Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips. (Supplied by Shannon Phillips)

By Karsen Marczuk

Phillips outlines priorities for legislature next week

May 21, 2021 | 3:28 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB– After a three-week break, the Alberta Legislature will be resuming on Tuesday.

Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips will be advocating for three issues on behalf of Lethbridge and Southern Alberta.

Up first, Phillips says she will be addressing a sick leave initiative for Albertans.

“We will be returning on Tuesday to push the [UCP] on this concept of paid sick leave because we are not out of the woods yet. We know the best way once we do begin to reopen the economy to keep it moving is for employers to provide paid sick leave so they don’t have sick people coming to work.”

Alberta isn’t the only province discussing paid sick leave. British Columbia recently approved workers to get between one to three days of paid sick leave during the pandemic.

Nighttime construction on Hwy 3 in Lethbridge starts April 17

Apr 17, 2025

SASHA launches #BuyABed fundraiser to support vulnerable Lethbridge residents

Apr 04, 2025

$20K grants available: TELUS STORYHIVE Pan-Asian Edition opens applications April 1

Mar 18, 2025

“Paid sick leave is a program where the province works on a cost-share program and that won’t cost them a dime for folks running businesses,” said Phillips.

Second on the list, Phillips will be addressing the economy, with a sharp focus on coal mining in the Canadian Rockies and foothills. Phillips says, keeping safe drinking water in southern Alberta waterways has been a priority over the last year.

“The UCP’s secret plan for letting Australian billionaires take away our headwaters protection and our access to water for our agricultural sector, ultimately for me, that comes down to a UCP plan to take away jobs that we already have right now. I will be joining my colleagues in asking for more accountability and specific action to stop the UCP’s secret plan for coal strip mining in the mountains.”

The NDP has asked the Auditor General to open a formal investigation into the UCP government’s decision to rescind Peter Lougheed’s 1976 Coal Policy last May, and whether then-minister Tanya Fir improperly interfered.

Last on Phillips’ list will be focused on near-future job strategies. Earlier this week, Premier Jason Kenney announced a grant program called Alberta Jobs Now. More than 22,000 Albertans will be able to return to work through the largest jobs training program in the province’s history.

READ MORE: Alberta giving $370 million in grants to create jobs

“The announcement was fantastic, but much more than a day late, in fact, two years late,” says Phillips. “The fact of the matter is, we lost 50,000 jobs before the pandemic, we have the second-highest unemployment rate right now in Canada. We have a very slow economic recovery despite the fact that the price of oil is actually quite respectable high by historical measures.”

The UCP will be using the $370 million in grants to create jobs across the province.