Keith Donald Charles Scott (born c. 1966) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and as an MLA and Cabinet minister for the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. He currently works for the Métis Nation of Alberta as an executive director.
Municipal councillor
Scott was elected as a Ward 1 councillor for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo during the October 2010 election, and was one of six councillors representing Fort McMurray. During his term he also sat on the board for the Wood Buffalo Housing and Development Corporation (WBEDC), a subsidized housing organization in Fort McMurray.
Provincial politics
2012 Alberta general election
On November 30, 2011, Scott announced he was running to be the MLA candidate with the Progressive Conservative party for the 2012 Alberta general election. He was named the party's candidate in Fort McMurray-Conklin on January 17, 2012.
Scott's main opponent was Wildrose candidate Doug Faulkner, who was mayor of the RMWB between 1997 and 2004. Scott won the election with 48.95 per cent of the vote. After his victory, Scott resigned his council seat.
Twinning of Highway 63
On April 27, 2012, a head-on collision between two vehicles that killed seven people—including two children, a pregnant woman and a Fort McMurray pastor—happened on Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray near Wandering River.
The fatal collision was a breaking point for the community and triggered protests from the public and calls for action from the RMWB's municipal council. Twinning of 240 kilometres of the highway between Fort McMurray and Atmore began in 2006 and was supposed to be finished by 2012. Only 16 kilometres had been completed at the time of the accident and 123 people had been killed on the road since 2000.
Scott and Mike Allen, PC MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, promised completing the twinning of Highway 63 would be a top priority for them.
In October 2012, the Alberta government announced that twinning 240 kilometres of Highway 63 would begin immediately and be finished by 2016. The project was 99% finished during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire and the last completed section opened on May 28, 2016.
Air ambulance dispute
In 2009, Edmonton's city council voted to close the City Centre Airport, forcing the Alberta government to base air ambulance medical services for Northern Alberta out of Edmonton International Airport. That airport is located 20 kilometres south of Edmonton in Leduc County, and existing traffic conditions at the time meant ground ambulances would have an extra 18 minutes to 35 minutes to reach the University of Alberta Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital respectively.
Shayne Saskiw, the Wildrose MLA for Lac La Biche- St. Paul -Two Hills, and more than 100 doctors argued the extra delay would be life-threatening to patients being flown in from Northern Alberta during an emergency. Saskiw said the Alberta government should instead invest in improving health care in Northern Alberta and rely less on air ambulance services. The Wildrose also suggested the Alberta government expropriate the City Centre Airport.
A joint letter sent by Scott and Allen to Fort McMurray Today said expropriation was opposed by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. They also said there were questions about who would oversee the airport. The Alberta government stationed ground ambulances at a $6.5-million, 3,600-square-metre hangar with a six-patient care area at the airport for patients that are not time-sensitive.
Infrastructure and land releases for Fort McMurray
Scott's term as MLA coincided with large growth in the Athabasca oil sands and a booming population in Fort McMurray. In 2011, the RMWB's municipal council predicted that the municipality's population would exceed 231,000 residents by 2030, with more than 196,000 residents predicted to be living in Fort McMurray.
On January 25, 2013, the Alberta government released 55,000 acres of Crown land to the municipality for development. The land included stretches west of the Timberlea neighbourhood, across the Clearwater River, and south of Abasand and Beacon Hill. The land was scheduled to be sold to the RMWB in phases over a five to 15-year period, effectively doubling the size of Fort McMurray by 2030.
Scott and Mayor Melissa Blake said securing the land for development was a major achievement for accommodating the growing population at the time. A global crash in oil prices in 2014 slowed Fort McMurray's rapid growth. Development of the parcels did not proceed.