Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley. (rdnewsNOW / Sheldon Spackman)

By Sheldon Spackman

Lack Of Transparency Suggested

Notley concerned with UCP’s response to current pandemic conditions

Apr 22, 2021 | 4:37 PM

Alberta’s Leader of the Official Opposition has strong concerns over how seriously the UCP government is taking the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a stop in Red Deer on Wednesday, NDP leader Rachel Notley noted Alberta has the highest COVID-19 case numbers per capita in the country, with Premier Jason Kenney seemingly reluctant to take the actions needed to keep Albertans safe.

“For example, last September we proposed a robust strategy that would keep our schools not only open, but safe. The premier made light of it, he mischaracterized what we proposed and in so doing, what we’ve got is the folks that are running our schools trying to do so with less money per student than they had before, with virtually no support to keep everybody safe. What we’ve seen since, as of today, is 160,000 kids have been sent home with no warning.”

Notley says what’s most frustrating is getting a straight answer from the government.

“They simply blame Ottawa, they don’t take responsibility for the fact that the (vaccine) rollout is also Alberta’s, too. We don’t need that kind of dynamic. We need them to take responsibility for the things that are within their control.”

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She says it’s not helpful that UCP members are sending ‘dog whistle’ messages to anti-vaxers and supporting them.

“This premier needs to do everything he can to educate Albertans about the science of vaccines and the degree to which all of us and our ability to recover economically depends on getting enough people vaccinated.”

Government transparency is another concern for Notley.

“We’ve seen other provinces deliver much more information to the public than we’ve seen with this government. Earlier this week we released a Freedom of Information document that showed that while Jason Kenney claimed there was no modeling, in fact AHS was briefing him on modeling. That showed when AHS was saying, ‘Here’s the trigger. If you go past it, our health care is going to be in great jeopardy’, he rolled right passed it until the numbers were almost three times those triggers.

“All of that should have been made public and Albertans could judge the decisions that this government was making. Now we’re in a situation where we don’t have enough trust and it’s showing in Albertans becoming less and less willing to follow the recommendations and to trust the direction they’re getting from the government.”

Notley points to the government’s Draft K-6 curriculum as another area of concern, suggesting the UCP came to the table disrespectfully.

“Much of what they said about the curriculum that existed before Jason Kenney became premier was simply not true,” said Notley. That curriculum was the product of years of consultation with teachers, with educational professionals, with academics, with parents, with stakeholders, and it was designed to be world-leading. To incorporate the best of what we know about how to most effectively teach and to also be inclusive to who Albertans are.”

Notley also voiced concern over how the province is going about its coal mining consultations, and said it’s disappointing to still see delays plaguing the future expansion of Red Deer Regional Hospital.

“The explanation from the minister that because of COVID they have no time to do that is ridiculous. What we know is that government infrastructure spending and development is one of the critical low-hanging fruit in terms of what government can do to keep people working and get people back to work. This is actually something that should have been accelerated, if anything, as part of a COVID recovery plan.

“We all want to come out of this as fast as we can,” concluded Notley. “So I hope we can all come together and really pull all the best ideas we possibly can to have a very intentional economic recovery that insures that all Albertans are included in it.”