Banff- Cochrane MLA Cameron Westhead was pleased with last week's budget. 

Westhead a former nurse is a huge advocate for maintaining essential core services such as education and healthcare and believes this budget does a good job of that.

Money toward new schools, reduced fees, and playground funding are all key elements in this year's budget. While Westhead does not know specifically if RancheView and Fireside School playgrounds will be included, he was excited to see this come back as a funded item.

"It is something I am really proud of, that our government is putting money towards putting playgrounds on schools. This is something the previous government failed to do and when kids are learning, play, is part of learning. We are making sure kids have the kinds of things they need and we are dedicated to investing in that kind of education."

Post secondary students for the third year in a row will also see tuition fees frozen, which is good news in a downed economy.

"People in economic downturns often go back to school to upgrade their skills and making sure tuition is affordable for folks to do that is important, especially, for getting people back to work."

24 hour healthcare continues to be a topic of conversation in Cochrane, and while there has been no development on expanding services it is something MLA Westhead is aware of.

 As far as roads around Cochrane, constituents will have to remain hopeful that monies will be allocated to the Highway 1A and 22 intersection. While there was no firm commitment, Westhead is optimistic that funding dollars will become available for the contentious intersection.

"There is a lot of money set aside for infrastructure projects and capital projects that just doesn't have a project attached to it, I don't have the number in front of me but it's an amalgamated number for various infrastructure projects across the province, and the various projects that those dollars are attached to hasn't been announced yet. I am still looking forward with optimism to hear whether those dollars do get attached to the intersection. It sometimes with the budget, takes details of which specific projects, take some time to tease out of the budget."

At this time Westhead is unsure when the announcement may be made,"we are spending so much money on infrastructure and investing across the province, we want to take our time to make sure that we are looking at the highest priority things and making those announcements as we can make those determinations."

For funding, municipalities will receive the same amount of MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) funding which enables the town to continue moving forward with future plans. Westhead feels this is key in maintaining sustainable communities long term.

"Working with our municipal partners who deliver a lot of these important services that they can have something they can rely on and plan their budgets in advance and having the partnership with them to ensure we are meeting the needs of those communities is something I find really important."

Other highlights specific to the Banff- Cochrane constituency include the second phase renovation of a Banff elementary school, a partnership of all three levels of government to build a 132 unit affordable housing complex in Banff, and upgrades to drinking and wastewater for First Nations across the province.