Chestermere-Strathmore candidates address issues at All-Candidates Forum

By Miriam Ostermann Times Contributor

Six candidate hopefuls vying to represent Chestermere-Strathmore in the Alberta legislature discussed key issues, reiterated their party’s platforms and welcomed the chance to sway voters just days before the upcoming provincial election on April 16.
Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt, leader of the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta, and Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Sharon Aheer, the deputy leader for the United Conservative Party, joined NDP’s Melissa Langmaid, the Alberta Party’s Jason Avramenko, Independent Terry Nicholls and Alberta Independence Party’s Roger Dean Walker at the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce and Chestermere Chamber of Commerce’s All-Candidates Forum at the Strathmore Civic Centre on Monday. Alberta Liberal Party candidate Sharon L. Howe was not in attendance.
The event attracted more than 200 residents, many who said they have yet to make a decision regarding their vote. Despite an overall civil debate that consisted of 10 questions, which were made available to the candidates ahead of time and addressed topics on the provincial economy, provincial taxes, employees and the local rural community, current incumbents Aheer and Fildebrandt as well as Avramenko disagreed passionately with NDP candidate Langmaid about the carbon tax, childcare and consultation with various levels of government for decision making. While Langmaid stated Alberta has the lowest taxes in Canada due to no sales tax, payroll tax and no health premiums, it was her mention of the Energy Efficiency Program and money being allocated back into green initiatives, such as the Springbank Reservoir project and upstream mitigation on flooding on the Bow River, that Aheer and Fildebrandt took issue with.
“I have two sons that live in my house, and I pay their gas and I pay their bills; they get a carbon tax rebate to them when there are other people that those rebates maybe should go to but that is not appropriate … those are purchases of votes,” Aheer said. “Just to be clear, the carbon tax goes into the general coffers. It does not go towards diversification, it does not go towards green projects, it does not. It was listed under tax into the general coffers as of the last budget.
“The carbon tax does not reduce emissions. We already have the most responsible energy industry in the world, and they care about their communities and they helped build those communities.”
Fildebrandt also reacted to Langmaid’s comment calling NDP energy efficiency programs wasteful and claiming the carbon tax acts as a provincial sales tax (PST).
“My NDP colleague said they’re not campaigning on a PST, they also didn’t campaign on a carbon tax in the last election; there is no mandate for it and it’s a scam,” Fildebrandt said. “When it comes to energy efficiency programs, well what are those? Free lightbulbs? Does anybody here believe that you’re not capable of purchasing your own lightbulbs for your home? No, that’s a wasteful program and we have to kill it dead.
“My concern is that if we go towards a provincial tax it’s not going to be revenue neutral. It’ll just stack on top of every other tax on top of our business taxes, on top of our personal taxes and other consumption taxes that we currently pay. But I will say this, we have a PST right now and it’s called the carbon tax, it’s on every damn thing that we pay for. It’s on higher cost of groceries, it’s on the higher cost of gasoline and heating your home … and we need to kill it dead now.”
While Fildebrandt said he wasn’t against a PST but doesn’t agree with it at this time, Avramenko emphasized the need to adapt with Alberta’s changing economy and be open-minded for the need in the future.
The topic of childcare also sparked a debate, where most candidates believed aid should be provided to financially-struggling families. Avramenko agreed with Langmaid, who found it shocking that families often pay more in childcare than their mortgages and said those making over $200,000 annually should pay more for childcare while families unable to afford childcare should pay nothing. However, Nicholls disagreed.
“I don’t feel this is a government problem at all,” he said. “The government isn’t there to solve your problems as far as your social agendas go, as far as your childcare goes. That’s your job.” He added the government’s job is to provide resources to make it easier for companies to hire employees that are single mothers or are in situations where there are children but only one provider.
Towards the end of the debate candidates also had a chance to address the topic of supporting rural communities. While Aheer talked about the importance of consulting with local governments and the inappropriateness of making decisions on behalf of municipalities without consultations – drawing on the example of Bill 6 which she said threw the economy into utter chaos – Langmaid responded to the argument.
“As for Bill 6, we heard their concerns, we went back, we consulted and made changes and now we have a bill that works for farmers,” she said.
During the hour-and-a-half question-and-answer forum that was followed by an open forum, the candidates also discussed provincial debt, minimum wage, independence and diversification of the economy.
The Alberta provincial election takes place on April 16. A live stream of the debate can be viewed on the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.