What to do with non-renewable resources, reducing wait times at hospitals and increasing care for seniors were three hot topics Innisfail-Sylvan Lake voters asked candidates to weigh in on during the all-candidate forum held Tuesday night at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre.
The five candidates agreed and fought over answers to seven questions asked by the public during the forum hosted by the Innisfail Chamber of Commerce.
More than 150 people packed into the drop-in centre portion of the building, with all 80 chairs filling up and more people taking available armchairs, filling the windowsill and still more standing along the walls or into the kitchen at the back of the room.
Alberta New Democratic Party candidate Patricia Norman took the first stab at answering the first question of the night that asked what was each party's long-term plan for reducing Alberta's reliance on non-renewable resources for operational spending.
“Oil and gas won't be there forever and we need to start thinking about how we're going to survive as a country,” said Norman, who admitted she didn't have the best answer but would look into it.
Wildrose candidate Kerry Towle touted her party's commitment to creating a balanced budget by 2015.
“ You would see 50 per cent of all cash surplus revenues put into the Heritage Trust Fund and bring it back up to where it should be,” she said, adding the fund has no more money in it than it had in 1976, calling it a “tragedy.”
Incumbent Progressive Conservative Luke Ouellette countered Towle saying Alberta has the lowest taxes in the country and added, “we have to look after infrastructure, people who can't look after themselves, we have to do all these things … and how are you going to do that by saying, ‘oh we're just going to cut back everywhere and put 50 per cent into a savings account.'”
Alberta Party candidate Danielle Klooster agreed with Ouellette's mention of the sustainability fund but stressed non-renewable resources should go into savings.
“The answer to having money is to save it,” she said, and that depending on non-renewable resources that fluctuate is like banking on a bonus.
Alberta Liberal Party candidate Les Vidok said the Liberals want to set up an endowment fund that would supply money to municipalities no matter the cost of a barrel of oil. He also said money could be saved by cutting the number of MLAs.
“Of 87 ridings in Alberta there are 42,528 people per MLA. In Ontario with 107 MLAs, that represents 123,364 people per MLA. Just by eliminating 20 MLAs alone that's 25 million in savings right there.”
Health Care
Increasing corporate taxes was Norman's solution to the next question asking how each party would decrease wait times for inpatient hospital beds.
“Let's increase corporate taxes that have been decreased. Lets keep taxes for the general public that struggle day to day at a level. Corporations are bringing in money hand over fist and they are getting tax breaks constantly,” she said, adding that the two-tier system needs to go.
“People who can afford their surgeries can step in but it doesn't decrease wait times for people who can't.”
Vidok said get rid of superboards that are “300 miles away that don't know what they're doing.” He said more emphasis needs to be placed on getting workers into home care, which he said costs about $161 a day per person, adding that it's a quarter of the cost that is being spent for acute care at approximately $426 a day per person.
“We're talking about a $16 billion operation,” said Ouellette. “Not just anybody can step in and figure out the problems,” he said, while agreeing there are problems.
“I absolutely agree we need to free up beds and we've been working towards that. Since 2010 we've been building 1,000 extended care beds a year until 2015. We've just announced another 1,500 long-term care beds to be completed March 2013.”
Both Towle and Klooster said the current 40 per cent of the provincial budget spent on health care is a problem.
“Long-term patients awaiting placement are clogging the system. Until you find a place you don't have a solution,” said Towle who also agreed with Vidok that there needs to be more support for seniors to stay at home. She questioned the closure of the Valley Park Manor and Nursing Home in Red Deer and why it couldn't have remained open as an assisted living facility.
“Forty per cent of budget spent on one department. It's an unsustainable situation,” said Klooster. “We have to expand alternatives. We need vision and innovation to do this better and more effectively.”
Senior Care
“The Wildrose government would initiate a kinship program where family member who would otherwise be employed would be compensated to take care of their loved ones. That would save us money in the long run in the long-term system,” said Towle when asked how she would deal with the increasing need for assisted living facilities.
Klooster said more needs to be available for people who want to look after their loved ones at home but can't afford not to work. She said people shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get the care they need and money should be put into the community where “people can come up with the solutions themselves.”
Ouellette responded to Towle's earlier point about the closure of the manor in Red Deer.
“You can't just make that decision. You have engineers come in and check out the building and when they say it costs more money to get the building livable for you and your loved ones, whether it's because of mould or it's going to crumble, isn't it smarter to build a new one that will last 50 years for your loved one?”
Vidok said the Liberals will double funding in this area, adding “the tragedy is the money is in the budget, it's just poorly managed.” He also said the party would plan for a seniors' advocate.
Norman agreed with keeping seniors at home as long as possible. “If we can put the money into front-line workers and home care that's probably one of the first steps and probably cheapest to help out individuals.”
Electrical deregulation
“I think the whole electrical (system) needs to be turned upside down and inside out and people other than the AUC and people who are in the industry need to learn how to completely understand it,” said Ouellette when asked his position on deregulation acts.
“I take exception with (the comment) ‘we all need to understand it,'” retorted Klooster. “I just want to flip the light switch and have it work.” She said it's overly complicated and needs to be overhauled.
Vidok said Liberals plan to bring in penalties to match an offence. “If there's a perpetrator who manipulates the prices and consumers suffer, the penalty needs to at least match what they're going to make,” he said.
“We need to have electricity regulated,” said Norman. “We need stable prices. We need to have Alberta Utilities Commission independent from the industry with a mandate to protect consumers and insure operations are for the public good,” she said.
Towle said land use bills such as Bill 50 have doubled and tripled distribution and transmission costs.
“Bill 50 in particular allows for utility companies to remove the requirement to the AUC which basically says you don't need to prove to Albertans why you need these lines, we don't need to formulate why costs are that way, and utility companies pass those lines on to us.”
Agriculture
Agriculture is the perfect example of how to diversify and bring stability to the economy, said Klooster when asked where agriculture fits in with each party's platform.
She said it's expected in 20 years Canada will be one of six countries able to feed themselves.
“There are a bunch of emerging economies that are hungry and now able to afford safe and steady food supplies and we could be feeding those countries but also growing our local niche markets and feeding ourselves at the same time and setting ourselves up as a world ag leader.”
Vidok again mentioned the Liberals' endowment fund that would allow municipalities to use money “without government involvement” and would encourage development within rural ridings.
Ouellette said right now cattle and grain prices are high, something that seldom happens at the same time. He said the province is working on building up the rural economic development fund and said “we're in for greenness in the ag field.” He said the traditional notion of having to own a farm to be a farmer is changing and older farmers are starting to look into leasing land as they retire and young farmers are looking to cash in on the opportunity.
“We need to (place) value in these people and invest in their future so we can all eat. Food is necessary and water is necessary and this is a very important issue,” said Norman.
“We need to create initiative for younger people to join the farm,” said Towle. “… We need to streamline the regulations and reduce red tape on ag producers.” She said the party will look at accelerated capital allowance so producers could buy equipment and machinery knowing they'll be able to pay it off faster.
Labour
Candidates weighed in on the issue of labour shortages and the steps they would take to relocate immigrants to Alberta.
Vidok said the Liberals will integrate them into the system by providing more services in more languages and provide training.
Norman said education needs to be available to youth so they can see what options are out there besides the oilpatch.
Towle said her party would work with the federal Conservatives to fast-track an immigrant with proper credentials. She also said more spaces need to be opened in colleges and trade schools to allow them to meet the demands, and the RAP program needs to be reinstated in high schools to get students trained.
Ouellette agreed with working with the federal government, explaining it has 100 per cent say on immigration. He added though, the party will not lower its standards and a doctor or other worker must meet Alberta's standards. He said the Rural Physician Action Plan is meant to offer eligible rural students a spot in medical school with the intention they will return to the area afterwards to work.
Klooster said while immigration is an important part of increasing the labour market it's not the only answer.
Taxes
“It comes right back to living within your means,” said Towle when asked about the school tax hike in this year's budget that impacted municipal taxes. “We need to look at infrastructure, prioritize infrastructure and make it public so everyone knows what's needed in the province and where they fit in.” She also said a planned balanced budget would ensure the province doesn't “pass the burden down onto municipalities.”
Ouellette said last year municipalities were told to keep tax dollars but this year the premier decided against it. “I don't necessarily have to agree to how that went down but I want to add that in Alberta, municipalities get more money from the provincial government than any other jurisdiction in Canada, and we're proud to be able to do that.”
Klooster argued that municipalities are treated like “children at the table asking for money” and said that partnership has to change.
“They said there will be no increase but at the end of the day on your property tax bill there will be an increase. Then you'll phone the town office and it sounds really weak and whiney for us to say, ‘well it's the province.'”
Vidok said the five years of deficits has been a problem and said money can come from the carbon capture tax, part of the Liberals' platform.
Norman finished by saying the province needs to work with school boards and let them have stable funding so they can plan.
