Western Standard - Alberta leaders debate 2023

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00:10:30.000 Our moderators this evening, Erin Isfeld and Scott Roberts.

00:10:45.840 Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 Alberta Provincial Leaders Debate as

00:10:51.240 we count down to Election Day on May 29th.

00:10:54.400 I'm Erin Isfeld with CTV News.

00:10:56.300 And I'm Scott Roberts from Global News, and we'll be serving as your moderators tonight.

00:10:59.840 broadcasting on television, radio, and streaming online.

00:11:03.120 And we've invited the leaders with seats in the legislature to participate here tonight

00:11:07.300 and make their pitch to you, the voters, for their vision for Alberta on some of the key issues.

00:11:13.360 And here they are right now from the United Conservative Party,

00:11:16.080 Leader Daniel Smith, and from the Alberta New Democratic Party,

00:11:18.920 Leader Rachel Notley. Welcome to you both.

00:11:21.480 Also asking questions tonight are members of the debate consortium.

00:11:25.400 Lisa Johnson from Post Media, Courtney Theriault from City News,

00:11:29.280 and Judy Eldis from CBC Alberta.

00:11:32.640 Now we have three main topics to cover tonight,

00:11:34.860 affordability, health care, and the economy,

00:11:36.860 which according to our polling are the top issues for Albertans.

00:11:41.020 We also have a fourth wildcard round.

00:11:43.080 In addition, both CTV and Global News have been solicited questions from you, the voters.

00:11:47.860 We've gotten hundreds of submissions and pared them down to two.

00:11:51.740 Erin and I will put those questions to the leaders.

00:11:54.980 And there are some rules tonight, and here they are.

00:11:57.420 Both parties have agreed to all of these rules for tonight's debate.

00:12:01.680 Each leader will have one minute to make their opening remarks.

00:12:05.180 Over the course of the hour, 10 questions are expected.

00:12:08.680 Each will be directed at a specific leader who then has 45 seconds to respond.

00:12:14.340 The other leader will have time for a rebuttal followed by free debate.

00:12:18.780 And there will be an all-important countdown clock that the leaders can see here in studio

00:12:22.920 with 30 seconds left in their answer so they know when it is time to wrap up.

00:12:27.220 And as we near the end of the debate, each leader will have time to make their closing remarks to Albertans.

00:12:33.240 Well, the speaking order tonight was determined by a random draw and a reminder to Ms. Smith and Ms. Notley not to talk over one another.

00:12:41.160 We want to ensure that the discussion can be heard clearly for our audience at home.

00:12:46.640 And we're not going to hesitate to step in to ensure that that is the case.

00:12:50.360 All right. It is time to get started.

00:12:51.820 First up tonight, Danielle Smith from the UCP with her opening remarks.

00:12:55.220 Ms. Smith, you have one minute.

00:12:57.220 good evening elections are about making important choices for you and your family this election 0.54

00:13:02.980 albertans have a choice between a ucp government that has lowered taxes balanced the budget and

00:13:08.900 returned alberta to its place as the economic powerhouse of canada or we can choose to go

00:13:14.740 backward with the same failed ndp policies that hiked taxes drove out jobs and investment and

00:13:21.060 almost bankrupted our province we can't afford to go back we need to go forward if elected the

00:13:27.380 ucp will continue to make life more affordable by cutting your personal income taxes and extending

00:13:33.140 the fuel tax holiday we'll crack down on criminals with more officers on the ground and ankle

00:13:39.460 bracelet monitoring of violent offenders out on bail and we will continue to invest in health care

00:13:45.060 and mental health addiction treatment while ensuring no alberton ever has to pay out of

00:13:50.260 pocket to see a family doctor. Alberta's opportunities are endless and I know our

00:13:55.700 best days are still ahead. Thank you and I look forward to the debate. Ms. Smith, thank you so

00:14:00.340 much. The floor is now yours Ms. Notley for your opening remarks. To begin I want to thank our

00:14:06.660 firefighters and say that my thoughts are with those Albertans who are out of their homes right

00:14:11.140 now. Tonight I want to talk about a better future for Alberta where we fix health care, lower

00:14:17.060 household costs and create jobs this election is about trust and it's about leadership you know

00:14:24.500 you can't trust danielle smith so my offer to you is this i will work every day to be the premier

00:14:32.020 you deserve creating jobs and diversifying for the future i won't raise your taxes i will cap

00:14:41.060 your bills I won't fund a war room I will fund an emergency room and I won't

00:14:49.280 ever make you pay to see a doctor I'll protect our health care protect our

00:14:53.900 mountains and protect your pension and having learned today that Danielle Smith

00:14:58.760 broke the law I will also protect our law and I will never break it when I say

00:15:03.380 something I mean it and that's the difference between Danielle and me there's

00:15:07.680 Ms. Notley, thank you for your opening remarks.

00:15:10.340 Well, affordability, rising interest rates, and inflation have been top of mind.

00:15:13.800 Big issue for a lot of Alberta families struggling to make ends meet.

00:15:17.180 The first series of questions tonight are based on that issue.

00:15:20.580 And question number one goes to Lisa Johnson from Post Media.

00:15:24.220 Thank you.

00:15:25.120 This first question is for UCP leader Danielle Smith.

00:15:28.740 We've been dealing with an affordability crisis for over a year.

00:15:31.860 We have seen temporary measures put in place, including rebates and affordability payments,

00:15:36.840 which are only applied to some Albertans, what will you do to support all Albertans with the

00:15:42.480 rising cost of living as inflation continues to have a real impact? One of the first things that

00:15:48.120 we knew we needed to do was address the inflation crisis created, let's be fair, by the Liberal NDP

00:15:53.720 coalition in Ottawa spending too much money driving up the cost of everything. And there's

00:15:58.080 only so much we can do here. So we gave $600 affordability payments, we gave a rebate on

00:16:02.960 fuel taxes to offset the federal carbon tax and we also made sure that we were going to put on

00:16:10.400 electricity rebates so that people paid less on their power bills what we have to do going forward

00:16:14.480 is more than that we know we're going to continue to see an increase in the federal carbon tax that's

00:16:19.120 why we're going to offer an eight percent personal income tax rate brings us pretty much in alignment

00:16:23.600 with alberta or with ontario and british columbia it'll give fifteen hundred dollars per family and

00:16:28.480 will also extend that fuel tax rebate until the end of the year okay miss smith thank you the

00:16:33.360 same question to you ms notley well thank you you know under the ucp the fact is is that most

00:16:39.040 albertans utility bills look more like a mortgage payment and your insurance costs for your car

00:16:45.120 well that looks more like what you save up for your whole summer vacation now those costs were

00:16:50.240 under the control under control when we were in government because we had put caps in place to

00:16:55.120 protect Alberta families. Unfortunately, the UCP chose to remove them and now costs are spiraling.

00:17:01.600 So we're going to help. We're going to put a cap back on car insurance, not a pretend one

00:17:06.000 like Danielle Smith did a couple months ago, but a real one. And we're going to help families

00:17:10.560 reduce their utilities. And most importantly, we will never, ever, ever make them pay to see

00:17:16.560 a family doctor. All right, Ms. Notley, thank you. We're going to open it up to the first free debate

00:17:21.120 on this issue tonight starting with ms smith and a ucb government will never ever make you pay for 0.99

00:17:26.040 a family doctor either what we also won't do is cause an increase in your power bills ms notley 1.00

00:17:31.980 is not taking responsibility for the fact that she created the power bill crisis at the time

00:17:36.880 alberta party leader said it was the biggest mistake of the ndp government because of their

00:17:41.020 ideological changes by phasing out coal early they added two billion dollars to the cost of your

00:17:45.740 power bill and as a result we're seeing the consequences of that today and she's not stopped

00:17:50.120 she's going to uh to achieve she wants to achieve the 2035 net zero target put forward by justin

00:17:55.880 trudeau that'll cost 52 billion dollars and increase your power bill another 40 we can't

00:18:00.600 afford to do that well you know here's the thing uh we actually put a cap in place and we did that

00:18:06.760 so that people's utilities and their electricity wouldn't get out of control and it got out of

00:18:10.760 control when the ucp removed the cap but let's talk about something else so let's talk about

00:18:16.040 health care costs as they impact affordability you claim that you won't raise costs but Danielle you

00:18:22.200 know you I've known you for at least a decade perhaps more and I've watched your career and

00:18:27.400 you have argued passionately in multiple multiple settings for your belief that you care about

00:18:33.800 passionately those were your words making people pay more for their health care so my question to

00:18:39.240 you is why are you not running on the thing that you believe why are you not being honest with

00:18:45.000 albertans why aren't you making the argument that you think having them pay more is what you want

00:18:50.520 because you've said it in video in papers in speaking tours in the legislature for over a 0.96

00:18:57.640 decade miss smith we're gonna let you jump in here i know ms notley likes to show grainy videos of

00:19:01.960 things i said while i was on radio and the reason she does that is she doesn't want to run on her 0.79

00:19:06.760 record and the reason she doesn't want to run on her record is it was an absolute disaster she 0.99

00:19:11.240 She racked up $70 billion in debt, more debt than any premier, actually all premiers combined in Alberta's provincial history. 1.00

00:19:18.580 She, talk about deception. 0.98

00:19:20.020 Did you remember her running on a carbon tax in the last election? 1.00

00:19:22.640 I sure didn't.

00:19:23.500 And that increased the cost of everything.

00:19:25.260 We eliminated it, but Justin Trudeau wouldn't let us keep it off.

00:19:28.500 And now Ms. Notley has not stood up to her boss, Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa and worked with us to say don't increase that carbon tax any further.

00:19:38.220 And in fact, certainly don't increase it 300%.

00:19:40.300 no one has any credibility talking about affordability as long as they support a

00:19:44.480 carbon tax which is going to increase the cost of everything. Ms. Smith I'm sorry you talk about

00:19:48.500 grainy videos but actually we had high definition 18 months ago when those videos of you arguing for

00:19:54.460 people to pay for their health care came out and you know what we had high definition when you said

00:19:59.240 you wanted to sell our hospitals across Calgary and you know what we had high definition a week

00:20:04.200 ago when your deputy premier said that he thought people should pay to use the emergency room. We're

00:20:09.400 going to have to leave this right here we got a lot to get to tonight we've got to move on and

00:20:13.380 our next question comes from courtney terrio from city news court well thank you uh this question

00:20:17.880 is for ndp leader rachel notley now no matter the provider or contract situation uh utility costs

00:20:24.560 remain high here in alberta now i know you both touched on previous policies but my question is

00:20:29.240 what can government do to bring down the actual cost of utilities going forward

00:20:34.060 Well that's a very good question and what we absolutely have to do is find a way to reduce

00:20:42.300 those costs. A lot of Albertans aren't aware that in the pre-election period the UCP put a cap on

00:20:49.020 what folks are paying for their electricity just for the last four months. What they don't know

00:20:53.900 is that in fact come June they're going to have to pay that back and that's going to cost about

00:20:59.100 half of Alberta families about 200 million dollars so the first thing that we will do is we will

00:21:05.100 actually have those families backs and we won't force them to pay the cost of Danielle Smith's

00:21:11.980 pre-election attempt at distracting people from what UCP policy has done to their utilities but

00:21:18.460 then going forward we have to find a way to keep those costs lower. All right Niv Znotley that's

00:21:23.020 your 45 seconds rebuttal to you Miss Smith 45 seconds. Well the first thing is that we have to 0.75

00:21:27.420 to build about a power grid based on it being reliable and affordable as opposed to based on

00:21:33.420 ideology we have a federal government that is propped up by the NDP that has put on war on

00:21:39.360 natural gas our power grid here is almost 90 percent natural gas and yet we have a federal

00:21:45.380 government that wants us to be able to be completely abated on natural gas by 2035 that

00:21:50.360 is the commitment that Miss Notley has signed on to she wants to achieve that that's going to cost 0.93

00:21:54.200 $52 billion and increase our power bills 40%. The other thing that's going to happen is they 0.98

00:21:59.360 also want us to phase off completely in their new green building strategy, phase completely off

00:22:04.400 natural gas, which one of the presidents of our large companies has said would cost another $75

00:22:09.720 billion. That is not the way to get affordable energy for Albertans. Okay. Ms. Notley, you now

00:22:15.180 have the floor for your rebuttal. Well, thank you very much. Well, let me just say, first of all,

00:22:19.260 that the numbers that Ms. Smith is throwing around are numbers that have been fully discredited.

00:22:23.660 And they've actually been discredited by the people that the UCP hired to come up with the numbers.

00:22:30.080 Almost the day after they came up with those numbers, the firm came out and said, nope, those weren't right.

00:22:35.160 And in fact, the other report that they were relying on was also deeply flawed.

00:22:40.620 What we know is that there is roughly $16 trillion of international investment floating around out there looking to invest in renewable energy.

00:22:49.700 And if we are going to be forward looking, if we are going to create jobs, if we are going to position our economy for the future, we need to go out there and get that investment.

00:23:00.120 We can't look backwards. We have to plan forwards. That's who Albertans are.

00:23:05.400 Now, when we did the phase out of coal and we increased renewable energy in Alberta so successfully when we were in government, we controlled utility costs for the sole purpose of making sure consumers didn't pay the cost.

00:23:20.400 And that's exactly what we would do again.

00:23:22.500 All right, Ms. Smith, shaking your head during much of that, you have the floor.

00:23:25.820 Well, I know Ms. Notley says she believes in science and she believes in experts, but somehow the experts at the Alberta electric system operators, she wants to discredit.

00:23:33.100 But you notice that she didn't disavow the 2035 target for net zero, even though the Saskatchewan NDP did.

00:23:40.040 Saskatchewan NDP voted with Premier Scott Moe, saying it is unachievable.

00:23:43.720 If we want to have a realistic plan, a practical plan, we have to fight back against Ottawa.

00:23:48.600 This candidate will not.

00:23:50.460 We have to fight back against Ottawa and make sure that we put a target that's reasonable, realistic and achievable.

00:23:55.480 And that's carbon neutrality by 2050.

00:23:57.200 that's the policy of our party and that is the way that we're going to make sure that we maintain

00:24:01.460 reliability affordability and that we actually achieve our targets we'll get you back in here

00:24:05.860 well you know miss miss i know you're keen on fighting you want to fight with ottawa you want

00:24:10.800 to fight with the media you want to fight frankly with your former self um it's actually quite

00:24:16.580 exhausting here's what i need albertans to know i will always stand up for alberta i will always

00:24:23.120 stand up for the interests of Albertans I did that when I was premier I made sure we got a

00:24:29.040 pipeline to Tidewater the first one in 50 years I did that standing up against the BC government

00:24:34.700 I did it standing up with a with a federal government and that's my record and that will

00:24:39.980 also be my blueprint so uh Ms. Smith's um uh you know I just I just have to say I disagree with

00:24:47.360 so much of what you had to say there one last word to Smith on this topic well Ms. Notley didn't stand

00:24:51.760 up when justin trudeau cancelled northern gateway she didn't stand up when energy east pulled the 0.71

00:24:56.000 plug she didn't stand up when they brought in a tanker ban off the west coast for our product and

00:25:00.880 she didn't stand up when the no more pipelines bill was passed she will not send that in fact

00:25:05.760 you know we know that's not true you commented on the fact that i made submissions to the senate

00:25:10.480 you know that that's what i did on both of those issues it was too late and i must tell you where

00:25:15.120 do you think justin trudeau got the idea for just transition and for an emissions cap and for a

00:25:19.360 carbon tax. He got it from Ms. Notley when she was premier and she's going to continue to implement

00:25:23.880 these same kind of policies and she's going to walk in lockstep with Justin Trudeau on making

00:25:28.120 sure that they get implemented and that's only going to harm our economy. All right that is all

00:25:32.260 the time we have for this topic in fact for this portion of the debates. And when we come back we

00:25:36.580 will be talking more about health care and the economy. Please stay with us.

00:25:49.360 Transcription by CastingWords

00:26:19.360 Thank you.

00:26:49.360 Thank you.

00:27:19.360 Thank you.

00:27:49.360 Welcome back to the Alberta Provincial Leaders Debate. UCP leader Daniel Smith and NDP leader

00:28:02.720 Rachel Notley are here answering questions that matter to you. The state of health care is one

00:28:07.460 of the most pressing issues in our province, highlighted by overrun hospitals over the winter

00:28:12.580 months and the struggle for many Albertans to find a family doctor. That topic is front and

00:28:17.780 center in this segment of the debate beginning with a question from cbc's judy aldus thank you

00:28:23.940 and good evening uh fixing health care isn't just about spending more money it's about designing

00:28:30.020 a more responsive and effective system so beyond dollars spent what are your creative and

00:28:37.220 transformative approaches to restoring confidence in the system for albertans and uh miss smith

00:28:43.380 we'll let you have the first crack at that question. When I first got elected, I was being

00:28:48.240 told that the AHS system was on the brink of collapse. You had unions saying that we needed

00:28:53.240 to go back to mandates and start masking kids in school. And I said, absolutely not. We are not

00:28:59.040 going back to that. If the problem is AHS, then let's fix AHS. So we talked to doctors and nurses

00:29:04.760 and paramedics on the front line. We listened to them and we implemented their ideas. And guess

00:29:09.100 what? It's working. Hospital wait times are down. EMS response times are down. We have effectively

00:29:15.060 ended red alerts for EMS in both of our major cities. Ambulances in rural are staying in rural

00:29:20.780 and we're reducing surgical wait times. We're going to be able to keep this going and if we 0.99

00:29:25.260 continue at this rate we will have completely eliminated our surgical backlog by this time

00:29:29.540 next year and be the first province in the country to do so. And your rebuttal now Ms. Notley?

00:29:33.820 Well I will say Albertans have had enough of driving hundreds of kilometers to get the emergency

00:29:38.560 care, obstetric care, cardiac care, any kind of care that they need. They're tired of looking

00:29:43.220 for doctors. They're tired of 15-hour waits in the emergencies rooms. And they're particularly

00:29:47.760 tired of having the UCP tell them, oh, the problem's fixed. There is no problem. There is a problem.

00:29:54.160 We've put forward a reasonable practical solution. The answer is to get more Albertans access to a

00:30:00.640 family doctor. By doing that with our costed plan, we can take the pressure off of our emergency

00:30:06.580 rooms, off of our surgical wait times, off of our ambulances. And we can also make sure that nobody

00:30:12.560 ever, ever, ever has to pay to see a family doctor. All right. Thank you very much, Ms. Notley. Once

00:30:18.980 again, let's dive back into the free debate portion where you're free to challenge each 0.91

00:30:22.660 other's policies, beginning with Ms. Smith. You know, I heard of all of the things that 0.99

00:30:26.660 Ms. Notley mentioned when I was in politics last time in 2012, and she had four years to fix it,

00:30:31.280 and she didn't. She didn't listen to the frontline. All she did was continue to build 0.99

00:30:35.060 bureaucracy and she didn't get to local decision making she didn't get to local control we did we

00:30:40.100 heard from paramedics what they wanted us to do and it was very it was actually very straightforward

00:30:44.820 we had to make sure that they had the ability to drop patients off when they arrived on the site

00:30:49.700 so that they can get back out and be there for you when you needed them and that was a very

00:30:54.340 straightforward idea that came from the front lines and ms notley had an opportunity to fix

00:30:58.900 health care she didn't we're beginning on this pathway we're making great progress and we need

00:31:03.780 to have another mandate to continue ms dotley will get you in on this yes no well quite honestly as

00:31:08.580 i said before albertans are so frustrated when they're told that there isn't a problem and

00:31:12.260 everything has been fixed the reality is is things have gotten considerably worse over the last four

00:31:17.140 years the ucp uh cut to funding dramatically they ripped up the deal with the doctors they told

00:31:23.620 nurses uh that they uh that they needed to be laid off they threatened to lay off 10 000 uh frontline

00:31:28.980 healthcare workers and then and then COVID hit so and then and the result unfortunately is is we've

00:31:36.420 got whole cities without access to family doctors uh we've got uh just just last week we had 15

00:31:42.820 hour waits in emergency rooms all across Calgary um and we we recently just this year half as many

00:31:51.220 doctors are accepting new patients so there is a problem it's very real and selling our hospitals

00:31:57.700 and forcing people to pay for private care is not the solution look we we signed a deal with

00:32:04.660 the alberta medical association our health minister negotiated that we're going to have 25

00:32:10.100 of our doctors on an alternative payment system within the next five years and that allows for

00:32:14.580 team practice it allows for nurse practitioners and lpns like psychologists and other health

00:32:19.460 practitioners to work together in a team practice so that uh more access will be given on on primary

00:32:24.660 care we put two billion dollars towards this and we're making great progress we have more health

00:32:29.380 professionals today than we did when miss notley left office 8 500 more in fact including 700 more

00:32:34.580 doctors and in april our plan to recognize credentials is working we had 1400 nurses

00:32:40.580 who are now licensed and able to to practice in alberta more than any time in the previous

00:32:45.380 three years the system is working we've got much more work to do we know that that but we've got

00:32:49.700 to continue on the work that we have because i've got the courage i've got the courage to talk to

00:32:53.460 to the front line and I've got the courage to be able to implement some of the suggestions that

00:32:57.040 they make. Ms. Notley has demonstrated. We're just going to leave it at that question because we have

00:33:00.740 another one on health right now. You bet. Our next question is from Lisa Johnson from Post Media.

00:33:05.620 There is already a lot of private delivery in our public health care system which has existed under

00:33:10.640 the NDP and UCP governments. What criteria would you apply to determine when expanded private

00:33:17.280 delivery is appropriate? And we'll go to Ms. Notley first please. Well honestly I mean at this point

00:33:23.180 what we would always look at is to get the best care for the greatest number of people for the

00:33:28.940 in the most efficient and cost-effective way now as you may know there was a study that came out

00:33:33.900 today just today on the on the success of the Alberta government's surgical care initiative

00:33:39.740 and what they concluded was that the act the number of surgeries went down and the cost went

00:33:45.420 up now that's not entirely surprising because most often when you engage in experimentation

00:33:50.540 with privatization. That's what happens. It's the same thing that's going on with the lab situation

00:33:55.300 in Calgary right now. With the UCP's intention to increase private lab services, we now see

00:34:01.860 Calgarians waiting up to a month to get a simple blood test. It doesn't work. We need to focus on

00:34:07.800 public health care. All right, Ms. Notley, that is your 45 seconds. Ms. Smith, over to you.

00:34:12.760 We need to have publicly funded health care for both doctors and doctor-run surgical centers.

00:34:18.560 We have 300,000 surgeries being done per year. 0.97

00:34:22.100 60,000 of them are in doctor-run surgical centers that Ms. Notley apparently wants to shut down.

00:34:27.660 She hasn't answered the question about how we would be able to replace those surgeries.

00:34:31.400 And I can tell you what is actually happening because a lot has changed since November when we started making these changes in health care.

00:34:37.960 What has happened, in fact, is that we identified that there were 39,000 people waiting longer than medically recommended.

00:34:44.620 We've been cutting that list down by 3,000 surgeries per month.

00:34:48.040 We're now down to 30,000 people waiting.

00:34:50.160 And as I said, if we continue at this pace,

00:34:52.440 those waits will be completely over by this time next year.

00:34:54.820 And I think that's something to celebrate and continue.

00:34:56.940 Okay, let's open up the floor now to some free debate.

00:34:59.620 Let's start with you, Ms. Notley.

00:35:00.820 Well, thank you.

00:35:01.640 I mean, again, I think that we need to understand

00:35:04.920 that there is a very, very serious problem.

00:35:06.560 And we are not a year away from fixing all these problems.

00:35:09.580 Ms. Smith, unfortunately, is playing a bit with the statistics.

00:35:13.200 Last November, we had a COVID wave and a flu wave.

00:35:17.180 and she's now comparing statistics to that period of time it's a seasonal change that she's trying

00:35:22.760 to convince is turning into a long-term trend but it's not real what is real is that this year or

00:35:28.880 this spring bc saskatchewan and manitoba filled all of their residency spots for family doctors

00:35:35.640 alberta for the first time had 45 vacancies and then they offered them up again and there were

00:35:41.800 still vacancies and we don't have family doctors coming to work here in Alberta and the reason is

00:35:47.460 because Ms. Smith is doing things like referring to them as tyrants and suggesting that people who

00:35:53.120 follow public health orders are Nazi sympathizers and these things undermine the ability to attract 1.00

00:35:59.520 frontline health care professionals. They don't feel respected and they don't feel that this

00:36:04.100 government is at all focused on science and having their back. Go ahead. Our doctors, nurses,

00:36:09.160 paramedics and other health professionals are the heroes of our health care system everybody knows

00:36:13.960 that what i find so interesting is that miss notley isn't running at all on her record from 0.95

00:36:18.600 when she was premier because she would have to admit that surgical wait times actually went up 0.99

00:36:23.240 for nine key surgeries she'd have to admit that she didn't actually have the courage to take on

00:36:28.520 the challenge of reforming health care i do i have we're already making progress of course there's

00:36:33.160 much more to do but i but i am confident that with a new mandate we'll be able to continue making

00:36:38.520 this progress the next step of course is building on our primary care system building out continuing

00:36:43.160 care and adding more home care so that people can age in place and making sure that we've got that

00:36:47.800 that team practice so that anybody has access to health care when they need it there's not like

00:36:52.280 how to respond uh yes well i mean i think the fundamental problem here is that albertans are

00:36:56.680 deeply concerned at the notion of a danielle smith led government reforming health care in any way

00:37:02.440 shape or form she claims she's guaranteed that nobody will ever pay for a doctor but you know

00:37:07.480 know, Ms. Smith, I was with you in the legislature in 2014. You stood up and you guaranteed you

00:37:13.260 would never cross the floor. Three weeks later, you crossed the floor. Your understanding of the

00:37:18.440 word guarantee is very different than that of most Albertans. And most people are deeply,

00:37:24.260 deeply troubled at the prospect of you reforming health care based on your 15-year record of

00:37:31.620 advocating to make people pay out of pocket. Okay, we are there out of time for this one issue,

00:37:37.360 But we're going to move on. And economy, definitely something that many Albertans are concerned about as we head forward, given the historic reliance on the oil and gas sector for jobs and government revenue, the world beginning to shift away from petroleum products.

00:37:53.940 Economy jobs are the key issue in this portion of the debate with the first question. Here is Cordy Terrio from City News.

00:37:59.460 Now, both of you have made many promises in this election, committing to billions in new spending.

00:38:06.040 With the price of oil sitting below budget projections at various times this year,

00:38:10.440 and given that volatility, how will you pay for these commitments and stay on budget without steep cuts?

00:38:17.200 That first question going to Ms. Smith. 0.89

00:38:19.340 Well, I must say, I know Erin in the intro talked about shifting away from petroleum products,

00:38:25.500 and I would say that that is the notly view of the world.

00:38:27.920 that is certainly not my government's view of the world. We believe that we are going to reduce

00:38:31.780 emissions, not that we are going to reduce oil and natural gas. We know that with all of the

00:38:36.280 exciting things that are happening with carbon capture, utilization and storage and all the

00:38:40.800 green technology, we can continue to have a robust, vibrant oil and natural gas sector for years to

00:38:46.320 come. What we want to do is make sure that we are finding more opportunities for our products,

00:38:51.380 having bitumen be used more for asphalt so it reduces the amount of emissions, having LNG export,

00:38:56.880 which creates a brand new stream of income for us we know that as long as we keep our energy

00:39:01.520 industry strong we're going to keep alberta's economy strong ms notley won't do that i will

00:39:06.160 okay we'll leave it there miss notley your rebuttal um well you know it there was actually

00:39:10.400 some elements of what miss miss said that that i actually agree with you know i want to create jobs

00:39:15.280 producing energy i want to create jobs upgrading our energy and i want to create jobs reducing

00:39:22.320 emissions and reducing emissions is absolutely the focus it's not about reducing or production

00:39:27.920 it is about emissions the difference is is that Ms Smith and her caucus have spent much of their

00:39:33.840 career pitting emissions reduction efforts against economic growth and when we do that

00:39:40.400 we fail on both what we want to do is understand the economic opportunity that comes from investing

00:39:47.680 in emissions reductions, attracting investment from other parts of the world, and growing jobs

00:39:52.420 while ensuring greater markets for our oil and gas. All right, thank you, Ms. Notley. Let's go

00:39:56.720 back to our free debate format right now on this economic question. Ms. Smith, to you.

00:40:00.820 Ms. Notley has so many anti-oil and gas candidates. I have lost count, including one who compared it

00:40:06.300 to slavery, and I know he hasn't apologized yet, nor have you, or condemned his comments.

00:40:10.940 What I would say is that when you take a position of increasing business taxes, you're creating a

00:40:16.800 of uncertainty in our sector we took the 12 percent tax that Ms. Notley had imposed brought

00:40:22.720 it down to eight percent look what happened year over year we ended up diversifying our economy

00:40:27.360 attracting more investment creating more jobs more people are coming into this province than

00:40:32.480 ever before and what a bonus we now have more corporate income revenue than we have in our

00:40:37.680 history 6.4 billion dollars when you reduce taxes you end up attracting jobs and investment and

00:40:44.240 people when you increase taxes you chase it away she wants to increase taxes again we can't let her

00:40:49.200 do that ms notley well two points there first of all i find it deeply ironic that ms smith is

00:40:54.000 talking about uncertainty and its impact on attracting investment this is a person who

00:41:00.160 well started by bringing in the sovereignty act an act that her former finance minister very

00:41:05.680 clearly said was going to chase away investment because it undermined the rule of law that of

00:41:11.200 course was before she was found today to have broken the law in an effort to support the private 0.71

00:41:18.080 interests of someone accused of wanting to promote violence against the police all of that chases

00:41:25.440 away investment because it is such a profound compromise to the rule of law but also let me

00:41:30.640 talk for just a moment about the issue of corporate taxes here's what we're going to do we are going

00:41:35.840 to take the lowest corporate taxes in the country and move them to be the lowest corporate taxes

00:41:42.880 in the country lower than scott mose lower than doug ford and at the same time we will have the

00:41:50.640 income necessary to rebuild our education rebuild our post-secondary and invest appropriately in a

00:41:56.240 stable system of health care and all of that creates and attracts investment back to miss

00:42:00.960 with? Ms. Notley, it's you and the CDC who need to apologize for Albertans. You flat out lied for

00:42:05.760 several months saying that I and my office had contacted Crown prosecutors. She said that is

00:42:09.760 absolutely not true and she also confirmed that I did not direct or interfere in any COVID-related

00:42:15.600 cases. I would say that we have increased the amount of investment that has happened in our

00:42:20.740 province. We have a $760 million renewable diesel project announced by Imperial. We have $600 million

00:42:27.320 dollars that came in from mccain's our pathways oil sands group is investing we have an increase

00:42:33.560 in the amount of drilling rigs that is not a sign that people have lost confidence in our economy

00:42:38.040 you know what it is a sign of that when you stand up to ottawa and you tell the industry that you're

00:42:41.800 gonna you're gonna stand up for them they actually increase their amount of confidence and they

00:42:46.280 increase their except that we have fewer corporate headquarters in calgary in alberta now than we did

00:42:51.640 before in 2019 before you announced your incredibly uh spendthrift uh corporate handle all right

00:42:59.160 that's gonna do it for this question we have another economic question coming right now and

00:43:02.520 that's coming from judy aldis of cbc thank you uh you've both mentioned uh the desire to reduce

00:43:09.560 emissions um both of your parties have signaled the desire in fact to would to move towards a net

00:43:15.800 zero future so miss notley we'll start with you can you outline for us specific actions that you

00:43:21.720 will take to make sure that that happens well that's a a very good question so let me first

00:43:28.200 point out in contrast to what miss smith had said previously is that i was actually the first uh

00:43:34.120 political leader in alberta uh over a year ago to uh speak out on behalf of albertans and point out

00:43:40.920 that the draft emissions targets coming from the federal government were unrealistic i do however

00:43:47.240 believe that we need to come up with a made in alberta plan that includes practical achievable

00:43:53.640 emissions limits and then we need to find and incent the investment we have to compete with

00:43:59.800 the u.s and the inflation reduction act to get that investment but there's a lot out there and

00:44:04.680 we have some of that set out in our proposed in our platform but there's more to do okay miss

00:44:10.680 Ms. Smith, you're up next.

00:44:11.800 Actually, what Ms. Notley has said is that she believes we need an emissions cap,

00:44:15.720 and it needs to be very close to what the federal government is proposing.

00:44:19.060 The federal government is proposing a 42% emissions cap reduction by 2030,

00:44:24.640 which we know is a de facto production cap.

00:44:27.500 And if we have a production cap, it means that we're going to reduce the overall amount of revenues.

00:44:32.160 She has also confirmed, and not denied it this evening,

00:44:34.600 that she agrees with the federal proposal for a net zero power grid by 2035,

00:44:39.020 which we know will cost 52 billion dollars and increase your electricity bills by 40 we have

00:44:43.820 seen this newsreel before it's why she doesn't want to talk about her record when she came in

00:44:49.420 increased the corporate tax brought through a surprise carbon tax increased personal income

00:44:52.940 taxes 183 000 jobs were lost in the first couple of years well let me just say first of all when

00:44:58.620 we talk about my record in oil and gas i think it's kind of hard to forget the big thing which

00:45:03.660 is the first pipeline to tide water in 50 years that's my record so so that's the first thing

00:45:10.860 um secondly uh your numbers around job losses i think we need to kind of talk a little bit about

00:45:16.380 that danielle many many experts have reviewed that and they've said they're absolutely ridiculous in

00:45:21.500 fact at the end of our term we had uh after a very difficult recession we came out about 45 000 jobs

00:45:29.020 ahead and if we were to use your means of coming up with that 180 000 number the number of jobs

00:45:36.140 lost under the ucp would be over 250 000 so i think albertans really deserve leadership that

00:45:42.700 will not try to mislead them but will actually have conversations based on applicable and relevant

00:45:48.460 facts all right sure i'm happy to use the same measure because if you look at our measure we

00:45:54.060 We have increased our net jobs 136,000 since the UCP got elected.

00:46:00.900 So that's by my count, I guess, three times what Ms. Notley was able to do.

00:46:06.800 And there's a reason for that is because investor confidence has returned.

00:46:10.320 People know that if you elect a UCP government, you're going to get lower corporate taxes.

00:46:13.940 We're not going to come through with surprise taxes.

00:46:15.860 In fact, we're going to have a tax hike guarantee so that if there is ever a proposal for an increase in carbon tax or personal taxes,

00:46:23.740 or sales taxes, it has to be put to the people because these kinds of policies end up chasing

00:46:29.580 away investment and it costs average taxpayers and it costs average citizens the most. Ms. Notley

00:46:34.520 won't agree to that and it's the reason for that is she wants to increase corporate taxes 1.00

00:46:38.140 which are going to once again chase out investment just like it did last time. Don't want to cut you 0.99

00:46:42.580 off but I want to get Ms. Notley in here. When the UCP announced their multi-billion dollar 0.63

00:46:47.560 corporate handout uh to corporations here's what happened we lost 50 000 jobs we doubled the

00:46:53.480 deficit and the economy slowed down four years later we have fewer corporate headquarters than

00:46:59.400 we started out with so the fact of the matter is is we have lower uh corporate we will still under

00:47:05.800 our plan have lower corporate taxes than scott mo then doug ford but what we'll also have is the

00:47:11.640 money to invest in our education system something that's been horrifically starved under the ucp

00:47:17.480 restore funding to our post-secondary, a critical partner in economic growth and diversification.

00:47:22.680 Ms. Notley, we're going to have to end this portion of the debate.

00:47:25.160 All right, up next, our viewer and wildcard questions.

00:47:27.880 We're going to shift gears a little bit.

00:47:29.380 You're watching the Alberta Provincial Leaders Debate back in just two minutes.

00:47:47.480 Thank you.

00:48:17.480 We'll be right back.

00:48:47.480 We'll be right back.

00:49:17.480 Thank you.

00:49:47.480 once again welcome back to the alberta provincial leaders debate so far we have heard questions on

00:49:53.520 affordability health care and the economy and now it is time to tackle a pair of questions from our

00:49:58.900 audience that we gathered ahead of time this question looks at education in alberta and this

00:50:03.920 was submitted from ray laser from calgary ray wants to know how specifically is your party going to

00:50:09.820 address the increased enrollment teacher burnout increased class sizes and complexity in alberta

00:50:15.680 school classrooms miss smith we're going to begin with you we have had so much disruption in our

00:50:21.520 education system in the last three years one of the first things i wanted to do is restore stability

00:50:27.280 to the learning environment for our kids we know one of the most difficult things that our young

00:50:31.920 people are facing is social anxiety and mental health and so part of that's part of the reason

00:50:37.760 why we now spend more money than we ever have in our history on education we have invested in

00:50:43.440 complexity funding for classrooms so that school boards can decide what the best use of that is

00:50:48.080 whether hiring more teachers or having education assistants or other psychologists and we're going

00:50:54.000 to to make sure that we continue to build more schools we've built or modernized 106 new schools

00:50:59.360 and we're going to keep on on doing that the uh under the uh the the notley government they only

00:51:04.080 built 47 schools okay miss notley so much of that's not true but let me start with this i have

00:51:11.280 watched for four years with great alarm what the UCP has been doing to our school system.

00:51:16.240 I imagine a six-year-old child in grade one in a class that unfortunately has 28, 29, 31, 32

00:51:24.640 children in it and she puts her hand up to get help and she waits for a minute, two minutes, three

00:51:31.440 minutes and nobody comes. So she puts it down and it happens a few more times and she stops trying.

00:51:37.120 Over the last four years, we've had 35,000 net new children enter our schools and the UCP have not hired a single new teacher.

00:51:46.660 In fact, they fired some and they also fired about 10,000 educational assistants by tweet.

00:51:51.940 We have a plan to fix this and I look forward to talking more about it.

00:51:54.760 All right, Ms. Notley, that is your 45 seconds. Let's go to free debate now. Ms. Smith.

00:51:58.520 Well, I think that what people might be forgetting is we did have a lot of disruption over the last few years.

00:52:04.040 And that's part of the reason we need to have stability back in our system.

00:52:07.120 I don't think teachers forget, though, that under Ms. Notley, they got no wage increases.

00:52:12.340 Zero percent year after year under UCP government.

00:52:15.340 We gave them a much deserved 3.75 percent wage increase.

00:52:19.560 And I think that that's what we're hearing from the front line.

00:52:22.240 They want to be respected.

00:52:23.340 They want to be supported with educational assistance.

00:52:26.000 And they also want to have a little bit of stability so that they have time to deal with the very severe mental health crisis.

00:52:32.460 Ms. Notley, shaking your head, jump in there, please.

00:52:33.640 There have been profound funding cuts to our education system under the UCP.

00:52:38.980 We now have the most crowded classrooms in the country.

00:52:43.680 That was not the case when we left office, but it is the case now.

00:52:47.180 They, as I said, fired 10,000 educational assistants by tweet on a weekend.

00:52:51.500 They also, in order to cut their budget, they did it on the backs of vulnerable children with disabilities ages 3 to 6

00:53:00.120 by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from PUF funding.

00:53:04.580 What that meant is that kids all across our province

00:53:08.080 are falling through the cracks.

00:53:09.460 I've been to schools where teachers and EAs are crying

00:53:12.460 about what they can't get a handle on.

00:53:14.760 So the stress wasn't COVID.

00:53:16.160 The stress is this government.

00:53:17.940 We have a plan to hire 4,000 teachers

00:53:20.340 to try to catch up over the next four years,

00:53:22.820 3,000 more EAs, and to restore PUF funding.

00:53:26.780 All right, let's get Smith back in there.

00:53:27.880 Well, I would say that Ms. Notley had the opportunity to address class size, and indeed she put forward a proposal to do exactly that, a proposal that the Auditor General said was so badly implemented, they couldn't actually track whether it was successful or not, and didn't actually know where the funding went.

00:53:44.400 We know that the very best people to make the decision about what ought to happen in the classroom are our locally elected school trustees.

00:53:52.440 That's why we're giving more funding for mental health, more funding for complexity, more funding for transportation,

00:53:57.700 making sure that every school district has the funding it needs to make its own decisions about what the best mix in the classroom is so that they can meet the local needs.

00:54:06.900 All right, that is our time for that. Unfortunately, we have to get to our next viewer question, and here it is.

00:54:10.860 And this question comes from Alex Hamilton from Edmonton.

00:54:13.640 Alex says please tell us one specific policy your opponent has put forward that you agree with and

00:54:21.080 why? Ms. Notley. Well you know that's a really good question and and I will say this and I've

00:54:26.120 said it before it's actually two I'm gonna go with two. So you know very early on in the UCP mandate

00:54:33.160 it was under the former premier Jason Kenney they introduced the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities

00:54:38.520 corporation as a means to expand Indigenous participation in our economy. We like it,

00:54:44.760 we're going to expand it, and we're going to expand the number of opportunities that would

00:54:50.200 qualify for that kind of support with Indigenous communities across the province. Another one was

00:54:55.960 they expanded funding of the film and TV tax credit and that was a good idea. It's brought

00:55:04.280 more excitement into our industry we will absolutely maintain that uh and we look forward

00:55:08.920 to it all right thanks very much ms notley miss smith once again uh specific policies that you

00:55:13.720 agree with for the ndp i'm very proud of both of the uh the initiatives that that ms dotley mentioned

00:55:19.720 the uh indigenous opportunities corporation has been so successful i think in addressing

00:55:24.760 true economic reconciliation and the film and tv tax credit brought the last of us here which i

00:55:29.480 think all of us feel pretty excited when we watch that on the big screen. What I think Ms. Nutley

00:55:35.640 and I would agree with is that we know that there are a number of doctors who are now wanting to

00:55:40.360 specialize and I completely understand a lot of time goes into becoming a doctor and so we're

00:55:45.400 seeing fewer doctors go into family medicine and so we I think we would both agree that we need to

00:55:50.120 move towards team practice that we need to make sure that we've got team practices for family

00:55:54.840 doctors to work with nurse practitioners LPNs and other health professionals to ensure everybody

00:55:59.400 gets the health care they need without having to pay for it okay thank you both it doesn't really

00:56:03.360 lend itself to much free debate that question but we're glad that we got that one in that because

00:56:08.100 we really like that one so let's head to our next question and this is a wild card question on a

00:56:13.080 theme that's outside of our main topics here's lisa johnson from post media thank you this

00:56:18.040 election may be decided by who albertans trust more ms notley based on the ndp's fiscal record

00:56:26.080 in government there are some people who don't trust you to manage alberta's finances and ms smith

00:56:32.880 you were found today to have broken conflict of interest rules why should albertans trust you

00:56:39.040 ms smith this question goes to you first well first what i would say is that when ms notley

00:56:44.240 campaigned last time around she didn't tell anybody she was going to increase the carbon

00:56:48.160 tax she brought in a business tax and she also ended up running up more debt than we've seen

00:56:54.240 of any premier in our province's history and the results speak for themselves we we saw 183 000

00:57:00.720 jobs lost in the first couple of years we had a number of people moving out we had 13 quarters

00:57:05.920 of people leaving this province in fact the energy minister at the time said well if you can't find

00:57:10.720 a job in alberta go work in bc for a while that kind of defeatist attitude is not what alberta

00:57:16.720 is all about alberta is back on track we have more people coming in here than ever before

00:57:22.240 our alberta is calling campaign is working we've got more diversification and business investment

00:57:27.440 we got to keep that going all right thank you miss smith miss notley the floor is yours

00:57:31.600 um first of all let me let me say i guess there's two things first of all i was very pleased uh to

00:57:37.760 roll out um a pretty well thought out costing document for our platform and that document uh

00:57:44.080 which ensures that over three years, we would maintain a cumulative surplus of $3.6 billion.

00:57:52.140 That is in contrast to what the UCP hurriedly rushed out today,

00:57:57.980 which would actually very possibly go into deficit in the third year

00:58:01.600 and is considerably smaller surplus than what we're proposing.

00:58:04.960 And so that calls into question many of the items that they're proposing to Albertans.

00:58:09.600 The other thing I would say, I've been in office since 2008.

00:58:12.600 I have never actually breached the conflict of interest legislation.

00:58:17.180 Ms. Smith cannot say the same.

00:58:18.580 Well, I guess you did have an MLA who hacked our health care system.

00:58:22.260 I can tell you.

00:58:23.300 Do you really want to talk about our candidates and our MLAs?

00:58:27.120 Seriously, I do not think you're going to win that one.

00:58:29.420 That is not one you want to do.

00:58:31.180 I have to tell you, when I'm putting together our affordability payments,

00:58:33.900 to have to ask whether it was going to be hack-proof from the NDP,

00:58:37.780 that's not something that Ms. Notley should be very proud of.

00:58:40.020 What I will also say is that when she came out with her costing document, it was almost immediately discredited because Todd Hirsch said he hadn't done the analysis on what kind of impact it would have on chasing away investment.

00:58:53.460 Others did. Trevor Toom did. Jack Mintz did. There are several business reporters who did. The Alberta Chamber of Commerce did.

00:59:00.000 and what they have said is that would create instability and the instability would chase

00:59:04.880 additional investment out it would chase jobs out and we would go back and have a rerun of what we

00:59:09.620 did in the period of time that Ms. Nutley doesn't want to talk about which was when she was premier

00:59:13.300 all right Ms. Nutley obviously has thoughts on this back to you I do yes I mean obviously

00:59:17.780 the fact of the matter is is that many of those people back peddled on some of that the credit

00:59:23.120 union has actually said there's not a problem with the increase of the corporate income tax

00:59:28.720 to being the lowest corporate income tax in the country and indeed it seems to work okay in in

00:59:34.080 ontario because heaven knows they're attracting far more venture capital and business than we are

00:59:39.360 in alberta under the ucp but i do want to go back to this issue of the conflict of interest

00:59:45.680 legislation this is a fundamentally important issue miss smith you were found to have broken

00:59:53.600 the law in order to interfere with the system of justice to assist with somebody who had been

01:00:00.480 charged with attempting to get people to commit violence against police officers we're gonna

01:00:06.160 let you talk about instability that does not engender trust that more than that it engenders

01:00:12.320 fear on part of albertans ms notley the ndp and the cbc lied for months saying that i was calling

01:00:19.680 crown prosecutors and my staff are calling crown prosecutors and it wasn't true and that is what

01:00:24.560 the ethics commissioner found look i'm a non-lawyer and i know that i need to be able to to talk to my

01:00:30.080 justice minister i'm looking forward to advice on how to be able to do that more more constructively

01:00:34.480 in the future i think that's important for us to be able to get those kind of of rules set out

01:00:39.440 but i will say we continue to have this issue i am running on my record miss notley is running away 0.85

01:00:45.200 from hers. And there is a reason for that. The Global Petroleum Survey is one of the surveys that

01:00:51.440 looks at what our business environment looks like. When she got elected in 2015, we were number three

01:00:56.200 in the world. By 2018, we were number 43 in the world. This is the reason she doesn't want to talk

01:01:01.380 about her record. Forgive us. We are running out of time. We're almost at the end of the debate,

01:01:04.400 so we do have to move on. We do. We have one final wildcard question, and here is CityTV's

01:01:08.580 Courtney Theriault. Well, thanks again. Both parties have insisted they would increase the

01:01:12.920 number of police officers in major centers. But on the surface, I would only allow them to better

01:01:17.980 respond to crimes as they're committed. So in terms of creating safer communities beyond boots

01:01:23.580 on the ground, what distinguishes your approach from your opponents? And we'll go to Ms. Notley

01:01:29.020 first. Well, that's a really very good question. So, you know, I was pleased to see that Ms. Smith

01:01:34.700 made the announcement to restore the funding to police officers that the UCP cut at the beginning

01:01:41.960 of their term by hiring the extra 150 officers we matched that and then we also went further

01:01:47.960 and said we would also hire 150 more social workers mental health therapists those kinds of

01:01:52.840 folks we would to help with with social disorder on our streets because we know that's worrisome

01:01:59.160 to people very worrisome we also however have committed to restoring funding for affordable

01:02:05.320 housing under the ucp we've lost 8 000 affordable housing units and a further 4 000 people were cut

01:02:11.800 off of shelter allowances and that level of homelessness has created a real crisis contributing

01:02:18.120 to the concerns around community safety all right miss smith your time well first off we wouldn't

01:02:23.240 defund the police again ms notley has so many defund the police candidates on her platform on

01:02:28.760 her candidate roster i've lost count of them as well the the frontline services are demoralized

01:02:34.120 and we are giving courage and confidence back to our frontline officers we've embedded sheriffs

01:02:39.080 in both Calgary and Edmonton.

01:02:40.740 We're adding 100 police officers

01:02:42.560 in both Calgary and Edmonton

01:02:43.860 because we believe that people have a right

01:02:46.500 to take public transit and feel safe.

01:02:49.000 They have a right to go downtown

01:02:50.000 and be able to have a nice dinner or see a game

01:02:52.180 and not worry that they're going to be randomly attacked.

01:02:55.300 And they certainly have a right

01:02:56.400 to walk past an open doorway

01:02:58.120 without having to inhale secondhand crystal meth smoke.

01:03:01.840 We have an approach that is going to make sure

01:03:03.880 that we crack down on public safety and crime

01:03:06.760 and make sure that people feel safe again.

01:03:08.360 All right. Thank you, Ms. Smith. We've got about 90 seconds for this free debate. Ms. Notley.

01:03:12.580 Well, I need to start by saying when it comes to defunding the police, the UCP actually defunded

01:03:18.740 the police. The money that they used to hire the 150 is a restoration of the money they cut in 2019.

01:03:26.240 And that's on top of additional police grants that they cut from municipal governments right

01:03:31.780 when they first got elected. So actual defunding of the police is something that I think they

01:03:36.340 should take a responsibility for you know one thing i'm so proud about with our ucp record

01:03:41.700 is it's the what's being known as the alberta model for a recovery oriented system of care

01:03:47.780 because we know policing is only one side of the story the other is getting people the help that

01:03:52.500 they need and my chief of staff is one of the foremost experts on the recovery oriented system

01:03:57.380 of care we got rid of the 40 per day user fee that mrs notley charged we've added 10 000 treatment

01:04:02.980 beds we're building recovery communities some in conjunction with first nations partners

01:04:06.980 and we are going to make sure that every single person who wants addiction treatment has access

01:04:12.740 to a treatment those two things have to go together quickly miss not me you got 20 seconds

01:04:17.620 um well listen i think more recovery beds is is a great thing um absolutely and i actually agree

01:04:23.940 with the fact that the accommodation charge associated with those beds that's been in place

01:04:27.940 for two decades is now gone that's great news but there's more to it there's more about

01:04:33.540 wraparound services transitional housing those kinds of supports and those remain unfunded right

01:04:38.740 now okay thank you some spirited debate absolutely love it i love it okay we are now going to head to

01:04:45.060 our closing remarks each leader will have 90 seconds and this is one final chance for those

01:04:50.340 leaders to make their pitch to albertans we start with danielle smith i first want to say how much

01:04:55.700 of an honour it's been to be your premier for these last seven months. I've been overwhelmed

01:05:01.220 by the generosity and kindness of Albertans that I meet every single day. These last three years

01:05:06.740 have been difficult for all of us and now the wildfires are testing our resolve as a people

01:05:12.260 once more but I know that together we will overcome every challenge we face whether it's a pandemic,

01:05:18.420 flood, fire or economic headwinds. We will take care of one another and we will move our province

01:05:24.420 forward to a better future my commitment to each of you if re-elected is to serve you with

01:05:30.420 everything i have and to the best of my ability however imperfect that may be at times i will

01:05:37.620 continue to focus on growing and diversifying our amazing economy making life more affordable

01:05:43.300 and our communities safer and improving health care for all albertans and i will carefully

01:05:49.300 listen to you and my ucp caucus because whatever i may have said or thought in the past while i

01:05:54.980 was on talk radio albertans are my bosses now and my oath is to serve you and no one else

01:06:02.660 i love this province and everything it stands for we are a land of entrepreneurs and innovators

01:06:09.140 of pioneers and farmers of families and communities a place where the best and brightest come from

01:06:16.100 every corner of the world to join us in building one of the greatest places on earth to live

01:06:21.380 and work and raise a family from a bottom of my heart thank you and good night okay 90 seconds

01:06:26.660 over to you ms notley well thank you so much tonight ask yourself who do you trust to build

01:06:33.620 a better future who will focus on the things that actually matter to you now ms smith has spent her

01:06:40.820 entire career campaigning for Albertans to pay out of pocket for basic health care. She's also 0.80

01:06:48.100 campaigned to pull Alberta out of the Canada pension plan, something that would create huge

01:06:53.460 instability in your retirement. Today she was found to have broken the law by interfering with our

01:07:01.300 justice system. This is just not how our province should be run. Every day is a new drama. You just

01:07:09.140 don't need to put up with this enough is enough so my offer to you is stable predictable thoughtful

01:07:16.420 leadership that you can count on it's time to get back to the things that matter to people

01:07:21.380 i will make life more affordable capping car insurance and lowering your utilities i will

01:07:27.380 support our entrepreneurial spirit by cutting to zero small business taxes and creating more jobs

01:07:33.780 and because I'm passionate about making sure your family has health care that you always need

01:07:39.780 without paying for it, I have a balanced, costed plan to make sure you get a family doctor. So that

01:07:46.340 is a better future for Alberta. Now you may not always agree with me, and I may not have always

01:07:51.140 gotten it right, but I say what I mean and I mean what I say. If I am Premier again, I will work

01:07:57.140 daily to earn your trust and to focus on your priorities thank you thank you miss notley

01:08:04.100 unfortunately we are out of time that does wrap up the 2023 alberta provincial leaders debate our

01:08:09.300 thanks once again to ndp leader rachel notley and ucp leader danielle smith for taking part tonight

01:08:14.740 also a big thank you to our panelists for participating and here's this a reminder

01:08:20.020 election day it's just 11 days away may 29th it is your chance to exercise your democratic right

01:08:26.340 to vote. Thank you for watching and good night from Edmonton.

01:08:56.340 Thank you.

Western Standard - May 19, 2023

Alberta leaders debate 2023

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