Western Standard - November 04, 2023


Loewen talks about what it is like serving as a former UCP leadership candidate


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

157.7361

Word Count

471

Sentence Count

18


Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Lowen to talk about a wide range of topics, including the reintroduction of the spring bear hunt, the need for more trails in the Kananaskis area, and more.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I have Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Lowen.
00:00:03.140 Todd, how are you doing today?
00:00:04.200 Great. How about yourself?
00:00:05.500 I'm doing well.
00:00:06.320 So my first question for you, Minister Lowen, is Premier Daniel Smith has tasked you with spending more money on the Kananaskis trails.
00:00:15.180 Why do you want to do that?
00:00:16.660 You know what? Kananaskis is an area that's very well used by Albertans, and people from all across Alberta and around the world actually visit Kananaskis area.
00:00:24.900 And so we need to make sure that we have things for people to do once they get to Kananaskis.
00:00:29.560 So by building a proper trail system, we know that Albertans can go there, they can enjoy the trails, and it leaves less of a mark on the habitat and everything if there's places that are specifically built and developed for people to travel on and hike on.
00:00:45.740 One topic of contention that's come up recently amidst some bear attacks that we've seen in the Banff area and around is the spring bear hunt and whether or not it will come back.
00:00:56.080 What's your stance on the spring bear hunt?
00:00:58.420 You know, we want to focus mostly on the safety of Albertans. That's where our focus is right off the bat.
00:01:04.620 And when we look at things like how to manage grizzly bears in Alberta, you know, we have a lot of work to do to look at the numbers, look at where we're having these incidences.
00:01:13.780 You know, I'm encouraging all Albertans to reach out when they have an interaction with a grizzly bear in particular, so that we have a better data on where the grizzly bears are, how many there is, what kind of interactions that are happening on the landscape.
00:01:25.820 So, even though you ran in the leadership race against Daniel Smith, you didn't end up winning based on that.
00:01:34.960 What's it like serving in cabinet knowing that one of your former leadership candidates is your boss?
00:01:40.760 You know what? It's actually really good.
00:01:42.600 Premier Smith has been very gracious and very understanding and I shouldn't even probably use the word understanding, but she's been really, really good as far as giving cabinet ministers an opportunity to make decisions and move their portfolio forward.
00:01:59.180 And so, it hasn't been a problem at all, and again, she's given a lot of latitude to cabinet ministers and MLAs to help in the decision-making process, and that's great for democracy.
00:02:12.640 Under Daniel Smith's leadership, we see the people that have been elected by the people of Alberta having that say in government and policy moving forward, and we can't ask for much more than that in democracy.
00:02:29.180 Under Daniel Smith's leadership, we see the people that have been elected by the people of Alberta having that say in government and policy.