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GRANDE PRAIRIE — Despite the lack of an election writ, Alberta’s Opposition Leader Rachel Notley’s feet are firmly entrenched on a campaign trail through Grande Prairie and the Peace Country. Read More
With her Thursday speech focused on health care, emergency services, schools, and teachers, Notley contrasted the NDP platform against the UCP’s last three years and Premier Danielle Smith’s recent actions.
“We’re not in the formal election period, and Danielle Smith is spending millions and millions and millions of public dollars — dollars that belong to Alberta taxpayers in order to advertise to you.”
As for the NDP, talking about a better future means talking about health care and education, Notley said.
The NDP platform is leaning into the idea of family health teams, a renovation of primary health care that provides one-stop shopping. She promises more doctors and health professionals to keep families healthy and to ensure they are never denied a service or treatment because of their finances.
In the Grande Prairie region, emergency medical services is experiencing extraordinary demands for service. Through 2022, Grande Prairie’s service responded to 13,672 events. A recent presentation to the city had councillors asking if there was any way to utilize the fire service and their medical response people to lessen the pressure.
Notley said they need to involve municipal leaders, reconfigure the services, develop competitive contracts, and ensure they have the bodies to put in the units that serve in the province’s northwest area.
Education is an area that has seen a tremendous impact when repeated cuts have left schools thousands of teachers short of what they needed.
“My commitment is to reverse those cuts in a very substantial way. We will deliver better health care, better education and a better future.”
When asked if the NDP did the same during the last run-up to an election, Notley said the comparisons were qualitatively different. In the same periods of time, January, February and March 2019, the NDP spent about 10 times less.
She wants Albertans to lend a critical eye to Smith’s spending of “unprecedented amounts” of money on advertising services that sound like campaign promises and to remember her previous commitments to change health care. Her current backtracking and explaining that she misspoke doesn’t cut it, Notley said.
“This is not a person who has demonstrated high levels of trustworthiness.”
