Some residents of Fort McMurray, in Alberta's booming oilsands region, are feeling snubbed by Premier Ed Stelmach's cabinet choices.

They are upset that longtime Tory MLA from Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Guy Boutilier, was dropped from the new provincial cabinet announced Wednesday, following Stelmach's landslide victory in the March 3 provincial election.

Longtime Tory minister Guy Boutilier was dropped from the cabinet announced last week by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.
(CBC)

Boutilier has been at the cabinet table for most of his 11 years in provincial politics, serving most recently as minister of international, intergovernmental and aboriginal relations. Before that, he served as minister of the environment, and minister of municipal affairs. 

Boutilier was also a popular mayor of Fort McMurray before entering the legislature.

"It's a slap in the face of the community. We need our MLA at cabinet urgently," said Dr. Michel Sauve, president of the Fort McMurray Medical Staff Association.

Fort McMurray is struggling to deal with a huge influx of people lured by the billions of dollars being invested in the oilsands development, causing problems ranging from health care to housing, Sauve said.

"We need to manage the pressures of growth and we need a voice at cabinet for that."

Lawyer Bob Campbell shares in the dismay. "We see that as reprehensible. We see that as a failure to recognize the importance of the people of this region. We're very disappointed, extremely disappointed."

Every region represented, Stelmach says

Premier Ed Stelmach denies that his new 23-member cabinet, with a mix of political veterans and newcomers as well as more women to sit on the government's front benches, ignores any region on the province. And he scolded people Friday for complaining about his cabinet choices.

"We've gotta start thinking long range and strategically, cause we can't be competing with each other, in terms of one municipality against the other," he said.

"We're competing against, of course, some huge global competition, mostly from Asia and that's why we've got to get our act together.

Boutilier, meanwhile, is not commenting on his feelings about being dropped from cabinet. He said he will continue to work to voice Fort McMurray's concerns within government.