The UCP have been in power long enough to make me realize that both the federal Liberals and the provincial UCP do not care for the needs of most Albertans.
I agree with the claims of the UCP that the federal Liberals have not only ignored the needs of Albertans but are actively promoting polices that hurt our economy and way of life. Their policies are also destroying the cultural and economic fabric of Canada.
Yet the UCP are also ignoring the needs of most Albertans to a greater effect than federal government.
When they first came into power they gave billions of dollars to XL Pipelines without any feasibility study into the likely hood of Albertans money being invested with any chance of return.
Yet if we need money for our hospitals it is several years of evaluation before plans can proceed.
They also took over all the public service pensions in order to make sure that AIMCO would invest in big oil although most investment funds are moving away from this.
As I write this the entire board of AIMCO has just been let go because of underperformance and increasing expenses. This will also be what happens if the UCP take over your CPP. This is a great risk to your financial security.
The worst things the UCP have done is created a two tier system for our main public services of health care and education.
Even though the gap between the rich and the poor has greatly increased during their term of office and most Albertans have suffered losses during this period the UCPs greatest concern is subsidizing the advantaged while intentionally underfunding the services that most Albertans can access.
With public funded private health care you can access 24/7 doctor care, have diagnostic testing done quickly and jump the lineups for surgery.
Most Albertans will wait to see a doctor or not have one, testing waits are long and you might wait years for surgery.
Breaking the health system into five parts, one for the advantaged and four for the rest of us is leaving people under diagnosed, waiting too long for treatment and increasing time of pain. You will notice the new system advertises access to primary care but not a doctor.
Underfunding the education system is resulting in class sizes of over 40 in some of publicly funded inclusive schools while the public funded private schools are closer to 15 in a class.
Our students with special needs, even with coding, often have no individual support. There has been little recognition of the harm created to our children who missed kindergarten and grade one and the increase in anxiety and depression.
Even our justice system is breaking into two tiers.
There is a law stating that anyone camping on crown land has to pay an annual fee. Yet the protesters who took over our rest stops did not have to do so and were able to block services and put up semipermanent structures without consequence. Will this be the same if they are taken over by groups who want to dump the UCP.
The UCP have decided that the all Albertans are going to pay the court costs of those supporters who broke laws during the pandemic.
Will they pay your court costs for actions taken if you believe your rights and freedoms are being ignored be this government? Will they pay the costs of those taking class action against the government for UCP decisions made during the pandemic?
There is no likelihood of change now that Daniele Smith has received a strong vote of support at the annual party review.
Most Albertans will have to wait until the next election to determine if they feel this is the Alberta we want.
John Pierzchalski,
Innisfail
