincial election.

"We will be making it clear about the need for municipal funding and just having them physically in our community is huge, really important," says Genung.

The MCMC will also be discussing other municipal issues and sharing information of mutual benefit.

Genung believes at least 20 of the mayors will be present and all 24 municipalities will be represented. He's expecting about 60 to 70 people in total.

He says collectively the municipalities represent a million Albertans and views them as Alberta's third largest city.

"We have 35 different constituencies and MLAs that represent our needs. So we have a big chunk of the provincial legislature represented in our group, and leveraging that has always been an opportunity from my perspective that I think the group shares."

Four years ago, Cochrane hosted a similar meeting between municipal and provincial political leaders in advance of the provincial election. Like last time, Mayor Jeff Genung intends to show off our community.

"We're going to have an afternoon meeting at The Station and I'm going to talk to them about our incubator, our CRL, Garmin announcement, and all of the things that Cochrane's been up to. Then we'll walk throughout the downtown and just show off our great community."

Alberta Liberal leader John Roggeveen was also invited but has not responded to repeated invitations.