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Re. “NDP’s progress hinges on departure of Notley,” Don Braid, July 7
Stephen Crocker, Edmonton
Losing Notley would be a blow for NDP
Don Braid’s article states that Rachel Notley should depart because the NDP needs to soften its its starkly negative image. I think it’s often seen as a negative image to those who oppose the NDP’s policies and when they constantly push the current government’s agendas and narratives that aren’t supported by many Albertans.
I am a staunch supporter of the NDP because of Notley and have felt she has been one of the best premiers Alberta has had since Lougheed. She’s extremely intelligent, thoughtful and sees all sides of situations and doesn’t go off on right-wing tangents like our current premier.
She’s an excellent Opposition leader and this last election came very close to winning with 38 seats — the biggest Opposition Alberta has had in a long time. It’s because of Rachel that this has happened. If Rachel decides to pull out of the NDP as their leader, they will be losing a force and I will be very sad to see her leave.
Sharon Flemming, Edmonton
Banning single-use items is the last straw
We’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. This new city policy of requesting napkins and paying for bags is the last straw (no pun intended).
Mismanaged projects without any apparent completion or accountability (South LRT, among many others). Crumbling infrastructure (roadways that are bone-jarring to navigate). Never-ending tax increases for less and less service (snow removal). The mayor’s junkets, for what? An increasingly unproductive and unapologetic city bureaucracy that demands even more but delivers less. An unliveable downtown with rising crime and homelessness.
This city council has no sense of priorities; indeed, it has no sense at all. It is totally lacking in leadership and vision. Cobbling together a bunch of nonsensical pet projects will not cut it.
By the time this mayor and council are finally shown the door — and it can’t be soon enough — Edmonton will be a bankrupt ghost town. On the other hand, we will have bike lanes.
Leslie S. Kozma, Edmonton
No way to treat city staffers
Re. “City workers demand an end to wage freeze after 5 years,” July 5
I was astonished by the lead story in Tuesday’s Journal which reported that that the wages of city workers have been frozen since 2018, and they have been without a contract since 2020. This is certainly no way to treat our staff — or any workers for that matter.
We are all aware that the cost of living has risen dramatically in the last while; as a matter of fact, it has gone up over 21 per cent since 2018. Put another way, every dollar city staff are earning now is worth the equivalent of 82 cents; i.e., they’ve actually been taking wage cuts all of these years. This means that City of Edmonton employees have been subsidizing the citizens of Edmonton to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
Why should they be asked to do this? Their union, the Civic Service Union No. 52 is Edmonton’s oldest public-sector union, formed in 1909, only five years after Edmonton was incorporated as a city. Anyone wanting to know more about the accomplishments of this union and the contribution it has made to our city can access the history book Edmonton’s Civic Service Union 52: A Century of Service online at https://albertalabourhistory.org/civic-service-union-52/civic-service-52-introduction/
Winston Gereluk, Alberta Labour History Institute
