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Alberta election Q & A with Livingstone-Macleod candidates

Nicholas L. M. Allen

May 24, 2023

All candidates for Livingstone-Macleod with contact information were sent these questions at the beginning of last week. These were the responses received ahead of deadline

Alberta Party - Kevin Todd

What is your stance of resource extraction, coal extraction specifically?

The Alberta Party supports existing coal mining operations in the Pass. Any new proposed operations will face vigorous vetting, as do all new projects - including building a garage, building a new home, or opening a new restaurant.

The Alberta Party will not allow coal mining on the Eastern Slopes.

Water is always a priority of the Alberta Party and will be reflected in all decision-making.


What do you see as the future for the Crowsnest Pass?

The Crowsnest Pass has tremendous resources, natural and people. Tourism, and tourist-related industry, like the Crowsnest Golf Course, will certainly play a part in the future. Coal mining will also play a role, though it is likely that it will be a smaller and smaller role as Alberta, and the world, work towards greener energy by 2050.


Do you plan to promote and encourage industry in the Crowsnest Pass?

The Crowsnest Pass is a significant part of Livingstone-Macleod, both in size and population. As MLA, I will encourage both large industry and entrepreneurs to consider working in this part of the constituency. The population can support both. The Alberta Party would provide financial assistance to ensure all necessary infrastructure, including roads, is in place to encourage new industry and diversification in the area.


Tourism is being heavily promoted in the area but with no consideration or dollars to support this growth. What would be your solution?

The Alberta Party will restore funding to municipalities to pre-pandemic levels and will renegotiate the indexing of that transfer. In addition, the Alberta Party will work with communities to attain growth and sustainability. In the Pass, the Alberta Party would work with the communities to promote a tourism industry, including financial support.


Like many smaller communities, low income and attainable housing doesn’t exist. What are your plans to overcome this issue?

The Alberta Party will work with municipalities to establish real partnerships and work together to deliver services practically and cost-effectively, including housing.


NDP - Kevin Van Tighem

What is your stance of resource extraction, coal extraction specifically?

Premier Peter Lougheed understood the importance of the Eastern Slopes and the headwaters to Alberta. That is why, in 1976, he put the Coal Policy in place. That policy needs to be updated to strengthen protections, certainly, but the UCP rescinded the policy entirely to make way for coal mines, and they did this sneakily, on the Friday before a long-weekend, without asking Albertans.

The Alberta NDP believes that resource extraction and protection of our environment go hand in hand - it is not one or the other. However, the Eastern Slopes and the headwaters of Alberta must be protected. That is why if elected we will ban new coal mining on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies and in our province’s headwaters.

And we will support investment and development corridors in the Pass that can endure for several generations. 


What do you see as the future for the Crowsnest Pass?

Mining and exploration have taken hard work and grit. We can use our hard work ethic to protect the Eastern Slopes and headwaters and continue to develop the economy here.

This can include small business, tourism and recreation, and resource development when we work together to plan for the best long-term opportunities and good jobs.

If we form government, we will support the strategic assets of the Pass - including health care and education, commercial development along highway 3, the close proximity to the United States, and most of all we will support the people in the Pass and along the Eastern Slopes.


Do you plan to promote and encourage industry in the Crowsnest Pass?

We will move the small business tax to 0% saving businesses up to $10,000 per year.

We will expand rural broadband connectivity across the province by 2027, ensuring last-mile connections so Albertans can reliably connect businesses and put an end to parking-lot internet.

We have incentives to bring new investment to Alberta to effectively lower the tax rate when businesses create good new jobs and growth. This includes an Agriculture Value-Add Incentive Tax Credit. 

We will support roads, highways and bridges as critical connectors for people and goods, especially given the strategic proximity to the United States and BC at the Pass.  

Most importantly, we’ll work with you and listen to you. And while we may not always agree, you can be confident that Kevin Van Tighem and Rachel Notley are competent and will act with integrity. They will always work to earn your trust.


Tourism is being heavily promoted in the area but with no consideration or dollars to support this growth. What would be your solution?

We will restore a strong relationship with municipalities and we will pass the Partners in Prosperity Act to legislate fair funding.

We are committing $250 million to capital investments to help plan growth and invest in parks and public lands. This will include critical investments in and around the Crowsnest Pass.

We will support tourism and develop new opportunities as part of an Indigenous, Small-Business, and Local Agriculture Tourism Fund. 


Like many smaller communities, low income and attainable housing doesn’t exist.  What are your plans to overcome this issue?

Many smaller communities are facing critical staffing shortages in healthcare and tourism, and young people are leaving because they can’t afford to put down roots here. If the Alberta NDP forms government we’ll make sure there are homes families can afford in the Crowsnest Pass and across Alberta.

While Danielle Smith’s UCP cut 8,000 units of affordable housing, the Alberta NDP will provide 40,000 more Albertans access to housing in their first term if they form government. They will build 8,500 more affordable homes and provide rental assistance to 11,0000 more families. Currently there are more than 25,000 families on the waitlist for affordable housing.


The following response from the Alberta Liberal Party was received after the deadline.


Alberta Liberal Party - Dylin Hauser

What is your stance of resource extraction, coal extraction specifically?

When it comes to coal specifically, I cannot bring myself to support it. I'm not a fan of taglines, but, mountains not mines. My opinion of this goes beyond the need to protect our water and preserve our landscape in southwestern Alberta. That is easy to say. Instead, my position against coal mining along the eastern slopes is also rooted in this region being at the mercy of one industry again. An industry that has left its scars of abandonment time and time again. A community is left reeling when the money is made and the industry packs up and leaves. Even if we allow mines now, it's 20 years at best, and we do this all over again when the Crowsnest is looking at crumbling infrastructure, a dwindling tax base, and a mess to clean up after industry breaks its promise of remediation... Again.

 

What do you see as the future for the Crowsnest Pass?

If I take such a hard stance on an industry that would certainly bring some economic activity to locals, then I need to double or triple down on my efforts to bring prosperity to this region in different ways while towing the extremely delicate line of preserving our environment. I see genuine homegrown entrepreneurship brought about by strategies like piloting a guaranteed income program. Ensuring basic costs of living can be covered, my hope is this allows locals to feel free to experiment with different types of business that work for a community that deals with challenging geography and isolation from major population centers. Tourism is encouraged by growth in Alberta's growing film industry. A hospital that is able to support a retirement community that is deliberately trying to seek a small quiet community nestled in our beautiful Rocky Mountains. I understand the fear in questions like, how we are going to continue to live and enjoy our communities in the Crowsnest Pass without major investment, and I truly respect the heritage of the region and it's deep routes with the coal industry. But I envision the Pass being able to truly put that part of our history on the back burner, and make a genuine shift to something more sustainable in both economics and environment. It's not a one-idea fix this time around, and I want to express that I will explore as many options and ideas as possible outside of letting coal back into the region.

 

Do you plan on promoting and encouraging industry in the Crowsnest Pass?

Resource extraction industries, no. I am looking more into the proposed power generation plant and reserve judgment until I can learn more. I am of the opinion, however, that just because it is deemed "green" it should not be scrutinized any less than the coal or oil and gas industry has been. I am also a proponent of Nuclear Energy, and would not be overly opposed to exploring prospects of this within the Crowsnest region. I am not opposed to growing and encouraging industry, but I am weary due to the constant abuses of industry in this region and surrounding areas. Look no further than the well-spoken about abandoned well situation east of the pass.

 

Tourism is being heavily promoted in the area but with no consideration or dollars to support this growth. What would be your solution?

Growing our film industry in that region is something I would suggest as this has the added benefit of growing a tourist base as well. Where the issues of government money will be noticed first then, is the continued improvements needed to Highway 3, animal corridors and bridges to help mitigate the impact of increased traffic due to tourism, and a population that is struggling to be able to actually live there. The early more volatile years of transitioning to a different identity beyond resource extraction will need more intimate involvement from our MLA in order to ensure we can act in a timely matter to changing needs of the region. This region would be a perfect candidate for a pilot of some sort of guaranteed income. This idea is not some sort of scheme to have everyone dependent on the government. Quite the opposite. It allows people some more financial freedom to start a business, raise children, or pursue an education that they can then apply within the region. That is just one idea however, as it would be my responsibility to keep trying ideas until positive results are enjoyed by the community, and we don't look at one particular industry as the only saviour anymore.

 

Like many smaller communities, low income and attainable housing doesn’t exist.  What are your plans to overcome this issue?

I hate to sound like a broken record, but again, due to the geographical location of the Crowsnest Pass, and a population impacted by the increasing cost of living and little community investment from outside sources, it's time to look at the community being able to save itself. By having general costs of living covered by some sort of guaranteed income plan, residents will be afforded a little more freedom in pursuing what they want for their community. This will also help existing small businesses maintain employment, as those who make minimum wage, will, in theory, be able to still live in the area they are working, and not be priced out of the area, causing labour shortages at a time when any open business in the pass is badly needed. I can't work minimum wage for your small business if I can't afford to live near where I work.

Outside of this idea, housing in general has a major issue impacting the idea of "affordable housing" and that is the boom of housing being a commodity. The days of a home being a home, many passed down generationally, have definitely been hijacked by the investment culture, and to me, this is the ultimate hindrance to any meaningful attempt by government and businesses to bring in any sort of impactful "affordable housing" developments. That needs attention, but how do we start that conversation when so many of us have been convinced that our housing market is now our retirement savings? In many cases unfortunately, it is our retirement savings.

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