Smith introduces Rowe to Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills constituency
Members of the Wildrose made several stops throughout the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills constituency last week, including a barbecue fundraiser for the constituency association in Centennial Park on Friday before a crowd of supporters.
The events were also an opportunity to introduce Bruce Rowe, a Beiseker resident, to a wider audience as he offers himself up as the candidate for the constituency in the next provincial election.
Danielle Smith, the party's leader, is currently in the middle of a 22-day tour of ridings throughout the province that will see her visit more than 45 municipalities and log more than 4,400 kilometres.
In an interview before the stop, Smith said her tour of the riding would be much like what she has done for the previous two years.
“It's just to meet people in local communities, find out what their local concerns are and hopefully be able to take those back to my colleagues in the legislature so that we can raise some of those issues in the fall session,” she said.
The one concern Smith said she keeps hearing from local officials around the province is the imbalance between provincial and municipal revenues.
“Every single community has some kind of acute funding shortfall for dealing with local critical infrastructure and all of them are very frustrated with the program we have right now to go begging cap in hand to the province to try to get some funds through grant programs for key infrastructure. We can't continue operating this way with a municipal level of government feeling like the only way to be able to get key support for their community is to have an MLA that has some pull at the cabinet table. It's resulted in municipalities fighting between each other, acute shortfalls in infrastructure funding and incredible need in a variety of communities for a variety of different services,” she said.
The Wildrose has been informing councils around the province of how it would clear the infrastructure backlog by creating a priority list of projects to be completed. Another plank is to change the municipal financing model so communities would have the money they need to respond to local needs.
Smith said her party has been asking the government for a priority list of projects for months. She said the government has so far refused to release it.
“I think the reason they don't want to release it is a lot of decisions are made for political reasons as opposed to on the basis of what is most needed. We think if we create an objective criteria for assessing schools, hospitals, roads … and post it so that every community knows where they fall on the priority list, that would actually reduce the amount of fighting we see between municipalities. At least they would know where they are on the list and when their turn is up,” she said.
Part of the reason for the infrastructure shortfall across the province is the government either spending a lot on infrastructure or tightening the money flow over the last decade, Smith said. The government has spent anywhere from $1.5 billion per year on projects to a high of $7 billion, throwing the construction industry into disarray.
“If we can create a system where there's some predictability … and also we're systematically plugging away at that backlog, I think that not only will that send a good signal to our construction industry, but also it will allow us to clear the backlog and get ahead of it,” Smith said.
While she hasn't been following the Progressive Conservative leadership contest all that closely, Smith said the widely divergent views of the candidates on the issues and the resulting confusion it's been causing is one reason why the Wildrose has enjoyed a surge in support over the past two years. That support has led to many of the PC leadership candidates espousing policies similar to the Wildrose.
“We're looking forward to putting forward our agenda in the next election … so Albertans have a choice to vote for a party that reflects the same common sense, conservative values that most Albertans hold,” she said.
“In the past, (PC leaders) were able to promise the moon — and not deliver — and not get punished for it at the polls. Well, this time, they're going to have to deliver, otherwise they will get punished at the polls because now there is an alternative.”
