Lethbridge East UCP MLA Nathan Neudorf (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

YEAR-END INTERVIEW WITH LETHBRIDGE EAST MLA

2019 a year of learning and community building for Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf

Jan 2, 2020 | 8:06 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – For much of the last 25 years Nathan Neudorf spent most of his time working in commercial construction as a journeyman carpenter, a finishing carpenter or a project manager.

But 2019 saw that all change, as he won the Lethbridge East riding – taking it from NDP incumbent Maria Fitzpatrick. It was the realization of a dream he’d had since taking a high school economics class many years ago.

“Over the past couple of administrations, I felt that some of the role of government to represent its people had been lost, and you can either complain, or you can become part of the process. It’s a bit of a dream of mine to have pursued this.”

Some of the highlights he cites over the last year include simply “celebrating Lethbridge;” whether it was the opening of the new science commons at the U of L, the collaboration between the Public and Catholic School divisions, or getting to know “Team Lethbridge,” a group of more than 20 local organizations who have met with the province to talk about concerns, progress and the general state of the city.

“It’s realizing how many things Lethbridge does really well,”says Neudorf. “From agriculture and food processing to advanced education and our public sector, we do a lot of things really, really well.”

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It has been a challenging year as well for Neudorf, including convincing some in the community that the budget he believes, needed to be trimmed and cut back for the first time in 25 years.

“That presents challenges and is something many people aren’t used to, and how that’s done and where that’s done everybody would have an opinion. Trying to sort through that. Trying to represent those (sic) diversity of viewpoints with a single vote in the legislature can be very challenging.”

The learning curve in his new position has been incredibly steep as well.

“For a minister let’s say…a large portion of their time would be spent learning one file across the province – which is enormous enough – (but) an individual MLA has to learn a significant amount of detail about 23 portfolios, 23 ministries and not just the overall picture for the province…So the amount of learning is not just how the structure works and how it operates and what my role is, but also the information for each one of those ministries and how that impacts either an association, organization or individual.”

He says residents have told him by far their biggest concern is still the activities occurring in and around the supervised consumption site (SCS) and how the UCP government is or will be addressing the situation which “has seemed to explode over the past two years.”

“Obviously, it makes a lot of headlines and its front row in people’s lives where they work, where they live, the perception of Lethbridge. That’s by far, the biggest local concern. While he won’t say what might be in the works in the New Year, Neudorf hints that changes are on the way with regards to the SCS and how addiction is treated and funded in the province.

His message to his constituents and to Lethbridge overall for 2019 is one of pride.

“We have led economically, we’ve led socially. We have a very diversified and agriculturally focused economy and even though we are facing some challenges on the budget front, we have a resourceful and strong group of people working on it. I want to celebrate successes. Lethbridge is known for doing some really great work in a lot of work. And the collaborative nature is number one in the province, and I’m very, very proud of that.”

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