NDP Leader Rachel Notley. (Canadian Press)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

NDP says no help for Alberta families or businesses in government’s throne speech

Feb 23, 2022 | 10:26 AM

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta’s NDP says the UCP’s intentions for the coming legislative session don’t include any help for struggling Alberta families and businesses and has no acknowledgment of the harm done to household budgets and public healthcare.

“Albertans who hoped to hear something beyond platitudes and politics were sorely disappointed today,” said NDP Leader Rachel Notley. “The speech delivered was a confirmation that the UCP is unwilling to look forward, and listen to the people of Alberta. They are focused on their friends, their political grudges, and doubling down on their failed policies that have cost us countless jobs, that failed us during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that has piled cost after cost onto Alberta families.”

The NDP says Tuesday’s Speech from the Throne did not include any help for Albertans struggling with rising electricity bills, auto insurance, income taxes, property taxes, school fees, post-secondary tuition and interest on student debt.

READ MORE: Alberta to focus on jobs and health care – Throne Speech

“Let’s be clear, all of these costs have gone up as a direct result of incompetent and cruel decisions by this government,” Notley said. “It’s clear the UCP are completely out of touch with the impact of their actions on household budgets.”

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“There should have been a specific commitment to creating jobs, instead we got more empty promises and vague continuations of programs and initiatives that have failed Albertans over and over. We see no further support for small businesses, and no details at all on the expansion of rural broadband.”

“There’s nothing specific about revitalizing Calgary’s struggling downtown. In fact, the only mention of Calgary in the speech is on the Calgary Cancer Centre, a project our NDP government approved after over a decade of Conservative dithering,” Notley said.

The NDP says the UCP is also pressing forward with expanded for-profit healthcare, charter schools, a provincial police force, and withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan.

“Let’s be clear: Albertans cannot trust the UCP with healthcare. And when it comes to schools, we see nothing to support public education at the same time they are moving to make a massive shift to private education.”

“Instead of addressing the pressing needs of Alberta families and businesses, the UCP is stubbornly refusing to listen to what Albertans have told them.”

“Albertans are not interested in a provincial police force and they don’t trust the premier to put his hands on their pension.”

“This speech does nothing to help families, nothing to build our economic future and raises serious concerns about this government’s move away from public education and public healthcare,” Notley said. “We won’t support this speech. We can’t.”

“It goes against so much of what Albertans believe in, what Albertans see for the future of our province.”

“Rather than taking this important opportunity to prioritize our public Medicare system for all Albertans, today’s Throne Speech continues the government’s ideological push to see more of our public health dollars going to boost private profit,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. “While the pandemic initially slowed the UCP’s early attempts to privatize pieces of our health care, it’s clear now that they are wasting no time in selling things off.”

“We are deeply concerned that this government is choosing once again to prioritize private profits over the health care of Albertans,” added Gallaway. “We need real action to address the gaps in our overwrought health care system, but what we heard today simply reiterates this government’s ongoing attacks on health care workers, and the privatization of our vital public health care.”

“The Throne Speech did not have anything good to say about public services, and what it did say should alarm all Albertans,” said AUPE Vice-President Susan Slade. “The last thing we all need in tough times like this is more privatization.”

“Think about the skyrocketing utility bills some Albertans are receiving right now. That’s what could happen to health care and program costs under privatization,” she added.

“There wasn’t even mention of the women who make up most of the workers in the public sectors: women who often struggle working two jobs in addition to keeping their households together. What is this government doing to help them at work? According to the Throne Speech, not much.”